How do I prevent system volume information files from showing up in my usb flash drive?

Anonymous
2013-10-28T16:13:30+00:00

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
2014-01-08T02:25:00+00:00

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.

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Anonymous
2014-01-08T11:18:49+00:00

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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  1. Anonymous
    2016-05-09T16:43:34+00:00

    Well, I did not run it as a REG script, but I did it manually in Regedit, so it did not matter what kind of slashes that was for me.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-10-13T12:59:13+00:00

    Handy link Mike, so you get a Helpful vote from me.

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-10-13T06:52:00+00:00

    Hello All.

    After a major headache from a combination of bad luck and misunderstanding a translation.

    (I managed to wipe everything off my PC because I had a 'recovery' usb that was in Chinese !)

    A few days later and I finally have win10 up and running anew.

    I also found this folder in my partitions, hard drive so okay, but uggh.

    I ran a file recovery prog, but I know this lost me some files. I just hope I never need them.

    As for the usb SVI, I have found this seems to work for me :

    http://www.thewindowsclub.com/prevent-system-volume-information-folder-usb

    My thanks to the poster who put it here.

     ~mike

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