Can't delete old system restore files

[Farhan Malik]

I use XP Home edition with multiple hard drives installed. I recently
had to format my C: drive and reinstall Windows XP (replaced
motherboard at the time). After that I disabled system restore as is
my normal practice. My problem is that there are still many system
restore files on most of the drives. I've disabled system restore but
they simply won't go away. Neither does turning system restore on,
rebooting, turning system restore off, rebooting, help. My defrag
program shows that there are a lot of these files on my drives. Is
there any way to manually delete these files? I think they were
created during a previous install of windows and are just wasting
space now.

 

[Miss Perspicacia Tick]

You'll find them at C:\System Volume Information\
You also may want to disable System Restore Service:

How to optimize Windows XP/2000/ME for the best performance:
http://www.fixyourwindows.com

You have been asked, politely, more than once, to stop directing people to
that site. Much of the 'advice' contained therein is dangerous, misleading
or just plain *wrong*. You'll be the once copping it if someone ended up
destroying their system because you're the one who directed them there!

Please cease and desist.

 

[Farhan Malik]

You have been asked, politely, more than once, to stop directing people to
that site. Much of the 'advice' contained therein is dangerous, misleading
or just plain *wrong*. You'll be the once copping it if someone ended up
destroying their system because you're the one who directed them there!

Please cease and desist.

Mr R's post doesn't help me at all. The files are in C:\System Volume
Information\ but I am denied access to that directory. And, as I said
in the original post, I already disabled System Restore Service so his
suggestion to do that is redundant.

Does anyone know how to access the System Volume Information directory
and delete these useless files?

Thanks,

FM

 

[Carrie Garth]

||| "Farhan Malik"
http://www.microsoft.com/communities/privacy.mspx
||| wrote ||| <SNIP>I disabled system restore as is my normal practice. My
||| problem is that there are still many system restore files on
||| most of the drives. I've disabled system restore but they
||| simply won't go away. <SNIP>

|| "r" <[email protected]>
|| wrote || You'll find them at C:\System Volume Information\
|| You also may want to disable System Restore Service:

| "Farhan Malik" <[email protected]>
| wrote | <SNIP> Does anyone know how to access the System Volume
| Information directory and delete these useless files?

See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

KB309531 - How to Gain Access to the System Volume
Information Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?Product=winxp&scid=kb;en-us;309531

And good luck. I've got the following... it seems permanently:

C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)>dir
Volume in drive C is C_WinXP
Volume Serial Number is 38CF-B0D4

Directory of C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)

2004/06/28 08:57 AM <DIR> .
2004/06/28 08:57 AM <DIR> ..
2004/06/26 08:22 AM 62 A000¿390.ini
2003/11/08 04:16 AM 82,432 rm.exe
2 File(s) 82,494 bytes
2 Dir(s) 8,567,365,632 bytes free

 

[Farhan Malik]

See the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article:

KB309531 - How to Gain Access to the System Volume
Information Folder
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?Product=winxp&scid=kb;en-us;309531

And good luck. I've got the following... it seems permanently:

C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)>dir
Volume in drive C is C_WinXP
Volume Serial Number is 38CF-B0D4

Directory of C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)

2004/06/28 08:57 AM <DIR> .
2004/06/28 08:57 AM <DIR> ..
2004/06/26 08:22 AM 62 A000¿390.ini
2003/11/08 04:16 AM 82,432 rm.exe
2 File(s) 82,494 bytes
2 Dir(s) 8,567,365,632 bytes free

Thanks for your post. I was finally able to get rid of all those
System Restore Information files and directories. Not sure why you
can't completely delete your files. I had several hidden ini files
that I cleared by typing del/ah *.ini while in those directories
containing hidden files. I also had to delete a few hidden log files
with del/ah *.log. Once all the hidden files were gone the
directories could be totally removed. I used dir/ah to see the hidden
files.

Farhan

 

[Carrie Garth]

|:| "Farhan Malik" http://www.microsoft.com/communities/privacy.mspx
|:| wrote |:| <SNIP> Does anyone know how to access the System Volume
|:| Information directory and delete these useless files?

:| "Carrie Garth" <[email protected]>
:| wrote in message :|
:| <SNIP> http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?Product=winxp&scid=kb;en-us;309531
:|
:| And good luck. I've got the following... it seems permanently:
:|
:| C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)>dir
:| Volume in drive C is C_WinXP
:| Volume Serial Number is 38CF-B0D4
:|
:| Directory of C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)
:|
:| 2004/06/28 08:57 AM <DIR> .
:| 2004/06/28 08:57 AM <DIR> ..
:| 2004/06/26 08:22 AM 62 A000¿390.ini
:| 2003/11/08 04:16 AM 82,432 rm.exe
:| 2 File(s) 82,494 bytes
:| 2 Dir(s) 8,567,365,632 bytes free

| "Farhan Malik" http://www.microsoft.com/communities/privacy.mspx
| wrote in message | Thanks for your post. I was finally able to get rid of all those
| System Restore Information files and directories. Not sure why you
| can't completely delete your files. I had several hidden ini files
| that I cleared by typing del/ah *.ini while in those directories
| containing hidden files. I also had to delete a few hidden log files
| with del/ah *.log. Once all the hidden files were gone the
| directories could be totally removed. I used dir/ah to see the hidden
| files.

Glad to read that you succeeded.

As for why I cannot delete my A000¿390.ini file... BTW, if I look at
the Properties Sheet of A000¿390.ini it is 'empty'. And if I try to move
A000¿390.ini I get the following error message:

Error Moving File or Folder
Cannot move file: Cannot read from the source file or disk.

I think the stickler is the inverted question mark, and the fact that the
file is on a NTFS file system partition.

I have turned off System Restore and rebooted.

I have run chkdsk /r

I have tried every command at the cmd.exe prompt that have ever
come across in the newsgroups (both booted in Normal Mode and
to the Recovery Console). For example:

DEL \\.\driveletter:\path\filename

And I have even tried the suggestion in Microsoft Knowledge Base
Article KB120716 to install "Microsoft Windows Services for UNIX"
(Interix / POSIX subsystem) and use rm.exe to remove the directory
entry.

The following command will delete a file I created by the name of b.txt,
but (modified) it will not delete A000¿390.ini:

Directory of C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)

2004/08/08 12:42 PM <DIR> .
2004/08/08 12:42 PM <DIR> ..
2004/06/26 08:22 AM 62 A000¿390.ini
2004/08/08 12:42 PM 0 b.txt
2004/06/28 08:26 AM 702 rm.exe
3 File(s) 764 bytes
2 Dir(s) 8,542,932,992 bytes free

C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)>rm.exe -dR b*

C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)>dir
Volume in drive C is C_WinXP
Volume Serial Number is 38CF-B0D4

Directory of C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)

2004/08/08 12:44 PM <DIR> .
2004/08/08 12:44 PM <DIR> ..
2004/06/26 08:22 AM 62 A000¿390.ini
2004/06/28 08:26 AM 702 rm.exe
2 File(s) 764 bytes
2 Dir(s) 8,542,928,896 bytes free

C:\System Volume Information\_restore{F57D02E8-E43C-49B3-98FB-14DBBD9FDA61}(2)\Fifoed(2)>rm.exe -dR A*
rm: A*: No such file or directory

Oh well. At least the OS thinks there is "No such file or directory"...