How to turn off System Restore and remove System Volume Information folders in Windows?

I met the same problem of not being able to shrink the Windows OS partition C: as much as I plan to due to unmovable files.

Having learned from this post, I would like to "turn System Restore off and remove System Volume Information folders". So I was wondering where and how I can "turn System Restore off and remov System Volume Information folders"?

This is the only way I can find out to solve my problem. If you have other way please let me know.

Tim

Posted 2011-02-07T17:28:27.647

Reputation: 12 647

There's a how to geek article on turning off system restore (http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-system-restore-in-windows-vista/)

– icc97 – 2014-06-29T13:48:05.000

1my understanding of System Volume Information folders leads me to believe that if you delete this info from your computer then windows may not boot (if you still want the ability to do that) – Patrick – 2011-02-07T17:32:16.580

@Patrick: I don't know what to do to shrink my partition except the way suggested in the linked post. Do you have better ideas? – Tim – 2011-02-07T17:48:06.613

a program I have used to resize disks was GParted (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/news.php), it's open-source and updated regularly. Two things though: #1 when I used it, it was with Win XP & #2 do a full backup of your hard drive before using this tool. As with any resizing/re-partitioning of hard drives you should ALWAYS backup first. Doesn't take much to waste all the data on a drive when doing these sorts of things [although as good practice dictates, you should always have a backup anyway :-)]

– Patrick – 2011-02-07T17:53:08.497

@Patrick: Will GParted be able to deal with unmovable files? PS: My goal is to shrink C:, crate D: and install Ubuntu along side Windows. – Tim – 2011-02-07T17:59:05.047

I'm not sure if GParted will move files that are considered unmovable to windows, but I believe the resizing ability of GParted is better than the included windows resizing tools so you may not need to worry about that. how large is your hard drive in total? – Patrick – 2011-02-07T18:11:42.617

Around 233 GB. C: now is 222 GB. The rest are a recovery partition and a partition for booting. I am now totally stuck at the unmovable files. :-( – Tim – 2011-02-07T18:14:55.517

that's crazy, i wouldn't have expected unmovable files to keep the partition THAT large. are you able to see what types of files they are? if they are system restore files, you should be able to go into system restore and delete those files. I don't have win7 system here to test that idea though – Patrick – 2011-02-07T18:23:30.530

@Tim just found a microsoft created program, Contig (http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897428.aspx), that is aimed at defragging but it also 'optimizes' files location on the disk and may move those files closer to the beginning of the disk. It runs from the command line but there is a freeware GUI frontend for Contig (http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Power-Defragmenter.shtml) I've never used either, but it may help.

– Patrick – 2011-02-07T18:27:05.957

Answers

To turn off System Restore (Protection) in Windows 7:

From Microsoft:

Open System by clicking the Start button, clicking Control Panel, clicking System and Maintenance, and then clicking System.
In the left pane, click System Protection. Administrator permission is required if you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
To turn on System Protection for a hard disk, select the check box next to the disk, and then click OK. – or – To turn off System Protection for a hard disk, clear the check box next to the disk, and then click OK.

To remove the System Volume Information folders, which I believe are unremovable in Windows:

Download an Ubuntu Live CD
Burn it
Boot from the CD
After boot, open up the drive in the Ubuntu desktop, highlight and delete the folder.

Patrick

Posted 2011-02-07T17:28:27.647

Reputation: 1 216

There's a way simpler solution than the former answers regarding deleting the directory.

It's actually in the same place where you disable the protection.

Start Button → System Preferences → System
Left Pane → System Protection
Mark the volume you are working on, and then hit Configure
In the dialog popping up, hit the delete button and confirm. It basically deletes all Windows Restore Points, nothing else.

After that the System Volume Information Directory is empty and you can do whatever you want.

You don't even need to disable the System protection on that drive. The Directory will be emptied anyway.

Tarulia

Posted 2011-02-07T17:28:27.647

Reputation: 265

Perhaps I'm missing something... did you try this: Go to the Control Panel, open the System Control Panel. Click on "Advanced System Settings" on the left and then in the Window that appears, click on the "System Protection" tab.

I don't know what, if anything will DELETE "System Volume Information", but it should otherwise largely "empty" it.

Multiverse IT

Posted 2011-02-07T17:28:27.647

Reputation: 4 228