[LBBurgies]

Hi,

I am trying to go into the system volume information directory to clean it and leave only the last 4 or 5 restores, but I get the answer that the system volume information directory is not accessible.

How do I change this?

Thanks in advance for the help.

[Mommacatof3]

Hello, I hope you don't mind, but, you asked the perfect question, I am having the same problem and if anyone has a answer on how to correct this, please, HELP!! :p :) I do want to point out that I have to wonderful programs for checking for viruses and adware and they are the programs that helped point out about the System Volume Information and I would never have known about it except this is where the Trojans :mad: , adware and hijackers seem to get attached. I want to be able to access this area and I cannot, frustrating part is :confused: I am the administrator on my PC and I still don't have access. :mad: So anyone, anyone at all, please, HELP! :o Thank you!

[Curlyben]

Ok this is relatively simple and also very difficult.

The hard part is you CANNOT directly access the system volume information, but it is possible to delete all but the most recent system restore point.

There are 2 ways to do this.
1/The one I would recommend if you have a virus stuck is to delete them ALL.
Just right click My Computer > Properties > System Restore Tab > Check the box that says Turn OFF system restore on ALL drives > Click APPLY. You'll get some warning messages but say OK to them all.
Once this is done just unchesk the box and click OK. This will turn them back on.

This will delete ALL your system restore points.
Then its just a case of make sure your system is clean and create a new restore point.
New Restore point: Start > All progs > Accessories > System tools > System restore. Just follow the prompts for a new restore point.

The other way is to use disk Clean up.
Right click c: drive > Properties > Just under the pie chart of your drive is the disk clean up button.
Once it has run thro' all its stuff you want the More Options tab. Abut half way down it will let you delete all but the most recent restore point.

Hope this helps.

[Mommacatof3]

Dear Curlyben,

Thank you for your prompt reply to this annoying problem. I am going to give this idea a try and see what happens, something is telling me that I have tried it but I have could have tried it and did something wrong, I am just so frustrated :confused: :rolleyes: so thank you and I appreciate your help! :)

Here goes... ;)

[briankarr]

Actually, you can access this folder just like any folder. Right click, go to share, (share it) OK, then try to access it. You have full access to do what you want with it. (so may others on the network) When done, I would change it back.

-Brian

Dear Curlyben,

Thank you for your prompt reply to this annoying problem. I am going to give this idea a try and see what happens, something is telling me that I have tried it but I have could have tried it and did something wrong, I am just so frustrated :confused: :rolleyes: so thank you and I appreciate your help!! :)

Here goes.... ;)

[howard.holt]

Dear Brian, your little gem work around for the permissions access to the System Volume Information folder has saved me a load of grief. Many many thanks. Read my plight below:

I had a problem with a new Raid mirrored set which I had cloned an original hard-drive complete with the XP professional operating system. Unfortunately after about 3 months of using my new system configuration, I started getting warnings of low disk space from my system disk (C). I couldn't see where all my free drive space was being used. At this time the system recovery system had switched off automatically because of low drive space <200MB. I scanned my PC for viruses and hidden files and alternate data streams (see link very interesting http://www.securityfocus.com/infocus/1822). I couldn't find anything that could explain my missing free disk space. Explorer reported my total files to be less than 12GB but I had 28MB free disk space out of a 80GB partition. What was worse was the fact that every time I deleted some files to free extra space the newly gained space disappeared again when the system was rebooted. Interestingly the XP system would some how always leave about 28MB of disk space free after a reboot. After a while you soon realize you need to copy back the deleted files before you re-boot to conserve your drive space and allow further investigation. Eventually I moved the memory swap file (pagefile.sys) from C:\ to E:\ using virtually memory options under Control panel, System, Advance, Performance, advanced and the disk space stopped disappearing. All other partitions and drives where unaffected by this free space problem. Using a Linux boot disk (Knoppix V3.4) to examine my hard drive(s) contents I found the missing 68GB (NTFS reader would have done this but not as well). It appears that something had caused the System Restore points to continue growing totally out of control. I could see the problem but I couldn't remove the problem partially due to permissions and partially because of the mirrored raid. I couldn't figure out if the Linux Root password is same as the admin password used to install windows XP.

I had tried freeing enough drive space to re-enable system restore to use the delete function when it is switched off, but the system restore program reported an exception when run and in the event viewer logged “The System Restore Service, service terminated with the following error: The system cannot find the path specified”. I discovered the system restore service had failed to start and indeed when manually started it failed with the message error 3. I have recovered the drive space now and also have figured out what caused the problem in the first place.

When I gained access to the System Volume Information area I found a file drivetable.txt which still related to my original drive configuration and thus went someway to explaining why the system restore function had become corrupt and was failing to start. It appears that when I cloned my original drive I should have switched the system restore function off to ensure this problem didn't happen when my drive configuration changed. I had changed partitions, drive letters and added drives.

Anyway thanks to Brian I now know you can access the System Volume Information area by sharing the folder so you can clone the drive and then delete the system restore points and the various other .cfg files which are created by the system restore program. I have now got a fully working restore system and all hard drives are operational again! I hope my sad story will help some other unsuspecting computer enthusiast especially when upgrading hard drives.

Regards

Howard