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[Solve] System Volume Information Folder Too Large

By Nishant Aryal

[Solve] System Volume Information Folder Too Large

The system volume information is often kept hidden on Windows for security purposes. This folder stores system files related to restore & backups and content indexing services. 

It is located at the root of the system volume and can fill up fast with backup/restore files, content index databases, and Dedup chunks(On Windows Server). 

It is not recommended to delete this folder as it can prove to be vital in case the system suffers a crash. Instead, you can free up the disk by cleaning up the contents inside the System Volume Information Folder. 

How to Fix ‘System Volume Information Folder Too Large’ Error

Limit the Disk Usage Space for Folder 

Whenever the system creates the restore points, the associated files are stored by the Windows on the System volume information folder. If the disk space usage limit is not set for such restore points, it will accumulate data in the folder over time and fill up the disk faster. 

It is recommended to configure the disk usage for the system restore up to 15 percent of the total size of the volume. 

  1. Click on the Start button, type Create a restore point and open it. 
  2. Go to the System Protection section. system-protection-configuration
  3. Click on the Configure button. 
  4. Reduce the Disk Space usage for system protection by using the  Max Usage slider.
     Chnage-the-disk-usage
  5. Click on Apply to save changes. 
  6. Finally, restart the computer and check the folder size. The System Volume Information Folder will now shred down to the configured size. 

Perform Disk Cleanup

The Volume Shadow Copy Service creates a backup of the data on your computer as a shadow copy. It stores such backups in the System volume information folder. These shadow copies metadata can be cleaned by performing a disk cleanup. 

  1. Press Windows Key + R to open Run.
  2. Type C:\windows\SYSTEM32\cleanmgr.exe, and hit enter. 
  3. Select the System volume (on most devices, it’s C:) drive and click on OK.
  4. Click on the Cleanup system files button. clean-up-system-files-1
  5. Again, select the system volume and click on OK. 
  6. Go to the More options tab.
     more-options-for-clean-up
  7. Under the System Restore and Shadow Copies section, click on the Cleanup button. 

Delete the System Volume Information Folder from the USB

The system volume information folder usually does not have a huge file size on USB storage devices. However, if the device has been infected by malware and viruses, this folder will show up as a large folder. You also sometimes cannot delete this folder using the normal modus operandi. 

  1. Connect the USB to your Windows device. 
  2. Open the USB volume from File Explorer. 
  3. Right-click on the empty space of the Drive window and select Open in Terminal. OPen-in-terminal
  4. Now, run this command line in the command prompt. 
    rmdir "System Volume Information" /s /qrmdir-command
  1. This will delete the folder in the USB drive. However, it will be re-created once you eject and reconnect the flash drive. This only helps if the folder occupies large disk spaces in the USB. 
Note: The System Volume Information is kept hidden by the system for security reasons on both the root directory and the USB storage device. You can make this folder visible and accessible from the File explorer settings.
  1. Open the File explorer.
  2. Click on the three vertical dots located at the file explorer’s Toolbar.
  3. Go to View tab.
  4. Uncheck the option Hide protected operating files and select the Show hidden files, folders and drivers.
  5. Click on Apply to save the changes.

Restrict the System From Creating the Folder

You can delete the system volume information with the above-suggested methods. But the system recreates this folder once you reconnect the USB device. This happens if the group policy configurations allow the locations to be indexed in the system volume information folder. 

  1. Press Windows Key + R, type gpedit.msc, and hit enter to open the Group policy editor.
  2. Now, navigate to this directory from the panel on the left. 
    Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Searchgroup-policy-editor
  3. Search for a Setting Do not allow locations on removable drives to be added to libraries and open it. restrict-locations-on-USB-drives
  4. Click on Enable. enable-settings-from-gpedit
  5. Click on OK to save the changes. 

Clean up the System Volume Information folder

On Windows Server, the Data Deduplication service compresses and stores the redundant data in the System Volume Information folder. These chunks of files accumulate and occupy heaps of disk space.  

  1. Open PowerShell and run this command. This will start removing the unused files from the System Volume Information folder.
    start-dedupjob -Volume C: -Type GarbageCollectiongarbage-collection-command
  2. Now, use this command to start the data cleansing to fix the data integrity.
    start-dedupjob -Volume C: -Type DataScrubbingdata-scrubbing-command
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