Computer disk drive question

Not related to Cakewalk..... just a general HD question.
 
I have a computer with a 114G HD... the drive is showing as having only 7G available.... 
 
I used a utility to look at the files in the drive.
 
System Volume Info : 54.2G
 
Windows: 35G  (really? it takes 35G of space for the OS?  Win 7)
 
Users : 12.5G
 
Program files: 6G
 
Misc: the rest... about 5G or so.
 
So... what is the System Volume Information? It seems to be the source of the "wasted" space on this disk. Looking online, some sites say it's backup and restore files..... others say don't delete it because it will mess up the computer.....
 
Does anyone here know what these files are, how critical are they, can they be deleted?
 
I have noticed the same thing on my other computers, especially an old lappy I use for business. It has a 10G drive that is almost full..... can't even do a defrag.... not enough space. But when looking at files and programs I can delete.... there is literally less then half a gig used by the programs (total) on the lappy.
 
Is this some sort of planned obsolescence or is there a way to safely remove the system volume info files without screwing the computer up totally?

You can control whether windows enables file version s to be preserved in the drive. This could cost you a ton of space. Windows can release the space as you need it losing old versions of deleted items. Or modified items.

This setting is defined by drive. Turning this off, if it is on, might save you a mountain of space.

ok  so.... I'm trying to delete the files in that folder... but I'm told I don't have permission or access to do that.....?????
 
They are obviously backup point since yesterday 2 new ones were created (looked at them with properties) and there went another couple of gigs of HD space.....

If you're comfortable using CCleaner on your system, it has a System Restore tab under Tools. It disables the removal of the most recent restore point but will allow you to remove older entries. It does need to be run as admin to access the files, at least for me.
 
Hope it helps,

Matt

You can turn anything off or on in Windows 7 (just about). Best to get to Control Panel (if not finding it, just put in the search entry) and you will find it if not on the right hand side when pressing "Start". Indexing of files can be turned off, Restore Points can be deleted (but if anything goes wrong you have no backup to fix your system say like).
 
Right click on Computer and Open it. There you will find every logical partitionl of your harddrives and right clicking on a logical partition and selecting Properties by left clicking will bring up what you need. Disk cleanup will delete whatever you select and Control Panel and going through all the icons about will let you know what is in your computer and what you can do with it.
 
Windows 7 takes up that much room because if it ever goes haywire, there is a additional copy of Windows 7 stored on your computer and that is all. Of course you can make also probably around 3 DVD disks to store a copy also, because once Windows 7 is gone (done, corrupt, or whatever) that is all you will have to re-install or restore your computer.
 
I also make a backup on a different logical drive of the entire C: disk incase the Harddrive fails. All the other logical drives (partitions) on the same harddisk with data will be still readable and able to be transferred onto a new harddrive. But the C: drive is the one that is used the most and the one that will fail on any harddrive. That is why I never have the entire disk as the C:\ drive, if it fails (harddisk goes bad) everything is gone and done and can not be read. Partitioning off a harddive into logical drives on the same harddisk makes all the other logical drives and data good and can be read off of even used yet. But since the C:\ drive is the Boot Drive that starts up Windows, if it is failing, the computer will not start without having DVD's startup DVD disk or a copy of the Restore feature or start up feature of Windows to fix your computer.
 
Unless you want to buy Windows over and re-install the new registered Windows complete copy, and not an ungrade to Windows 8 whatever on a drive that can not be read after the harddisk logical partition C:\ drive (Primary Partition which holds the OS system) fails and can not be used anymore.
 

spacealf
Unless you want to buy Windows over and re-install the new registered Windows complete copy, and not an ungrade to Windows 8 whatever on a drive that can not be read after the harddisk logical partition C:\ drive (Primary Partition which holds the OS system) fails and can not be used anymore.

Huh?  I've installed from same Windows disk on 6 different computers about a dozen times.  Yes it is a PIA to re-register with Microsoft, but it is doable.  And before I get flamed, the installs were fresh and once the data was copied over to the new computer, Windows was removed from the replaced computer. :)
 
-JJ
 
 

I

bitflipperIf you have a dedicated DAW it's entirely kosher to disable the System Restore feature entirely.

I would add, turn off all the networking.
 
-JJ