System Volume Information folder huge

Question

I have yet another problem with the System Volume Information folder on my machine. I'm using Windows 10 Home 21H2. The folder occupies ~150GB (that is ~60% of my C: drive)

Among other sources, I used information from here

I tried:

• Cleaning using CleanMgr.exe (normal & admin)
• Reducing space for Sytem Restore points (to 10%)
• Deleting all System Restores (there were none)
• Disabling System Restore
• Checked Volume Shadow Copy
  • vssadmin list shadows reports no shadows exist
  • vssadmin list shadowstorage reports 0MB used for shadows, max 1% storage for shadows
• Checked Windows Backups
  • wbadmin get versions reports no backups
• Tried DiskShadow tool, does not exist (only for Windows Server?)

Nothing helped, size only reduced minimally

I used the FolderSize tool to analyze the storage, and found out that the largest part is occupied by single files with GUIDs as names (there are >100 of them, dating back to the year 2018):

I understand the importance of the System Volume Information folder and you should not mess with it. But from the link above, the relevant data like backups, quotas, deduplication, etc. is stored not in those files. They seem to be Disk Snapshots.

My question: Is it safe to delete those files?

Update from comments:
Output of vssadmin list shadowstorage:

C:\WINDOWS\system32>vssadmin list shadowstorage
vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
(C) Copyright 2001-2013 Microsoft Corp.

No items found that satisfy the query.

Update 2:
I checked using a hexeditor, and then a self-made program. ALL files only contain 0-Bytes (many of them of several GBs).

Udate 3:
I followed @harrymc advice and moved the files to another folder (using Linux Live USB) and observed the system for several days, if the system runs correctly and if new files appear.

In this time, I used the laptop as usual, hibernated , restarted, shut down, and had a Windows Update installed. I experienced no issues

The files did not reappear.

Also, system checks as pointed out by others (dism, chkdsk, sfc) did not report any issues

I made some statistics, and found out that at the beginning, the files were created back-to-back, so the creation date of a file was the same as the last-written date of a previous file. Then some gaps started to show up (regions where no file existed), of 1-3 days, and recently there were gaps of 1-2 months.

The last file was from 6.10.2022, I moved the files on 12.10.2022 (so ~1 week later).

Answer 1

If these files are garbage, full of zeros, you could move them all elsewhere. If no problem arises for a few days, they can be deleted. If this is hard to do in Windows, use a Linux Live USB.

Watch to see if the files return. If they do, you can check whether this happens at a certain time, for example after boot, and trace this period using Process Monitor, which can also do boot-time monitoring if required, to find the process that creates them. I wouldn't be surprised if that process turns out to belong to Windows.

Answer 2

This folder contains Windows restore point, if you enabled system protection, they are stored here. I find this feature is really useful if you try something really stupid like install third party storage controller (Intel rapid...) and end up with can't be uninstalled -- create restore point before install, install them, not satisfy, do system restore, and they're gone.

If you do hope to clean this folder, go to control panel, all control panel items, recovery, configure system restore, select desired drive, configure, delete. This is a safe way to erase big files under System Volume Information. You may also turn off this feature so files no longer generated.

If there are still large file, delete use Linux tool chain, they are no longer linked to your current running system (safe to treat as dead files).