We have a Server 2003 SP2 file server that has been in place for about 5 years. We are in the process of trying to clean up the server and recover some space on the data "E" drive. We have about 12GB in the “E:\system volume information” folder. After giving myself full rights to this folder and looking at the contents, it has about 480 files, ranging from 145KB to 4GB in size. The “date created” on each file ranges from last night to about 11 months ago. The “date modified” is about a day after the “date created”. The files all have a similar “GUID” type name in two parts. The first part is similar to “{efc1a13d-a517-11de-bfbb-0011856340a5}”, although slightly different for each file The second part of the name is “{3808876b-c176-4e48-b7ae-04046e6cc752}”, and is the same on all files. From the research I did, it appears these are old Volume Shadow Copy files. Our backup software, Veritas NetBackup does use shadow copy, although the Volume Shadow Copy service isn’t running at this time (it’s set to Manual). I tried to delete one of the oldest file, however it came back with “It is being used by another person or program”. Using SysInternals Process Explorer, it shows the files in use by “system” process. I checked the system, and stopped the Net Backup services (nightly backups had completed clean several hours ago), and the Volume Shadow Copy service is not running, but I still can’t delete the files. From the info I found on searching, I tried enabling shadow copy on that drive, set it to a small amount (300MB), then disabled the copy. Shadow copy created a small 300MB file, then deleted it when the service ended, but the original files are still there. I can use Process Explorer to delete the handle and close the file, but before I do that, I would like to confirm exactly what the files are, and if it is safe to remove them. Any suggestions would be appreciated

To delete all but the latest restore point on your machine by using the disk cleanup utility: Go to 'Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup'. Click on the more options tab and then click 'Clean up' in the System Restore box. Clean up your restore points To delete all the restore points on your machine disable and re-enable system restore on the system: Go to the Control Panel ('Start > Control Panel') and open the 'System' applet. Click on the 'System Restore' tab on the system applet. Check mark 'turn off system restore on all drives' and click the apply button. Then uncheck the box again to re-enable System Restore on the machine and click OK.

There are no "System Restore Points", this is a Server 2003 system, it doesn't use "system restore".

Sorry missed that. Have you ran disk cleanup?

Hi Mike, As you said, files in the folder should be volume shadow copies, which belong to the build-in Shadow Copy funtion. Please have a look at each partition to see if volume shadow copy is enabled and saved data to E: (right click on volumes listed in My Computer, choose Properties, then go to Shadow Copies tab).Shaon Shan| TechNet Subscriber Support in forum| If you have any feedback on our support, please contact tngfb@microsoft.com