Access to the System Volume Information folder

[Geek-9pm]

The is about Windows, but I put it here for now.
Recently I had an issue with this folder. I did not understand the problem. This can mean you will have trouble making a backup or removing a virus or Trojan in some cases. I have had the issue on my two computers.

Access to the System Volume Information folder

If  the user does not have permission to use this folder, the  Anita-Virus software and Backup software may not work effectively. Depends.

 

[BC_Programmer]

How would this make it difficult to make a backup, exactly?

Why would you backup the contents of the 'System Volume Information' Folder?

Anti-Virus cannot clean viruses it finds in the System Volume Information Folder. But that malware cannot do anything unless you restore that restore point.

[Geek-9pm]

My backup program want to include the 'System Volume Information' an d I have yet to find a way to exclude it from the backup set.  I have made a number of attempts and it fails because the SVI is huge and there is not enough backup space on my  eternal drive. At this point, I am going to reach for a much  larger drive and  backup the whole thing and then restore it the hard way.

[evilfantasy]

It's actually a part of the System Restore feature found on all Windows computers. I don't think backup software is designed to import/export from that folder because they don't need to. The files/folders are already backed up so there is no need to backup the Windows backup.

System Volume Information Folder

In all likelihood you'll never have any reason to access the System Volume Information folder other than to satisfy your own curiosity as to what it contains, but you never know; having that little piece of info tucked away may prove invaluable one day.

[Geek-9pm]

Thank you both for your help.
I still have a hard time getting into the 'System Volume Information Folder' on this laptop using Windows XP.  But I have not tried Windows 7. The folder is on my data drive, not the  system drive. So I do 't understand why Windows is so fussy about letting me in. Only using Linux can I look inside. 

Anyway, I was able to make by data backup. It was another problem. It seems thee was a loose nut  between the keyboard and the chair.   

[evilfantasy]

Quite honestly I don't see why you are wanting to back up a backup without using the backup method associated with the backup being backed up... I'm not even sure you can merge the data from a backup or copy. It's an OS feature that is used by the OS and not like a text or archive file you can modify.

Protected files/folders aren't just protected to combat malware or corruption. They are also protected (locked) to keep the user out.

Check out System Restore Explorer.

[evilfantasy]

Post #10 in this topic.

Regarding saving, relocating and then restoring Windows System Restore data to any different (including external) drive. Last night and today I researched saving/backing up and then restoring data for use at a later date, such in the event of a hard drive failure, etc. however from what I can gather it is unfortunately not possible. This is because the individual system restore file data (System Volume Information) must be on the drive/partition it is protecting. Each drive/partition will have its own System Volume Information folder for recovery of that particular partition/drive. This is the way the Windows OS is designed, so you cannot move it to another drive and then restore them later.

And therefore the answer to your question is: No you cannot move Windows Restore Points from C to either another separate internal drive or an external drive.

[Geek-9pm]

evilfantasy, Thanks. That makes sense.

[evilfantasy]

Your welcome.