System Volume Information Craziness

So... I'm running Windows 10 and I'm having big trouble with System Volume Information Files. I have maintenance turned off on all but Drive C; I've deleted all Restore Points. And I've reformatted the problem drive twice. And yet, the drive now has 316 Gb of SVI files and NO DATA at all! I haven't used it in months.
HELP!!! Thank you!

 

Umm, did you look up SVI files? They are not System Volume Files, they are Samsung Video Files. Got a camera running somewhere?

 

Did you look at my screen capture? I hate to state the obvious, but I used "SVI" as a convenient abbreviation for System Volume Information. If you looked at my jpg, you'd see that there is a System Volume Information file of Drive G; that is 168 Gb, not a Samsung Video file. And no data. And system protection turned off an all drives but C:\ Want to try again?

 

In technical discussions, using the correct terminology (or at least industry standard abbreviations) is important to avoid misunderstandings. You can't just make up your own abbreviations and acronyms and assume everyone can read your mind and understand what you are saying.

FTR, there are no such thing as System Volume Information "files". Knowing that, I Googled ".svi files" and guess what I found?

Yes I did look at your screen shot and frankly, it is very blurry with tiny, hard-to-read text. Not sure why blurry but I looked with two different computers too.

But what I could see, and with no surprise, contrary to your claim, there is no System Volume Information "file", let alone one that is 168GB anywhere in your screen shot.

What I do see and what there is, however, is a subfolder on your "Music - Video" disk with 18 files in it! And those 18 files are taking up that 316.3GB of space! I don't see anything taking up 168GB of space so no clue where you got 168GB.

I note the fact you used VIDEO in the name of that disk also led me to suspect video files since they can be huge - hence me asking if you have a camera running somewhere? But you neglected to answer that.

Sadly, you also neglected to drill down into that subfolder to see what those 18 files are. If you had, you might have been able to determine by their file names and/or timestamps what they were and when they got there.

So, do you want to try again?

If you do, you might check out WinDirStat. TreeSize is nice and I use it too, but WinDirStat is much more informative and helpful IMO when trying to figure what is taking up so much disk space.

 

We have a serious failure to communicate here... I concede you point about non-standard abbreviations - that was confusing. But please look at the smaller jpg I've attached. Drive G:\ is Named MUSIC - VIDEO but has no data on it. As you should be able to see, the entire contents are SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION 316.3 Gb total, and 18 files. These are not data and not video. Can we proceed from there?

 

No we can't see the entire contents because you are not displaying them!

Click the greater than symbol ">" on the folder line, "316.3GB [18 files]". That should change to a downward pointing arrow as seen in the line above it, and then that folder should open to display its contents (the 18 files).

You say there is no data, clearly something is there or 316GB of the total 665GB available would not be shown as used.

Why do you have maintenance turned off? It is on by default for a good reason. I recommend you turn all automatic maintenance back on for all drives and then leave the defaults alone.

Once on, run error checking on that drive.

 

Here's the whole list. All under System Volume Information. I haven't used the drive in several months. I have protection turned off (sorry, not maintenance) to try to stop it from doing this. The drive has also been reformatted twice to get rid of the enormous System Information Files.

 

These drives are not removable, ie fixed in the system?
Some reading
https://superuser.com/questions/119...m-volume-information-folder-in-windows-10-for
TLDR, but it looks like this solution is removable media, then the next fix would be mark your drives as removable media, eh?
Some MOBOs support hot swapping media, so you might be able to easily tell the OS that those drives are removable.

 

Those are restore points. They don't hurt anything.

Try this - In System Protection, in Configure, turn protection back on for that drive. Then in Configure again, click "Delete all restore points for this drive." Then you can turn protection off again for that drive. Do leave protection on for your boot drive - as you noted above.

Alternatively, you can delete all but the most recent restore point with Disk Cleanup. From File Explorer, right click on the drive and select Properties > Disk Cleanup > Clean up system files > More Options. Then under System Restore and Shadow Copies, select Clean up... and follow the prompts to continue with the cleanup.

It is not necessary to keep protection turned on for "all" drives - as I suggested above. If the data on the drive is not critical for you (perhaps you have that data backed up elsewhere), then protection can be disabled. But again, it should remain on for the boot drive - as you have done. Sorry if I caused any confusion there.

BTW, you should not try to delete the folder "System Volume Information". All drives have them and it should be noted that Windows uses the information in that folder for important functions other than restore points. If you don't like seeing that folder, just set Windows to not Show Hidden Files and Folders.

You might also run system file checker (SFC). From an elevated command prompt (run as administrator), run "sfc /scannow". This scans for and attempts to fix any corrupt system files. Note the space before the "/".

If SFC fails to run correctly, or is unable to fix corrupt files, run "DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth". This "should" fix any remaining issue with corrupt system files (if any). Then you can run SFC again and it should complete successfully.

 

Ah, me. The point is not that those files hurt anything. The point is that they use half of the drive space. 363 Gb! And there is no data on the drive...so why? I tried restoring system protection, deleting and then turning off again. No effect. Ah, well...

 

No. First, I get your frustration. Second, The point is, with no data on the drive, and SR disabled, there should be no restore points.

What do you mean by "no effect"? All 18 files are still there? Did you try Disk Cleanup? What about SFC?

 

Tried all of those things. Everything is still the same. I have reformatted this logical drive twice to remove the files, moved it's position on the physical drive, not used it, turned off protection and after a week or two, it makes these huge System Volume Information files for no known reason.

 

After you formatted the drive, did you check to see if that folder was empty? I note the time stamps goes back to April. If they were being made anew, they would have current time stamps.

You might end up needing to reinstall Windows - a last resort option, however.

I might format again, then disconnect the drive. In a week or two, if the system tries to copy or create those files, it seems to me you should get some error indicating the drive cannot be found - hopefully the error would include a clue to pinpoint the cause.

 

This is a logical partition, not a physical drive. Tried all of those things. Everything is still the same. I have reformatted this logical drive twice to remove the files, moved it's position on the physical drive, not used it for months, turned off protection. And after a week or two, it makes these huge System Volume Information files for no known reason.

 

FOR EVERYBODY'S BENEFIT --- I fixed it!!!! I came on a suggestion to use Event Viewer and discovered 2 calls for Windows backup on the date of the latest additions to System Volume Information. I also discovered they were dated on Sunday and all the files were dated on Sundays. I tracked that down and turned it off and reformatted the logical drive again and this Sunday there were no additions to System Volume Information! Wish me luck. I think this is it and I hope it helps because a lot of people are struggling with this problem.

 

Great and thanks for coming back with your followup!