Often seen and felt as a stupid problem in Windows (especially in Vista, as usual) is the habit of the strange entity called “system volume information” in C drive claiming a lot of disk space for apparently no practical purpose at all! You’d start off with a pretty neat 40 GB drive, and slowly over months you’d notice that you are only left with 5 GB in there whilst all your files summed up could only answer for 15 GB and the Windows+Program Files would be around another 10 GB. Where did the rest of the 10 GB vanish? The answer would be the hidden folder called “system volume information” (let’s call it SVI for ease of my typing). Seemingly windows saves information related to system restore inside that place and it is used when you actually perform a restoration (which is indeed a great facility). But when struggling for more disk space, I am sure you wouldn’t mind doing a trade off between what portion of your disk you want to give away for that purpose and what portion you want to keep for yourself.
Now here are some commands that you could use in the Command Prompt console in administrator mode in order to view and resize the space allocated for SVI:
1. To see the space allocated and used for SVI:
- Open Command Prompt with “Run as Administrator” option
- Type in: vssadmin list shadowstorage
- You will see Used Space, Allocated Space and Maximum Space for SVI
2. To see the restore information stored therein:
- Use in the same console command: vssadmin list shadows
3. To resize the maximum allocated space:
- Type in command: vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=[here add the drive letter]: /For=[here add the drive letter]: /Maxsize=[here add the maximum size]
- E.g., vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=C: /For=C: /Maxsize=4GB
- You will see a prompt confirming resize done
- You can check the status again using the command discussed in point 1 above
4. Just to get rid of the space already consumed, but sticking to the same size of max-size as before:
- Do actions as per point 3 to set the max-size t, say, 1GB
- If you check now, most likely you’ll see that used space is now 0KB
- Do the resize again and set it back to what it was before
- Check your disk space availability in Windows Explorer, you should see the reclaim is done!
Hope this helps. I owe this to this webpage. This did reduce 15 GB in my laptop’s hard drive – which was great!
Great!! This worked perfect!
Thanks!
Thank you so much … this worked awesomely
Great page, I reclaimed 60GBytes, and I’ve only had Vista for a couple of months. Crazy OS!
Worked Awesome, Thank You
In two weeks that folder took up 45GB
Thanks man… this was awesome!
Wow, just installed Vista about a day ago, ran disc cleanup and defragmented (with Defraggler), ect…
All of a sudden I notice these unamed files that are 1.5gb – 3gb!!
SVI strikes again, thanks for this great tip, I too freed up 15gb.
Thanks! I just reclaimed 36 GB’s!!!
How can I turn off this “System Volume Information” or configure it to start only manually – not whenever it just feels like it?
(because I don’t like it taking over and going crazy with disk activity when I’m trying to use the PC)
John,
You can check out the point #3 in my post above. It shows how you can restrict the amount of space SVI can take. SVI contains important information which helps you to rollback your system using system restore in case you face a problem and want to do a restore. If you limit the space allocated to SVI, you limit the number of restore points you can go back to.
Thanks
Indrajit C
Thanks Indrajit!! Got back 20 GB.
And yes Thanks to John Barnett too!
Hi and THANKS,
This is awsome. Really good help.
Had used 250 GB on my harddrive but could only find files that took up some 110 GB, so where was the rest?
Had to spend hours looking through dedicated helpsites, but nowhere there was any help on how to take command of this #@! SVI.
I got 145 GB back!
this is folder is for the restore points of the system restore function in windows
so it does serves a lot of purpose because it backs up your system and settings on various dates.
do research first before claiming things smart ass
Smart Ass Commenter:
If you dont like my post – fine! Dont come here. You are not welcome.
I know what SVI does and what it contains. If you had taken the pain to ACTUALLY READ through my post and my comments here, you would have known that I knew.
And at least put your name in when you comment – so that I know who I am hating.
1 question how do i delete the SVI folder? I did what you said and resised to 1 gig but I try to delete and dont let me
You cannot delete the SVI folder – it is a system folder, needed by Windows operating system.
Excellent post. One remaining question: How can I get rid of the SVI folder on my USB drive, which remained from restore points of another computer (which doesn’t exist anymore)? Vista lets me read that folder, but refuses to delete it (without any error message).
Kenny,
Sorry – I have no clear clue on this. Have you tried doing formatting? It should ideally clean up the entire USB drive (do keep your data safe before you do that). If that does not work, you’d perhaps need to do some googling on the answer.
Thanks
IC
Can you believe it, I got 80GB!!! And I have a 140 GB hard drive…. (Believe me though… just as expensive as the 1TB are since its 10,000 RPM). I just noticed it yesterday when I only had less than a gig left
Thanks!
No shadowstorage option in 1.0 (2001), which I have on my XP Home Edition, as opposed to the 1.1 (2005) you used. Dunno if I can just swap in the newer .exe…?
Anyway, on XP I suppose you can temporarily recover the space, if you are convinced you have more checkpoints than you currently need, by pushing the backup allocation slider down from the default 15% max, exiting to put it into effect and lose some backups, then push it back up again if you want to allow for the possibility of needing more checkpoints in the future. With no need to use the command line.
Hi Indrajit:
First: Thank you for the tip to reclaim space from SVI.
Question: is it OK to delete all old RP (restore points) found in the SVI?
Have a great day.
Hi Sam,
Thanks for your comment. About deleting all RPs found in the SVI – it’s really your decision. If you think you are in a position to restore the system without assistance of Windows in case systems crash occurs, then yes – you can delete all restore points. In case you want to be safe and let Windows do restoration for you – then don’t.
Cheers and happy new year!
IC
Hi Indrajit,
Your page is fascinating, and the only one i have found close to answering my question.
I have xp home, and am at uni, so cannot presently afford to replace my laptop. Over the last couple of years, my hard drive (when i look under properties on c drive ) has shrunk from it’s original 60gb down to 43 (total used and free) is this because i have had to restore the computer two or three times from the discs that come with it? And do i need to go through the same process? Or how do i start? I am afraid my mind is in ayurvedic medicine and not pc’s, i just need to recover my space? Thanks Scott
Scott,
If I understand your question correctly, when you do:
Windows Explorer
> C drive
>> Right click
>>> Properties
then you see that total capacity of disk is 43 GB? In the properties section there are 3 values shown:
1. Used space
2. Free space
3. Capacity
Can you tell me what exactly you see in each field?
If indeed you see that the “capacity” has reduced over time, that’s quite odd – because space consumption in SVI should not cause that. The only reason I can think of is if you have partitioned your disk into multiple drives then each drive (e.g., C drive) will less space. If that’s not the case, I doubt I can provide any help to you without actually getting my hands on the machine.
The best thing to do is to back up your data in a portable drive, and reformat the machine and do a clean windows (or any other OS) install. And I do not mean doing “restore” operation using your disks – I mean an installation from scratch. But you should be ready with all softwares and device drivers if you actually want to attempt that.
Cheers
Indrajit C
Thank you! My SVI was at 99GBs!!! It’s bad enough my HP computer takes up space on my HD with a restore volume then I have nearly 100GBs of space lost to system restore points.
OMG,thanks a lot I reclaimed 15gb from my 3 weeks old laptop!!love you dude!!
Scott,
If I understand your question correctly, when you do:
Windows Explorer
> C drive
>> Right click
>>> Properties
then you see that total capacity of disk is 43 GB? In the properties section there are 3 values shown:
1. Used space
2. Free space
3. Capacity
Can you tell me what exactly you see in each field?
If indeed you see that the “capacity” has reduced over time, that’s quite odd – because space consumption in SVI should not cause that. The only reason I can think of is if you have partitioned your disk into multiple drives then each drive (e.g., C drive) will less space. If that’s not the case, I doubt I can provide any help to you without actually getting my hands on the machine.
The best thing to do is to back up your data in a portable drive, and reformat the machine and do a clean windows (or any other OS) install. And I do not mean doing “restore” operation using your disks – I mean an installation from scratch. But you should be ready with all softwares and device drivers if you actually want to attempt that.
Cheers
Indrajit C
I have the problem you`ve explained above. I have 5.5GB less and in SVI I have exactly 5.5GB data. already deleted the folder. although I havent got back this free space. do you have any idea?
Thanks for this site! Its a great help!
Best regards,
F
If you are using windows xp (and i think it will be same in vista – but i dont have a machine handy right now to check), then you can control how much space is allocated to the SVI through the following:
My Computer > right click > Properties > System Restore tab > Settings button > Disk Space Usage scrollbar – drag this to the very minimum value – click on OK [this step will free up the space already taken up by SVI] and then you can put it back to where it was [if you wish].
Hope this will help.
Hi Indrajit,
Sorry am back at Uni, deep into work, and have not read this for a while.
Yes, to clarify, and to get the info i want, i do this:
Start
My Computer
Local Disk (right click)
Properties
Info displayed:
Used Space: 14,721,564,672 bytes 13.7GB
Free Space: 32,294,100,992 bytes 30.0GB
Capacity 47,015,665,664 bytes 43.7GB
Here are my queries, if anyone can help:
1)Why do the figures above not add up? e.g around 47 bytes then 43.7 GB or are these different sets of numbers?
2) My laptop is supposed to be 60GB
3) When I first had my laptop, i am quite sure the capacity was around 57GB
4) I read that everytime you use the discs to reset the computer to factory settings, a partition is created for the system restore, and so over time the hard disc gets smaller and smaller, as there are partitions set aside for each time the computer is reset. i have had to do this operation around three times over the last two-three years due to old freeware and shareware software trials/ viruses/ configuration clashes etc.
5) its great to start my new uni year with a clean computer, as when I research I am constantly saving things that appear useful at the time, but by the end of the year, I can’t remember what is what. i understand that each time these discs to reboot the system are used, they are programmed to partition a space for restore purposes, but in theory that means that eventually after using these discs 10-15 times there will not be any hard drive left at all?
Simply wanted to reclaim these partitions and get back my space?
Scott
Scott,
Thanks for your reply. My answers:
1. Your used + free = total equation is balancing quite well. I won’t worry about 47 bytes’ difference. 13.7 GB + 30 GB = 43.7 GB looks fine enough.
2. The problem is where is your remaining hard drive – that’s what we should focus on. If you had a so-called “60 GB” hard drive, I would assume, across all disk partitions (visible and invisible/unallocated), the total usable space for you would have been 60*(1000/1024)^3 = 55.88 GB. Out of this, clearly your current “C drive” has 43.7 GB.
3. Do you have D/E/F etc. drives as well? Do they sum up?
4. If not, then we have a different problem. I need to know if all of your hard disk is allocated to a logical drive or not. For checking that you need to go to: My Computer > right click > Manage > left menu option “Disk Management”. It will show you a graphical representation of what is the utilisation of your entire hard disk. If, for example, you have the missing 55-43 GB space “unallocated” to any logical drive, then it will appear there and will say so. Please check this and let me know.
Best of luck,
Indrajit C
many thanks for your help!
Wow, thanks a lot for this! Every Windows Vista user should know about this tip!
What if you just right-click My Computer, go to System Restore and adjust the slider to adjust the amount of disk space available for restore point? Does that do the same thing as the command line procedure you describe?
Cheers
Nicolas
One way to reduce the size of the SVI is to remove all Restore Points except the most recent one. Do this when you are confident all is well.
In Windows XP, log on with administrator privileges. Click Start | Accessories | System Tools | Disk Cleanup. If you have more than one partition, a Select Drive dialog opens; pick a partition from the drop-down list. Click on the Other Options tab. The bottom third of the window allows you to delete all the old Restore Points. Click OK. If you have a lot of Restore Points, Windows will grind away for a few seconds.
I did this a couple of days ago, and on each of my partitions, the SVI is still 0 bytes.
The difference between a gibibyte (1024^3 bytes) and a gigabyte (1000^3 bytes) is more than 7%. I bought some Seagate hard drives with 320 gigabytes, meaning the manufacturer guarantees 320 billion bytes. The BIOS and Windows report only 297 “gigabytes” (actually gibibytes) which is, roughly 320 billion bytes. Many computer users are confused by this.
@Scott (and perhaps other people):
Your problem is bigger. Many manufacturers ship computers with a recovery system that depends on hiding a disk image where nobody cannot get at it. But tech support can tell you how to access the hidden image to restore your hard disk to exactly the state it was in when it left the factory.
This image is stored in a special partition called a Host Protected Area. The space used by the HPA is hidden from the BIOS (and therefore inaccessible). The trick is simple. The hard disk reports a false size to the BIOS and the operating system. The HPA is the space between the reported last sector and the actual last sector.
Another trick is the Device Configuration Overlay, used by manufacturers to make drives of various sizes all look like the same size. (I guess this has to do with cloning the hard disks — much faster than installing everything on each computer separately. (Modern cloning software can expand or shrink the partition to fit the source disk to the target disk.)
The Wikipedia articles on HPA and DCO not only give more information, but have links to software that shows you whether you have an HPA or a DCO, how big it is, and enables you to resize it or delete it.
It could be that your computer’s recovery system makes an image of your disk in an expanded HPA, so that you can roll back the recovery to an earlier state (just guessing — I kind of doubt it).
Go to
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml
and download the HDDerase tool. This is designed to overwrite every single byte of data on the drive so that it cannot be recovered even by forensic tools. It gives the option of also deleting the HPA or DCO if there is one. Afterwards you can make a clean install of Windows. (But first be sure to back up all your important emails, uni projects, baby pictures, and so on.)
Good luck.
@Scott,
Another thought: You may have caught a rootkit.
Try this for a comparison. Boot into the computer’s BIOS Setup program. This always lists all the internal drives, and the size of each. How does this compare with the size reported by My Computer? If the two sizes are different, something is seriously wrong.
A rootkit is malware that installs itself in such a way that normal disk operations cannot detect it. Even so, it runs every time the computer boots.
It does this by intercepting system calls that might expose it. As a result, Windows Explorer (*not* Internet Explorer) does not see the space used by the rootkit, either on the hard disk or in RAM.
One way to detect rootkits is to compare the size of a directory as reported by Windows Explorer (or My Computer) with the size reported by low-level commands that do not use the normal calls. If the two sizes differ, something is hiding. Anti-rootkit tools do this.
There are now a dozen or more tools that will expose and remove rootkits. Try the well-known antivirus vendors; some of the tools are free. (Do *not* Google for rootkit removal — most of the hits are bogus fake security tools.)
However, the fastest way (indeed, the only certain way) to get rid of rootkits and other malware is to delete the partition. The Windows Setup CD-ROM, if you have one, will offer to do this for you. Just delete every partition until there is none left, just unallocated free space. Then create a new partition and format it; avoid the quick format. Finish installing Windows. Re-install your favorite apps. Restore your crucial data. (You did back up your emails and uni projects before you started?)
@Scott, yet another thought. Your hard disk may be dying.
When the firmware (on the circuit board inside the disk drive) finds a bad spot on the disk, it reallocates that sector number to a sector held in reserve. When the drive runs out of reserve sectors, the operating system sees a bad sector. The OS remembers the fact, so it won’t use it. This leads to a slow shrinkage of disk space.
To see whether this is your problem, double-click on My Computer, and right-click on the hard drive. Select Properties (bottom of the menu). In the window that opens, click on the Tools tab. The top third of the window is devoted to error-checking. Do it.
You will have to reboot to perform the check, which will occur in “DOS mode”, just before Windows is loaded. Watch the screen carefully. (This takes time; eat lunch while you watch.) At the end there should be a summary, listing bad sectors, among other useful facts.
A lot of third-party disk utilities do this, too.
If you have bad sectors, it is time to replace your hard drive. This can be done on almost any computer, even a laptop — the only tool you need is a screwdriver. Hard drives are amazingly cheap nowadays, but for a laptop you may be forced to buy one from the original manufacturer.
The files in that directory seem useless too, as when accessing them with Linux, all I see a bunch of multi-GB files full of “00″
awesome..thanx a lot!!!!!!
what the? Normally Wouldn’t u just Do a window disk clean up and delete those recent restore point
rather then messing with this
After second install of WIN-XP on my new ASUS eee_pc 901 (uses SSD instead of Hard drive), I see on the drive that of 3.7 GB of SSD, 2.67 GB been used!!
Checking my C drive shows that there is just 65MB for Document and setting folder, 115 MB on Program files folder, and 979 MB for windows folder.
It means WIN-XP installment took less than 1.2 GB but from 3.7 GB of total drive, just 1 GB free space is availlable.
What is the problem?
It is just the second install on a brand new PC.
By the way on first install it used about 1.2 GB.
I am required to take everything off of an external hard drive prior to use. We want the external to just be a place to store data and nothing else.
I find that even when I delete all files from the external hard drive then delete partition then do a complete format. I still have the system volume Information file to conted with.
Is there a way to completely delete this file on an external and would it matter if it were deleted.
I can understand where you might want to be able to restore what is saved on a C drive but would that restore process work on an external after all other files have been removed?
Thank you for any advice you can give me on this subject.
Great tip! Googled away and found this site with this info.
Have proceed to look into vssadmin options for all the Windows boxes I inherited at my workplace and found a long-standing issue with one.
A little bit of knowledge may be a dangerous thing, but in the case, it led me to look for much more to better manage my devices!
Great tip! Helped me reclaim 50GB. Thanks!
You can just disable system restore for C:\ in the configuration. This will erase all the previous restore points. Then enable it back, and create a new restore point, and you gained back your Gbs
Awesome Guide Helped me get back 100 gigs.