System Volume Information - Taking up so much hard drive space?

[spinnermason]

I have a 232GB Hard Drive which is 97% full, I wanted to clear some stuff up so I downloaded a programme called WizTree, it told me that System Volume Information was taking up 74.4% of my hard drive space, I didn't want to start endlessly deleting files because they look pretty important, but they're taking up 168.1GB of space! Is there anyway I can decrease this number? What are these files even for?:huh:

 

[whs]

Not sure what's implied here with ' System Volume Information '. It could be the shadowstorage where the restore points are stored. That could be easily fixed. Run the command below and post the result.

vssadmin list shadowstorage

 

[spinnermason]

This is what it says:

 

[C-11]

Looks like you have System Restore Points taking up 169.311 GBs of space.

You can delete them all and start over.
System Protection Restore Points - Delete - Windows 7 Help Forums

Then lower the Disk space
System Protection - Change Disk Space Usage - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

[whs]

Your shadowstorage takes 169GB - no wonder your disk is full. Run this command which will reduce it to 3%

vssadmin resize shadowstorage /For=C: /On=C: /MaxSize=3%

Best is to copy/paste the command then you don't make a mistake. That will give you about 10GB of shadowstorage which should be good for appr. 15 restore points.

 

[spinnermason]

Thank you guys!

 

[whs]

You are welcome.

 

[surfawahine]

Mahalo people for posting this really clear explanation and step by step fix! Gave me back over 300GB of disk space. Whoot hoot! This site is now one of my favorites!

 

[whs]

Greetings to our friends in Hawaii