If you enable “Show hidden files and folders” in Windows 11 and open your C: drive, you will see a large folder named System Volume Information. If you try to open it, Windows will explicitly deny you access. This highly protected folder is where the operating system stores System Restore points, Volume Shadow Copies, and the search indexing database. Over several years, this folder can easily swell to 50 GB or more, severely eating into your available SSD space.
You cannot and should not simply highlight this folder and press the Delete key. Doing so will catastrophically break the Windows search engine and corrupt your drive’s NTFS metadata. Instead, you must use the official Windows System Protection utility to safely purge the massive restore points stored inside it, reclaiming your disk space without destroying your file system.
How to Safely Delete Data inside System Volume Information
You must use the legacy System Properties window to wipe the System Restore cache.
- Click the Start button, type Create a restore point, and press Enter. (This opens the legacy System Properties window).
- Ensure the System Protection tab is selected at the top.
- In the middle of the window, you will see a list of your hard drives. Click on your primary Local Disk (C:) (System) to highlight it in blue.
- Click the Configure button located slightly lower in the window.
- Look at the bottom half of the new window under the “Disk Space Usage” section. It will show you exactly how many gigabytes the System Volume Information folder is currently consuming for restore points.
- Click the Delete button next to “Delete all restore points for this drive.”
- A warning pop-up will appear. Click Continue.
Windows will instantly wipe the old, massive backup files stored inside the hidden directory. You can optionally drag the “Max Usage” slider to the left to restrict Windows from using more than 5% or 10% of your total drive space for future restore points. Click OK to close the windows. You have now safely recovered gigabytes of storage space without breaking your operating system.