Restore windows 8.1 system volume information. System Volume Information. What is this folder, how to delete it
System volume information - Windows folder in which OS restore points, information about changed service files, settings and system options are saved. Antiviruses and optimization utilities can also “leave” their data in it. Many viruses, after penetrating a PC, first of all attack it: they infect the files on it, masking their “modules”.
In the standard way, without making additional settings in Windows, you will not be able to clear/delete this directory, even if you try to open it with administrator rights. By default, it is protected from third-party interference. To clear the system data folder, you need to perform a certain series of operations: open access, enter the current account, etc.
Otherwise, when you try to delete system volume information, the operating system displays an “Access Denied” message (and therefore the directory is not deleted).
Show hidden folders
As a rule, “System volume information”, like many other system files and folders, is hidden from the user’s eyes. In order for it to become visible and, accordingly, so that it can be cleaned, you must do the following:
1. Click “My Computer” or press “Win” + “E” (Latin).
2. Press the “Alt” key.
3. At the top of the window, above the options “Arrange, System Properties ...”, a menu will appear. Open the "Tools" section, and then - "Folder Options".
4. In the Folder Options settings panel, go to View.
5. Scroll vertically through the list of options in the “Additional options” block.
6. Remove the check mark in the “Hide protected system files...” setting.
7. Turn on “Show hidden files...”.
8. Click the "Apply" and "OK" buttons.
Now the folder will be visible in the directory.
Gaining access
Before you delete “System volume information” or its individual elements, you need to gain access to it. That is, indicate to the system that you (under your username) have the authority to view/delete/clean this folder.
1. Place the cursor over the “System volume information” folder. Click with the right mouse button.
2. From the menu, click Properties.
3. In the “Properties...” window, on the “Security” tab, click “Change”.
4. Click the “Add” option.
5. In the “Select…” panel, enter the user name (under which you logged into the OS).
Advice! If you don't remember the username, open the Start menu: it is displayed in the right column, at the very top, under the “user” icon.
6. Click “Check Names” (Windows will check the received data).
7. Confirm the added add-ons with the “OK” button.
8. Return to the Security tab. In the “Groups and Users” block, highlight your name (your account).
9. In the “Permission” block, check the boxes in the “Allow” column opposite all the options.
10. Click sequentially - “Apply”, “OK”.
Clearing/removing “System volume information”
Once access has been obtained for a specific user, you can seamlessly delete individual System volume information items.
1. Press the “Win” + “PauseBreak” keys (the group of buttons to the right of the F12 key). Or in the “Start” panel, click “Control Panel” and go to the “System and Security” section, and then to the “System” subsection.
2. In the left column of options, select System Protection. On the same tab, click “Customize”.
3. Activate the “Delete” option (restore points will be cleared, including the file/files of previous versions).
Disabling System Restore
After cleaning, this folder will still increase in size unless you disable the mechanism for saving recovery points in the OS options.
If you do not use the recovery function and prefer to see this directory empty (without additional “cleanups”), perform the following operations:
1. Press "Win" + "Break".
2. Select “System Protection” from the menu.
3. In the “Properties...” panel, click “Customize...”.
4. Click on the “Disable system protection” radio button.
5. Click “Apply”, then “OK”.
Cleaning on a flash drive
1. Open Notepad and create a new file.
2. Enter the following commands (each on a new line):
del "X:\System Volume Information"
rd "X:\System Volume Information"
pause
Instead of “X”, type the section of the connected USB flash drive (I, F or another letter).
3. Save the file (with the extension .bat) -<имя файла>.bat (specify any name in Latin letters).
4. Run the created bat file by double clicking the mouse.
5. In the command line console, confirm the activation of the removal: enter “Y” (Yes).
After this, the “System Volume Information” on the flash drive will be cleared.
Periodically check the size and contents of the recovery data directory and, if necessary, remove unnecessary files and folders from it. Maintain OS hygiene. It is the key to maximum PC performance.
Let's get acquainted with another component of the Windows operating system - the System Volume Information folder. It is designed to store system restore points, which we can use if the OS needs to be rolled back to a previously saved state.
Show hidden files and folders
By default, all main system files and folders are hidden from the user. This is a happy smart move on the part of the Microsoft developers. You should not give access to important system parameters to everyone.
The System Volume Information folder in Windows 7 is also hidden. Let's first make it visible. Let's move on" Start - Control Panel - Folder Options". In the window that opens, go to the "View" tab. Scroll down the list of parameters, uncheck the items
- "Hide extensions for registered file types"
- "Hide protected system files"
- Select the item " Show hidden files, folders and drives"
Then "Apply" and "OK":
Now you can go to the system drive that has the recovery feature enabled and check for the presence of the System Volume Information folder.
Where is the System Volume Information folder located and what is it used for?
This folder is located on each of the system drives for which System Restore is enabled. It is located at the root of the section.
It stores all information about system restore points.
Is it possible to access and open the system volume information folder
By default this is the system folder and you cannot work with it.
First, you need to become its owner.
We find it, call the context menu, and select the item " Become an owner".
The process will take a matter of seconds - after that you will have access and can open this folder if necessary.
How to clear System Volume Information
If the free space on your hard drive is limited and system folders take up a lot of space, it is advisable to clean it up.
The first step is to check how much available space on your system is allocated for storing recovery points.
Go to " Advanced System Settings", then the "Protection" tab. Select the drive for which this feature is activated and click the "Configure" button. Using the slider, configure the amount of disk space you want to allocate for recovery functions.
Note:
1) The lack of free space may be due to incorrect configuration of this parameter - perhaps you are allocating all the disk space to store recovery points.
2) Do not completely disable this function - it may come in handy in case of problems with the operating system.
If you want to completely empty this folder, click the "Delete" button.
Deleting a folder
If for some reason you need to delete the System Volume Information folder, follow these steps:
- Take ownership of the folder
- In system protection settings, delete all created restore points
- Disable the recovery feature
- Delete the folder
Video for the article:
Conclusion
Be extremely careful when working with system folders and settings!
You should not completely delete the System Volume Information folder - thereby you will not allow the recovery function to work, and you will not be able to resuscitate the operating system in case of failures.
We will teach you how to convert files to popular formats and back. Let's see how we are
When free space on a computer's disk runs out, users start looking for unnecessary files and folders that could be deleted.
Among the annoying folders in Wibdows operating systems there is also the System Volume Information system folder.
In this article we will tell you what this System Volume Information folder is, how to enable its display, what files are stored in it and whether it can be deleted.
System Volume Information - what is this folder
The System Volume Information folder is a system folder of Windows operating systems in which service files of system restore points are stored.
By default, the folder is hidden, but if you have the display of hidden files and folders enabled, then it will be displayed in the root of each drive, including on flash drives or memory cards. Read about how to make a folder visible in the next paragraph.
The System Volume Information folder stores:
- Windows restore points (if you enable the creation of restore points for this disk)
- Windows File Indexing Service information
- logical drive shadow copy data
Thus, we can summarize that the folder stores Windows service files for restoring files on a given logical drive and for restoring the system from the last saved point.
How to enable display of the System Volume Information folder
As mentioned above, the folder is hidden. To enable the display of hidden folders, go to the folder on drive C and press the F10 key.
A menu of commands will appear at the top. Click on the “Folder Options” menu.
In the menu that opens, go to the “View” tab and at the very bottom turn on the “Show hidden files and folders” checkbox. Click OK.
Now the System Volume Information folder will be visible in the root of the disk.
Cleaning the System Volume Information folder
When you configure automatic creation of Windows restore points, you configure the maximum volume that backups will occupy.
The more volume you allocate for storing such data, the more disk space will be occupied.
If the System Volume Information folder takes up a lot of space, for example, more than 1 gigabyte, then you can clean it up using standard Windows tools.
To clean up the System Volume Information folder:
1. Right-click on the “My Computer” icon on the desktop - “Properties” - “System Protection”. 
You can also enter this menu by pressing the Win+R key combination on your keyboard, type systempropertiesprotection and click OK.
2. In the “System Protection” window that opens, select the required logical drive in which the System Volume Information folder is located (for example, drive C) and click “Configure”.
3. Select “Disable system protection” and click “Delete” at the very bottom to delete all restore points on the selected disk. After completing the operations, click OK.
4. Turn off file history recording. To do this, go to the “Control Panel” and in the upper right corner, select viewing menu items in the “Small icons” mode. Click on the “File History” menu.
5. In the window that opens, click the “Disable” button. If file history storage is already disabled, then nothing needs to be changed.
After performing these operations, you will disable the creation of Windows system restore points and file history in the System Volume Information folder.
Removing the System Volume Information folder
Deleting the System Volume Information folder is not recommended, since it contains service files necessary for system recovery. Also, this is usually pointless, since after deletion the folder will be created again.
However, removal is possible. Since by default the user rights are set to “read”, we will have to first give ourselves full access, and then delete the folder.
If you try to delete a folder with default access rights, you will encounter an access error as in the screenshot below.
To delete the System Volume Information folder, right-click on the folder and go to “properties” - “security” - “advanced”.
In the window that opens, go to the “Owner” tab and click the “Change” button.
In the window that opens, left-click on the user to whom you want to give access rights (in my case, this is the “Administrator” user) and click OK.
Thus, the user you selected became the “owner of the folder” and he had rights to edit access to the folder.
In order to give full access, you must again go to “properties” - “security” - “advanced” - “edit”.
If the list of users already contains the required account, then click the “Change” button.
In the window that opens, give the user full access to the folder and click OK.
If your user (folder owner) is not in the list of user rights, then click the “Add” button.
In the window that opens, you need to select the desired user. To simplify the process, click the "Advanced" and "Search" buttons.
The system will show you a list of all computer users. Select the required user and click OK.
In the next window, give full access to the selected user and click OK as done above.
Now that you have made your account the owner and given yourself full access, you can easily delete the System Volume Information folder by simply pressing the Del key or right-clicking “delete”.
Video on how to delete the System Volume Information folder
Hello everyone The System Volume Information folder is a system folder, and it basically stores all the restore points that were created either by you or by Windows itself. There is no need to delete it, although you can find a lot of advice on the Internet on how to do this by changing the rights, in principle you can try. To be honest, I personally don’t like these crap about rights, sorry.
But on the Internet, in addition to advice, they don’t write something else - that there are a lot of service files there! Especially if you have an NTFS file system on your disk (and I think that’s what you have). In general, maybe you should just clean your computer of debris? Look, hold down Win + R, write the cleanmgr command there, then there will be a disk selection window and go ahead. Only then you still need to click the button to clean up system files so that the Advanced tab appears, on which there will be what you need:
In general, you shouldn’t see the System Volume Information folder; if you do, it means you’ve already dug into the system and turned on showing hidden files, which is not particularly useful when a non-advanced user is working at the computer. But if you are advanced, there are no questions
But why is all this restoration necessary at all? How does it work? Well, look, here you are working at a computer, and the programmers at Microsoft have made sure that you don’t have to think for long if a problem arises. Well, you installed the game and Windows started to really slow down. So what should we do then? Then you should use the recovery checkpoint that was created on the machine before installing the game.
Before installing almost any software, Windows creates a restore point just in case that if this software starts to glitch and then Windows also starts to glitch. It is precisely thanks to this point that you can return everything back. Well, it’s not for nothing that the System Volume Information folder is, firstly, hidden, and secondly, you can’t just take it and delete it, so there is a reason for this, and now I hope that you understand why.
This folder can also be cleaned in another way, that is, not through the cleanmgr command. By the way, I agree that sometimes you really want to reduce its volume - especially when you have an SSD, and they are small in volume, and for example, a terabyte (so that there is enough for everything) the price is just space
How to do it? Open the Control Panel, and there find the System item and launch it:
Then click System Protection:
By the way, I’m using Windows 10, but if you have Windows 7, for example, the steps will be approximately the same.
And then click on the Delete button:
You can also try to remove it this way, this is a super advanced method for advanced users. Open the command line as administrator (right-click on Start and select this item there) and then insert the following commands one by one:
takeown /f "C:\System Volume Information" /r /D Y
cacls "C:\System Volume Information" /t /e /p all:F
del "C:\System Volume Information" /q /s
I checked it myself - everything is fine, there are no errors, which means it’s safe. If you need to delete System Volume Information on a flash drive, then you need to change the letter C in the commands to the letter of the flash drive. In this case, you will also see something like this on the command line.
Folder System Volume Information is a hidden system folder that is used by the System Restore utility to store its data and restore points. Such a folder is created in each logical partition of the computer's hard drive.
But according to the settings, on the system disk WITH the System Volume Information folder can be tens of gigabytes in size, while other disks have zero gigabytes in size. As a rule, this is one of the reasons why the C drive quickly runs out of free space and the operating system cannot continue to work normally. For example, after each update of one of the programs, the OS can create a restore point for the entire system, which takes up 1-2 GB on the disk. Thus, several program updates, automatic creation of several points, and drive C is deprived of ten gigabytes of free space.
How to delete the System Volume Information folder?
Since this is a system folder necessary for the normal operation of the operating system, it cannot be deleted. The only inconvenience that the folder causes is its possible large size. However, this problem is solved not by deleting the folder, but by setting its maximum size, which we will discuss later.
How to open the System Volume Information folder?
By default, only the operating system has access to the folder, so to open System Volume Information, you need to give your account the appropriate rights. The screenshots below are from the Windows 8 operating system; for Windows 10, 7 and XP, all steps are similar.
Right-click on the System Volume Information folder and select Properties. Go to the tab Safety and press the button Additionally.
In the window that opens, if necessary, click the button Continue.
As you can see in the next step, only the system has access to the folder. To add your profile, click the button Add.
Choose Add subject and in the dialog that opens, enter your username, then click OK or Check names. If you entered your username correctly, move on: set all permissions for actions with the folder. Buttons OK And Apply close the settings window. 
After this, you will be able to open the System Volume Information folder in Windows in XP, 7, 8, 10.
How to adjust the size of the System Volume Information folder?
Open the folder My computer and right-click on the free space, select from the context menu Properties. In the window that opens, follow the link System protection.
In the next window, find the system drive and, having selected it, click Tune.
Here you can enable/disable system protection (automatic creation of system restore points), as well as set the maximum size for the System Volume Information folder. Button Delete allows you to empty a folder without having to go into it. 
