System Volume Information

[grahama]

I could do with a bit of help here. While doing a bit of analysing I discovered that on my notebook the System Volume Information folder was using 12gb. This rather staggered me but I discovered this was caused by System Restore. I turned off System Restore and rebooted. This emptied the folder as I expected. I then turned it back on, set a restore point and all is fine. About 600mb now.
The thing that has me baffled though is that my desktop computer was showing zero in that folder. System restore was turned on and many restore points had been set. So where is all that information gone. I should point out that both computers are running Vista Home Premium with SP1 and all updates. I turned off System Restore, rebooted then turned System Restore on again, set a couple of restore points, but the folder is still zero. I tested a Restore point and that worked fine. I'm afraid I'm at a loss. Obviously the information is somewhere. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[kimsland]

Read:--> How to gain access to the System Volume Information folder

Also:

Clear system restore points

• 
  Clear your existing system restore points and establish a new clean restore point:
  • Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore
  • Select Create a restore point, and Ok it.
  • Next, go to Start > Run and type in cleanmgr
  • Select the More options tab
  • Choose the option to clean up system restore and OK it.
  This will remove all restore points except the new one you just created.

 

[grahama]

Thank you for your reply. I did all that you suggested but the SVI folder still showed zero contents.
I created several restore points and noted the disk size after each point. Each time the disk contents increased considerably and the SVI folder showed a modified time equivalent to the point I made. But still showed zero contents. So I conclude that the restore points in fact are going into the SVI folder but remain invisible. For this exercise I have unhidden the protected files. The point that has me confused is that on my notebook I can see the contents of the SVI folder which correspond to the points I made and give a size but on my desktop computer the contents of the SVI folder are invisible and show zero kb's. It seems that the system restore is actually working but I remain a bit mystified and am keen for a solution.
I would appreciate your comments on what I have outlined

 

[kimsland]

If you followed the MS guide to allow permission access to actually open the SVI (not the actual acomyn though) folder, and then view all files including Hidden, and also System files. Then you are viewing the contects of the folder.

A better test would be to turn off System Restore all together. There will still be a file in there called MountPointManagerRemoteDatabase and possibly a log file, which you can delete (by setting the "Permissions" again just on that (or those) files. But once you restart the file will automatically come back (part of Windows protection mechanism) But at least the SVI folder will be miniscle in size.

Just for your info, I don't use System Restore. And although I recommend to others (with less technical ability) to have System Restore left on; I find it annoying and basically useless, especially if you have external backups, and images of your entire system.

 

[grahama]

Thank you again for your help. Everything is now clear to me. I can now see the contents of the folder and everything that has been happening.
Now that mystery has been cleared up I can concentrate on more important things.
Thanks so much again for your help.

 

[kimsland]

Thanks for the update :grinthumb