How do I delete huge files from System Volume Information?

Anonymous
2011-08-16T11:37:52+00:00

I have three large hard disks that I use to store backups of the system.  Some program -- I think it was the defragmenter -- caused Win 7 to place huge files (> 4 GB) in System Volume Information.  Nothing I do wil let me delete these files.  I cannot even take ownership of them.  When I try to take ownership of either the file or of System Volume Information I receive an "Access is denied" error on the file name.  Nothing should prevent an administrator from taking ownership of any file on his system.  How can I delete these huge files?  Please do not answer "Use Disk Cleanup to delete all but the last restore point."  That runs, but it deletes nothing.  On a previous installation of Win 7, I could take ownership of System Volume Information and delete its contents, but ot on this new installation.

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Anonymous
2011-08-17T10:05:51+00:00

Hello,

The System Volume information folder keeps the Restore point entries. Usually it is not recommended to delete the entries from the System volume information.

Step 1 : Stop the Volume shadow copy service.

a:  Go to Start - Run and type Services.msc then press enter.

b: Under the Status column look for any entries that read as "Started", make it as “Stopped”.

**c:**Click apply and then ok.

Step 2 : Then take ownership of the System volume Information folder and then try to delete its contents.

How do I open a file if I get an access denied message?

Hope that helps.

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-10-16T20:40:20+00:00

    I don't remember having this problem.

    I've had a Concussion and forget some things, but don't have a  clue about this.

    I can't imagine finding files that large and not being able to deal with them.

    I currently have Windows 8.1 64 bit and IE 11

    Thanks

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-01-04T12:06:11+00:00

    Thank you for your help.  Your approach would almost certianly work.  I did a similar repair by taking the disk to another Windows 7 installation and deleting the files there, though I had to circumvent security by taking ownership of the files before the system would let me delete them.  However, the best, most principled solution is the following from Windows 7 built-in help:

    You can manage the disk space that is used by System Restore by following these steps:

    1. Click to open System.
    2. In the left pane, click System protection. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
    3. Under Protection Settings, click the disk, and then click Configure.
    4. Under Disk Space Usage, move the slider to the right to increase the disk space that system protection can use or move the slider to the left to decrease the disk space.

    I originally set the allowable space to zero, and the system deleted  all the files.  Later I moved it to 10% (of a 3 TB disk).  This is a disk I use solely for backup.  There is no need for restore points.  When I eventually need the space, I will just set the allowable space back to zero.

    Again, thanks for your help.

    good point

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-02-25T09:26:45+00:00

    Thank you for your help.  Your approach would almost certianly work.  I did a similar repair by taking the disk to another Windows 7 installation and deleting the files there, though I had to circumvent security by taking ownership of the files before the system would let me delete them.  However, the best, most principled solution is the following from Windows 7 built-in help:

    You can manage the disk space that is used by System Restore by following these steps:

    1. Click to open System.
    2. In the left pane, click System protection. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
    3. Under Protection Settings, click the disk, and then click Configure.
    4. Under Disk Space Usage, move the slider to the right to increase the disk space that system protection can use or move the slider to the left to decrease the disk space.

    I originally set the allowable space to zero, and the system deleted  all the files.  Later I moved it to 10% (of a 3 TB disk).  This is a disk I use solely for backup.  There is no need for restore points.  When I eventually need the space, I will just set the allowable space back to zero.

    Again, thanks for your help.

    Thanks Charles, i rate your answer as the best answer for this particular issue. Because the other suggested methods were either difficult (like using knoppix live CD which might be a completely new thing to an average user) or did not work at all (like taking control of System Volume Information (SVI) folder by stopping the Volume Shadow Copy service by running the services.msc command (in my case it was not running at all!). 

    I just want to add this to the very effective and native-to-Window solution suggested by you above :-

    In case the missing space in the disk is occupied by some huge files inside the SVI folder then while sliding the horizontal bar to minimize disk space allocation for restore points, **Windows (i'm using Windows 10) will warn that some exisiting restore points will be deleted***which is quite logical and should be expected. One just needs to proceed ahead to free up the missing space.

    The missing space issue affects external hard disk as well and Charles' solution works with them as well

    By the way, this apparently unexplained missing disk space problem is not limited to internal hard disk of the computer only. In fact, i faced the issue with a 320GB Seagate FreeAgent GoFlex external hard disk. The problem had occurrred after i renamed a 58.5 GB big system image file immediately after creating it with EaseUS Todo Backup app. The name of the big file (almost the size of the system image file of 58.5 GB) residing in the SVI folder consisted of long sequence of digits (and letters?) separated by hyphens. I presume that was the restore point/file created when i renamed the system image file in the disk FreeAgent GoFlex but i'm not sure. The most surprising thing is that the System Restore was not even turned on for this disk! (But then who said everthing is easily explained in the world of computing??!!). I just moved the slider to bring down disk space allocation for System Restore for this particular external disk to 20% from 30% even without turning on the system restore. I just got a warning as said above at *-ed line then i went ahead and the missing space of around 56 GB immediately started showing up!

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