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?
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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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
2013-11-01T17:16:28+00:00 Don't waste time looking, Windows doesn't enable system restore on flash drives.
Same problem here, it's more than likely a glitch/bug with Windows 8.1... hopefully it'll get fixed soon. Pretty annoying glitch too.
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Anonymous
2013-12-12T08:46:04+00:00 Same problem here. Only that I noticed it while working with my memory cards (CF) from my cameras. Annoying and unnecessary!
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Anonymous
2013-12-14T15:04:07+00:00 I am having this problem as well. It is causing problems with my scanner, which initializes a fat partition and enumerates it as a flash drive. You press scan, and it dumps the photo into the flash drive.
I made sure index and system restore was not turned on for that drive. The only file created is "\System Volume Information\IndexerVolumeGuid." I figured it might be part of how the systems identifies unique fat file systems in the automount code. I tried turning off automount in diskpart, but the volume is still mounted when I plug in the device.
Which service creates this? I turned off widnows search service, and the directory/file is still created.