Computer Type: PC/DesktopOS: W7 Dual Boot/Windows 10 ProCPU: i7 6700k @ 4.6 Ghz 1.32vMotherboard: ASUS Maximus VIII HeroMemory: 16 GB Corsair Dominator Platinum DDR4 2400MHZGraphics Card: Radeon R9 295X2Monitor(s) Displays: 4k Samsung UD590DScreen Resolution: 3840x2160Keyboard: Cooler Master CMSTORMMouse: Logitech G402PSU: Corsair AX1200 1200wCase: Cooler Master Cosmos IICooling: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVOHard Drives: Intel 750 400GB PCI-E SSDm.2 Samsung 850 EVO SATA SSDInternet Speed: 2.5 MB/s down, slow up.Browser: ChromeAntivirus: None. The 'System Volume Information' folder was first introduced in Windows 2000. Even then an Administrator account had no access.

1. Treesize System Volume Information

Treesize System Volume Information

At that time admin level accounts were always elevated. Even the built in Administrator account had no access.

This remains the same in Windows 10.In later versions of Windows there are other folders with restricted access.When you consider the fact that even novices are using an admin level account granting full and unrestricted access to such an account would clearly be a bad idea. By default all software you run has the same rights the account as the users account. That means malware would also have full access.The 'System Volume Information' folder contains system restore points, previous versions of files, and other critical information. Some of this is only partially documented. Improper modification of such contents could have serious consequences.An elevated admin account can grant themselves full access to everything if it is required.

But they had better know what they are doing. Even experts can go wrong here.Edit: Disabling UAC is a bad idea. There are many things that will not work and there may be further restrictions in later updates. This is by design and not a bug. Security will also be compromised. Using a full time administrator account may have been acceptable when XP was released in 2001. In 2017 it is just too dangerous.

Windows 10 was not designed to work this way. Computer Type: LaptopSystem Manufacturer/Model Number: MS Surface Pro 3OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bitCPU: Intel Core i5 4300U @ 1.9Haswell ULT 22nm TechnologyMotherboard: MS SP3Memory: 8.00GB Dual-Channel DDR3 (12-15-15-34)Graphics Card: Intel HD Graphics Family (Microsoft)Sound Card: Realtek High Definition AudioMonitor(s) Displays: Generic PnP Monitor (2160x1440@59Hz)Screen Resolution: 2160x1440Keyboard: Detachable BacklitMouse: Surface Arc TouchHard Drives: 238GB Hitachi HFS256G3AMNB-2200A (SSD)Internet Speed: WiFi -45MB/sBrowser: FF,ChromeAntivirus: MBAM, Defender,SASOther Info: Pen.

Our System Volume Information has grown to be huge (found by using TreeSizeFree.)Seems like Volume ShadowCopy Service is what is most say causes this problem. We have Veeam and Carbonite on this computer that seem to use that?As an emergency measure I have tried command line to get access to the files to delete them - that failed.We did have issues with Carbonite over the past few weeks going out of control and it seems to correspond to the dates of these files (one of them is 500 GB)Any thoughts?

I want to get rid of them and make sure they don't come back (at least not at 500GB). Is the K: the system drive?The System Volume folder is where the VSS stuff is kept as well as the system restore data and is locked down so only the system can access it. If you right click on the drive then go to properties you can use the disk cleanup tool to delete System restore data (on the 'Other options tab, it says something like delete all restore points except the most recent one).Also, in the drive properties you can adjust the volume shadow copy amount of disk space used (the default is 10% IIRC), and you can probably also delete old shadow copies there too. Problem has been solved (we got rid of the items taking up the space.) Carbonite was the cause of these large files as the backups got out of control. Carbonite support did assist in the resolution so that was nice.We tried almost everything to get rid of the files. We tried setting admin access to the files and that did not work.

We tried cmd line, tried Diskshadow (it did not even see or recognize the files.)What solved it (I am pretty sure) was pretty much what JoshSnyder recommended above.We played with the settings on ShadowCopies. We limited the space used by shadow copies.

We enabled the shadow copies (we do not use it normally.) We again changed the space used by shadow copies. And then we disabled it. (I don't believe we ran a shadow copy but I could be wrong.) Between these steps we then noticed the files vanished and we had the space back.!Thank you everyone for your help.