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My Windows 10 PC has a 2TB E: drive for storing pictures and videos. The System Volume Information directory on that drive always contains a file of around 200-250GB, with a recent timestamp - not older than a week or so.

This should be a system restore point. I go to System Properties -> System Protection; select E and click Configure. I find:

  • restore points are disabled for E
  • restore points are limited to 15% of the disk capacity
  • currently, 200GB (consistent with the size of the above file) are occupied by restore point(s).

My questions are:

  • Why is there a restore point at all, given that the disk only contains media, and restore points are disabled?
  • How can I determine if it is safe to remove the restore point?
  • How can I prevent future restore points to be generated?
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  • Do you have File History enabled? That's a backup of all files (on the main drive) with changes that can be stored on a secondary drive
    – Yisroel Tech
    Jun 8, 2023 at 11:39
  • Thanks, but it doesn't seem so, although Windows doesn't tell me outright. When I want to see the detailed file history configuration, all I get is a yellow box telling me that no drive for storing the file history could be found. Same when I want to add a drive for file history.
    – berndbausch
    Jun 8, 2023 at 11:54
  • Since Restore Points are on the same physical media as the original files, I find them of limited use. If there are drive issues, the Restore Points are gone, too. On my Windows PC's, I've turned off Restore on all drives and use external backups/images for safety.
    – DrMoishe Pippik
    Jun 8, 2023 at 18:39

1 Answer 1

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A file of 200-250 GB is too big to be a system restore point, so this needs some investigation.

The System Volume Information folder may contain other data than just restore points. The only way to find out what is inside, and perhaps to delete it, is to have a look.

Do this :

  • Run Explorer, right-click drive E, select Properties, in tab General click on "Disk Clean-up", select the maximum of options that you judge unnecessary and clean it up. If this solves the problem, all is well, otherwise continue.

  • Download and install psexec, which is part of the PsTools package

  • Run the Command Prompt as Administrator

  • Enter the command to run CMD as System:

    "\path to\PsExec64.exe" -s -i "cmd.exe"

  • Position to the folder :

    cd /d "E:\System Volume Information"

  • List the contents in descending order of size :

    dir /o:-s

Depending on what you find, you may now delete the big file or folder using the del command. However, better check first what would be the implications of deleting them.

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  • Thanks. I can list the content of the folder (with other means than psexec; I am more comfortable with UNIX and use Cygwin), but when I try to read the file, even as admin, access is refused. I have not tried deleting it yet, precisely because I don't know how to check what would be the implications.
    – berndbausch
    Jun 9, 2023 at 9:28
  • What's the name and folder of the file? Note that in Cygwin you would not be running under the System account, but you may also use psexec as above to run Cygwin itself in this mode.
    – harrymc
    Jun 9, 2023 at 9:31
  • I did start cygwin as administrator. I don't have that PC in front of me, but can say that the filename starts with { and ends with }; what's inbetween looks like a UUID (i.e. a long hex string structured with dashes).
    – berndbausch
    Jun 9, 2023 at 11:09
  • Psexec can make a program run as System, which is much more than Admin mode. Great care must be taken in this unlimited mode, so stay in it as little as possible.
    – harrymc
    Jun 9, 2023 at 11:11

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