How to "permanently" delete System Volume Informat

The quotes are there for a good reason. This solution is not really a permanent deletion, but rather a permanent re-deletion: every time you plug your usb drive, the service will delete the SVI directory on all partitions.

get it here: http://www.ciuly.com/utils/win32/system-volume-information-deleter/index.html

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16 Responses to “How to "permanently" delete System Volume Informat”

  1. ciuly says:

    someone sent me a web message, but they did not used a valid email address. here is what they suggested

    [code:1:15c262d18f]
    i have a solution found for myself: I change the permissions, so i could delete this folder. Than i create an empty file with the same name and set the file-attributes to system and hidden.
    This works without any service-process.

    The same i made with the recycler – directory and with the nonsense directories in the %programm% directory.
    [/code:1:15c262d18f]

    at first look, one would think that "hey, this works", but then again, let me remind you that the SVI folder already has system and hidden attributes. the idea of this application is to remove the folder all together.

    why? Well, in my case for example, me being a professional, I like to keep my total commander showing ALL files (including system and hidden). But I do not want to see the SVI folder tehre as I don’t use it and the system doesn’t use it either.

    Hope that clarifies the need for such an application 🙂

  2. ciuly says:

    I included this on softpedia.com find it [url=http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/System-Volume-Information-Deleter.shtml]here[/url]

  3. guest says:

    then how should i remove it this thing took my 148 GB from my D driver.. and sill want’s to take more.. max space on D Driver is 467 GB.

  4. guest says:

    my problem is on Windows 7 x86 Ultimate I’m w8 for reply.

  5. ciuly says:

    well, first of all you need to disable the services that use it. Those are at least the search index service and the one that actually eats up your hdd space: System Restore. If you don’t know how to disable this, search on google or ask in a forum that supports vista/ windows 7. I have neither.

    KEEP IN MIND that that folder is needed by the system for some other stuff as well. so DO NOT delete it from your system drive. As noted, you can disable some of the services that use it and thus save space, but overall, only remove it from data-only partitions/drives. That is the reason my service application only removes from USB drives and not from the actual hdds in the system.

  6. guest says:

    So basicly thus program won’t work on HDD? on pc?

  7. guest says:

    I’m not good in this. i found forum… where ” add ” link for this website.. so i could ask for help but it seem so that it will be hell of a problem for me ;/ to deal with

    • ciuly says:

      I cannot offer support/help for things I do not support (like how to properly configure windows). There are dedicated forums for such questions. I only support my products and problems related to them and what you describe is not a problem related to my product nor one that can be solved by my product but, as I already explained, it’s a problem of misconfiguration. Or, maybe, you are expecting too much from your system. If you want to have system restore, then you must deal with the fact that it eats up space. Sure, you can configure the maximum amount of space, but still, you can’t have it SVI directory removed.

  8. Nigel says:

    is it possible to update this great program

  9. ciuly says:

    I don’t know. What update do you require?

    • Nigel says:

      it looks like its not working on windows 7 x64. here is the log. external drive is G

      http://pastebin.com/zKMh9iy4

      • ciuly says:

        Looks to me like a permissions problem. The service should normally be running under the local system account, which should have sufficient privileges to delete this folder. It may happen that either the permissions on the folder (or drive) were altered in a way that the local system account no longer has the required privileges, or simply win7 comes with a more restrictive local system account.
        Check the privileges on the drive. The SYSTEM account should have full privileges. If it doesn’t, add it manually. If its a local policy in your company or whatever that the local system account would not have by default full privileges on the drive (or drives) then simply create a new user, add full privileges on the root folder only and change the service from the service console to log on using that new account. Make sure to add the logon as a service privilege to the user.

        • Nigel says:

          Thanks for tip. Its a home pc so no problem with the account. I changed the SVI to login to local account but it still cant delete the folder successfully

          http://pastebin.com/0R0xbuYM

          • ciuly says:

            Now it works fine. It deletes successfully but the folder is re-created.
            You did stop (disabled for the drive) all the services that are using it, right? indexing, system restore, and so on (you’ll have to google to see all the services involved for win7 as I don’t have it. If you use and need any of these services and cannot disable it for this drive, you will not be able to delete the folder for good. As long as a service needs to write something there, it will recreate the folder and the data in it.

  10. Nigel says:

    I was able to isolate the problem with the Norton 2012. It keeps creating “system volume\information\EfaData\SYMEFA.DB” Unfortunately there is no way to disable it unless you remove the damn program 🙂

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