sytem restore and missing disk space

[Guest]

Hello all,
been through a lot of posts regarding sytem restore and struggling to find a
solution to my problem. Here goes....It all started with disk space error
messages on a 40G hard disk with only windows and program files, all personal
docs etc are on another drive. Ran disk cleanup, which managed to clean up a
little space, ran defrag utility which produced a log stating that the files
that cannot be defragged are sytem resore points such as (\System Volume
Information\_restore{22B0665F-E9A9-4176-A445-2F4DBÅ…5DCD33}\RP131\A0122277.sys)
There are a lot of these, hence the space problem! Have tried to disable
system restore and delete all previous restore points through windows (XP
SP2). When I try to access the folder 'sytem vol info' in the root drive, it
won't allow me access, although I have admin rights (access denied error
message). Have tried various clean up utilities to try and recover this
space. Any help would be much appreciated a sit may save me a full
re-instal...Thanks in advance

 

[R. McCarty]

By default access to the Restore Point folder is restricted. For Pro,
you just need to add your Administrator level account name to the
Security (TAB) properties, User name field of the Root Folder.
Just Right Click the System Volume Information folder, Properties.

After adding your account name, grant yourself full privileges in the
box below the Username field. For Windows XP Home you'll
need to disable "Simple File Sharing" from Explorer's Folder options
and then boot to Safe Mode to change the ACL (Access Control
Listings.)

Once you've added your username & adjusted privileges you should
be able to explore into SVI and remove content.

 

[Jerry664]

Hi, in order to access System volume information you must change the
security settings for that folder. The following is from a similar post
on the msfn.org board:

WINXP PRO UNDER FAT32
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders.
4. Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check
box. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change.
5. Click OK.
6. Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder
to open it.

WINXP PRO UNDER NTFS
1. Click Start, and then click My Computer.
2. On the Tools menu, click Folder Options.
3. On the View tab, click Show hidden files and folders.
4. Clear the Hide protected operating system files (Recommended) check
box. Click Yes when you are prompted to confirm the change.
5. Click OK.
6. Right-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder,
and then click Properties.
7. Click the Security tab.
8. Click Add, and then type the name of the user to whom you want to
give access to the folder. Choose the account location if appropriate
(either local or from the domain). Typically, this is the account with
which you are logged on. Click OK, and then click OK.
9. Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder
to open it.

WINXP HOME
1. Click Start, click Run, type cmd, and then click OK.
2. Make sure that you are in the root folder of the partition for which
you want to gain access to the System Volume Information folder. For
example, to gain access the C:\System Volume Information folder, make
sure that you are in the root folder of drive C (at a "C:\" prompt).
3. Type the following line, and then press ENTER:

CACLS \"DRIVELETTER:\SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION\" /E /G USERNAME:F

Make sure to type the quotation marks as indicated. This command adds
the specified user to the folder with Full Control permissions.
4. Double-click the System Volume Information folder in the root folder
to open it.
5. If you need to remove the permissions after troubleshooting, type
the following line at a command prompt:

CACLS \"DRIVELETTER:\SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION\" /E /R USERNAME

This command removes all permissions for the specified user.

Good luck.

 

[Bert Kinney]

Hi,

There's no need to access the System Volume Information folder to purge restore points.

All restore points can be purged by disabling System Restore.
How to Disable and Enable System Restore
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/disablesr.html

Or running Disk Clean-up with the System Restore option.
Using System Restore & Disk Cleanup
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/diskclean.html

Another option is to reduce the disk space used to store restore points.
How to Adjust the amount of disk space System Restore uses
http://bertk.mvps.org/html/diskspace.html