Files called System Volume Information take up sapce on my dosk. Is there a way to either eliminate them, prevent them or at least reduce their size?

IIRC, you can disable system restore and they will go away. Otherwise there is nothing you can do.

Rather than turn System Restore off...if you get yourself a copy of CCleaner (free)... http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner you will be able to selectivley delete individual restore points (old ones). At least in that way you can control the disc size being used.

Windows7 Restore files are in a separate folder called Restore Points. There is a restore file for system data and I cleared that but it was not very big anyhow. The bulk of the info in the System Volume Information folder is in files labeled with GUIDs (goofy alphanumeric id names). I can't get to them because they have the highest security. I can probably break that with a program I have but undoubtedly it will be binary data anyhow and I do not know the consequences of fiddling with those files. There are 51.4 gb in the System Volume Info folder. It is scattered around the disk as well.

Try (shift) deleting everything in the C:\users\%username%\AppData\Local\Temp folder. Everything can go. If the file is in use, skip it. Same for C:\Windows\Temp

 

If you don't use the hybernate function, disable it and delete hiberfil.sys. Should give you a few gigs of free space. Mine is 6GB!

 

Also, how large is your C:\Windows\winsxs? If you are willing to sacrifice not being able to uninstall Windows 7 SP1 you could try cleaning it up. Do NOT simply delete the contents. Google it and you can save another 3 or more GBs. Here's one example: http://www.microsoft...ws-2008-r2-sp1/.

 

Good luck.