(1909) Can't get rid of "SystemRestore" folder on D: Drive.

Sora · 14 Feb 2020

Ok I was able to delete some contents in the folder now using bootable ubuntu, previously it didnt work but now it did move the files to a folder called .999 trash and I could delete the entire folder from my desktop then.

Now I would like to know if I can delete the entire SystemRestore folder or not because when I tried allocating the restore to the drive again in my post above it created a few new files and disabling restore for the drive again did not delete them :/ I just deleted the files dated from 2017. Still have about 590MB of data in the folder, I wouldn't mind keeping the rest of the stuff outside the SystemRestore folder but if I can delete them as well please do let me know

Also, theres another folder called Recovery, that is also hidden, should I leave that alone as well?

IMayNeed · 14 Feb 2020

Best way to know is booting windows without it and creating a manual system restore.
If it is still successful and you are not using any other windows restore settings or a 3rd party application, you can do whatever you want, with a linux-live, in your case bootable ubuntu.
If you are worried, just create another folder in the drive (or another drive) and move the SystemRestore folder there.
(Or just change the name of the folder)
Then, if you come up with any problems, you can put it back to the original location or undo the rename.
If no problems for a few days or so, then you can delete the folder you created, with the SystemRestore folder in it.

If Windows is not using this drive for any settings, you can delete the Recovery folder too.
Or just use the above method for SystemRestore.

Bree · 14 Feb 2020

Sora said:

Now I would like to know if I can delete the entire SystemRestore folder or not because when I tried allocating the restore to the drive again in my post above it created a few new files and disabling restore for the drive again did not delete them :/ I just deleted the files dated from 2017. Still have about 590MB of data in the folder, I wouldn't mind keeping the rest of the stuff outside the SystemRestore folder but if I can delete them as well please do let me know

In theory if you delete System Volume Information it will be recreated by Windows. I have done that safely on non system drives, but I'd not like to try it on a system drive. If you've deleted the AppxStaging sucessfully, I'd leave it at that.

There are always a few files and folders in there. Besides the System Restore Points (files with names like {627b791b-4cfc-11ea-8e43-28f10e223da8}) there will be a Chkdsk folder with logs for any Chkdsk that ran at start up, and a few other folders (none of which should be significantly large).

Also, theres another folder called Recovery, that is also hidden, should I leave that alone as well?

Yes, leave that alone. It's just involved with booting to advanced startup, it never gets very large.

topgundcp · 14 Feb 2020

FYI, In each of my PC, I always reserve about 10-20GB and install Linux Mint to work on Windows files/Folder. Those that are stuborn and dificult to delete within Windows and System Volume Information folder is one of them.
Here's the information on what this folder contains: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/?p=41753

Since I don't use System Restore because it's often corrupted and unreliable but use third party backup software instead or Windows Search which is a resource hog and use third party search engine which gives me instant result, I don't have a need for this folder at all but since it's part of Windows OS and is used to temporary store Volume Shadow Copy when you run Windows Backup, if you delete it , it will re-create an empty System Volume Information folder on next reboot with ~20K in size and will not effect Windows functionality.

People are always giving advice not to delete it without giving a good reason why. It just that they read info from the internet and often some of the info is misleading.

Once in a while, when I am bored, I just boot up LINUX and delete all System Volume Information folders/RecycleBin on every single drive in the PC. Been doing this for years.

Treesize will display the content of this folder but won't allow to delete, Taking ownership is another NO NO on any System folders/files. Delete it and let Windows re-create with proper permissions.

If you use LINUX such as UBUNTU or Mint, there's an option not to move anything to .trash folder (similar to Recycle Bin). Just google on how to.