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
Answer accepted by question author
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
2014-09-19T14:01:25+00:00 I am using Windows 7 and some how have put an existing folder within the System Volume Information folder. Now I can't remove the folder. I am willing to live with the System Volume Information folder, at least for now. How can I extract my "Word" folder, along with all it's subfolders from the System Volume Information folder? I do use the USB drive on several Windows 8.1 computers.
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Anonymous
2014-09-07T11:20:55+00:00 This policy is not available in windows 7. So... Same question, but for windows 7.
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Anonymous
2014-08-23T18:43:15+00:00 Could you try explaining this to somebody with little to zero experience? For example, I first try looking up HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE..., but my computer believes it does not have one and searches it online. Then I look up what the registry is, go to the place it says (%System32%/Config), but I can't find a file named HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE... Even if I did, how does one add DWORD value DisableRemovalDriveIndexing = 1? What is either of those?