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What is System Volume Information

Anonymous
2015-04-07T20:33:03+00:00

A new folder appeared on the external hard drive called “System Volume Information”.  It only appears when using a non-administrative account and is not present in any other account.  It does not allow me to access or delete it.  Since it is not appearing on the Administrative Account I am unable to find a way to access it.  Since it just appeared I am curious if it was created by a virus or malware.  I

I would appreciate any help I can get on this because I can’t find any info on this from the web.  I have Win7 on a Dell Laptop.

Thanks!

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-04-07T23:58:54+00:00

    How to view the contents od the 'System Volume Information' folder

    1. Set Windows Explore to show hidden files and folders:

    How to view hidden files and folders:

    Open Windows Explorer and in the left pane click on the C: drive.

    (Make a note of the files and folders as you did before)

    Next click on the 'Organize' pull down.

    Select 'Layout' and place a check mark next to the 'Menu bar' option.

    Now Windows Explorer should display the Menu Bar.

    Select 'View' and 'Details'

    Next select 'Tools' and 'Folder options' and click on the 'View' Tab.

    Click the 'Show hidden files. folders and drives' option

    Next remove the check marks from the follow:

    'Hide empty drives ...'

    'Hide extensions for know file types'

    'Hide protected operating system files' (click 'Yes' to the warning prompt)

    Now at the top click 'Apply to all Folders' and click 'Yes' to the prompt.

    Then at the bottom click 'Apply' and 'OK'.

    1. How to view the contents od the 'System Volume Information' folder:

    Then right click on the 'System Volume Information' folder.

    Select 'Properites' and then 'Security' tab and 'Continue' button.

    Click 'Add' and enter your account name in the 'Enter the object names ...' box.

    Click 'OK' and your account should now be displayed in the 'Group or user names' box,

    Click 'Apply' and 'OK'.

    Close the proprties box.

    Now double click on the 'System Volume Information' folder to see the contents and file/folder sizes.

    J W Stuart: http://www.pagestart.com

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-04-07T20:42:54+00:00

    TM

    System volume info contains things like restore points, logs, shadow copies, and other administrative info.  Not sure why you want to access or delete it but a 3rd party app called treesize (from Jam software) will show you what is in there.

    3 people found this answer helpful.
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  2. Anonymous
    2015-12-27T18:50:16+00:00

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  3. LemP 74,925 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2015-12-27T18:40:37+00:00

    @ Uncle Vanya

    The main items that take up space in the System Volume Information folder are System Restore points and Volume Shadow Service (previous versions) files.

    You can adjust the space allocated for each.  See the suggestions here --> http://www.sevenforums.com/drivers/295088-system-volume-information-taking-up-so-much-hard-drive-space.html  (posts #4 and #5), and see the more detailed explanation of VSS here (which includes the command for showing how much VSS space is used/allocated) --> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2342534,00.asp

    You need to open an Elevated Command Prompt (right-click > "Run as administrator") to run vssadmin commands.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-27T18:09:28+00:00

    This worked great to grant access to the folder, but the problem is that the content is growing out of control. It now occupies 631 gb or 75% of C:, which leaves just 2% free. About 100 curly-bracketed named System files dating back 4 months, & a few folddrs with meaningful names like Windows Backup, WindowsImageBackup. The folder WindowsImageBackup appears on external drives where I have created a System Image, but I do not want that on my C: drive.

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