There is a group policy option to turn off this feature. Enable Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Search \ Do not allow locations on removable drives to be added to libraries.
How do I prevent system volume information files from showing up in my usb flash drive?
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Anonymous
I recently upgraded to Windows 8.1 once it was made available to me via the app store. I noticed the other day when I had transfered some music to my game console that I had a folder titled "System Volume Information" on the root of my flash drive. I didn't know what it was so I deleted it and went about my business. I did the same thing today and there it was. So I deleted it and plugged it back into my laptop this time only to remove it again and return to the game console to reproduce the issue. Same as before. So I'd like to know step by step how to prevent these folders from being stored in my flash drive. I know these are not harmful files but it is irritating to have them stored on the flash drive. I don't want to have to constantly delete it all the time either. Especially when I know this used to never be an issue before.
I saw this and was able to make the files visable but I was confused about what to do in the command prompt.
Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Devices and drivers
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
There is a group policy option to turn off this feature. Enable Computer Configuration \ Administrative Templates \ Windows Components \ Search \ Do not allow locations on removable drives to be added to libraries.
Thanks for taking the time to investigate this Eliyas. That fix has worked for me. Just a heads up to anyone else reading this post, AFAIK this will only work in Win 8.1 Pro or Enterprise as other Win 8.1 versions do not have GPEDIT
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Anonymous
2016-06-28T22:10:13+00:00 Has anybody confirmed that the regedit posted above works?
"Try adding DWORD value DisableRemovableDriveIndexing = 1 in "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/Policies/Microsoft/Windows/Windows Search" in the registry and restarting the PC"
The group policy mentioned does indeed put the same entry in the registry as the regedit version. It worked for a while, but some windows 10 update broke it again and when I format or write to a USB drive the "System Volume Information" folder is again added and cannot be removed. I have confirmed that Disable RemovableDriveIndexing key is still set to 1 but the folder gets added anyway.
edit: I ran gpupdate /force and rebooted the workstation and now its working again. perhaps I was mistaken about it being broken?? (o, in my case its a domain level group policy setting, but shouldn't matter).
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Anonymous
2016-06-11T13:10:49+00:00 Fair point Gladiator. I shouldn't have risen to the bait. I shall withdraw from this discussion.
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Anonymous
2016-06-11T13:05:24+00:00 Hey, can you two maybe knock it off?
It is off topic, as is this (and I will not post further on it)
Jim, you have "informed" (criticized?) Neil.
Now Neil can run his life (with respect to this) however he wants to, and it won't affect you one bit. That's called freedom.
It ought to be over.