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About $Recycle.bin, Recycler and System Volume Information Folders in Windows
As you might expect, there are many files and folders hidden away in Windows that deal with
important tasks such as keeping the system running or allowing certain features to function. A
couple of examples of this are Hiberfil.sys and Pagefile.sys that reside in the root of your C drive.
You have to enable the show hidden files and protected operating system files settings in Control
Panel Folder Options for these and other files to become viewable. More folders in the root of C
which also become visible after unhiding are $Recycle.bin or Recycler and System Volume
Information. But just what are these folders for?
The first thing about hidden files and folders in general is that theyre usually not made visible
for a reason, which is often a sign that youre not supposed to play around with them. But also,
like many things in Windows, if something isnt behaving correctly or the behaviour looks odd,
you might want to have a closer look.

So what are the $Recycle.bin, Recycler and System Volume Information folders all about? First
well look at the generically named System Volume Information.
The System Volume Information Folder
The System Volume Information folder is a hidden folder in the root of your C drive that the
Windows System Restore tool uses to store its information and restore points. Its not just System
Restore data that gets stored in here though and the Windows Indexing Service uses it to store
search databases, the Volume Shadow Copy Service creates live system backup data and

also Distributed Link Tracking stores database information to repair shortcuts and linked
documents. Check Disk logs are also saved here.
There will actually be a System Volume Information folder created on every partition on your
computer, including external hard drives and even sometimes flash drives. Because its the
storage location for System Restore points, if System Restore backs up files that are infected with
viruses or other malware, it becomes a problem. Most antivirus software cannot delete viruses
from System Volume Information because its a highly protected folder. To verify this yourself,
simply double click on the folder and you will receive an error C:\System Volume Information is
not accessible. Access is denied.

What you need to do is either give the appropriate permissions to the currently logged on user
for full access to the System Volume Information folder, or delete all the previously created
restore points to remove any viruses attached to them. Here we show you both methods.
Turning off System Restore
Turning off System Restore completely will remove all your restore points from the System
Volume Information folder, removing anything malicious attached to them. After turning System
Restore off, restart your computer and then re-enable it again once your system is free of
viruses. It will then create a new and clean restore point. By default, System Restore is
automatically turned on in all versions of Windows that have it, and you can turn it off from:
1. Go to Control Panel -> System and click on System Protection (XP users simply click the
System Restore tab)
2a. For Windows XP, simply click the Turn off System Restore box and press OK. You can also
adjust the percentage of the drive System Restore can occupy.

2b. For Windows Vista and above the process is slightly more complicated. Look in the list of
available drives, click on any that have Protection set to On and press the Configure button. Then
select Turn off system protection and click OK. Users just wanting to empty all restore points to
free up some space, simply click on Delete.

To free up space by deleting restore points you can also use a utility like the popular
CCleaner although it wont delete all restore points and will leave the most recent point in tact.
Accessing the System Volume Information Folder
As mentioned earlier, the System Volume Information folder is protected by Windows and you
cant simply open it up and look at the contents because an access denied error message will
popup. However, it is possible to gain access by setting the appropriate permissions for the
folder, heres the easy way to do it.
For Windows XP
Because Windows XP deals differently with accessing folder security permissions depending on
whether youre using Home or Professional, the easiest solution is to use a context menu
shortcut that works on both with a single click.
1. Download Take Ownership XP and extract the zip file.
2. Copy Subinacl.exe, TakeOwnershipFile.cmd and TakeOwnershipDir.cmd to your C:\Windows
folder, then double click on Install_Take_Ownership_XP.reg to install the menu entry into the
registry. SubInACL is a Microsoft utility to change user security for files, registry keys and
services.
3. Now, go to the System Volume Information folder, right click on it and select Take Ownership
from the menu.

You should be able to enter the folder and have a look around without receiving the error. To
remove Take Ownership again, run Remove_Take_Ownership_XP.reg and delete the 3 files from
the Windows folder. Its still not possible or recommended to start deleting stuff from System
Volume Information, more on that later.
For Windows Vista and above
This method also uses a Take Ownership context menu shortcut but is even easier to install as
newer operating systems have a built in tool called Takedown.
1. Download Take Ownership and run the InstallTakeOwnership.reg inside the zip file to import
the context menu shortcut.
2. Right click on System Volume Information and select Take Ownership, then you can get into
the folder straight away.

On the next page well show you how to delete the System Volume Information folder and its
files, and also talk about the $Recycle.bin and Recycler folders.
Read More: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/about-recycler-and-system-volume-information-folderin-xp-and-vista/
Deleting System Volume Information or its Files
Once you have gained ownership of the System Volume Information folder, its then possible to
access and delete any of the files inside or the whole folder itself. We highly recommend you DO
NOT do this for the System Volume Information folder on your Windows drive (C:). As we said
earlier, it contains data for many other system components besides System Restore and could
make Windows unstable or even crash. Besides, if you delete it from C, the whole folder will
simply be created again automatically.
You can however, safely remove the System Volume Information folder from other drives or
partitions such as data drives or external USB/ESATA drives etc. External hard drives can in fact
start filling up with restore points from be attached to other computers if they have System
Restore enabled. The next issue is everything in System Volume Information, including the folder
itself, has the System and Hidden attributes set meaning you cant simply delete through
Windows Explorer.

With the help of the Command Prompt, its only a few commands that need typing in to remove
the whole folder and its contents. Assuming you have already taken ownership of the System
Volume Information folder, which you need to do first, here are the commands to delete it from
another partition other than C:
Attrib -s -h -r "{drive}:\System Volume Information" /S /D
RD "{drive}:\System Volume Information" /S

Press Y when asked for confirmation. This will completely delete the folder, make sure you have
no windows open which are inside the folder before running the commands. You can use other
tools to unhide and unsystem files and folders, have a read of our Reset System and Hidden
Attributes article related to this subject.
The $Recycle.Bin and Recycler Folders
As you might expect from their names, $Recycle.bin and Recycler are connected with the
Windows Recycle Bin. When you delete a file in Windows Explorer or My Computer etc, the file is

stored in the Recycle Bin and not completely deleted from the system. These folders are the
holding location for the file while it remains in the Recycle Bin. The file remains in there until you
empty the Recycle Bin or restore the file back again. But there are 2 hidden folders we are
talking about here and you will likely have only 1 of them, so whats the difference?
The simple answer is the Recycler folder is found on systems running Windows NT, 2000 or XP
with hard drives that are NTFS formatted. The $Recycle.bin folder is found on Windows Vista
and above systems. These folders arent present though on storage media like flash drives,
memory cards or network drives. If you have a dual boot system with XP and Vista or 7 for
example, or an external hard drive that has been plugged into different operating systems, there
might actually be one of each created on your drive.

You can delete these folders without causing too much trouble to Windows and all you will lose is
any files that are currently held in the Recycle Bin. In actual fact, the main folder itself will just
get re-created again by Windows the next time a file is deleted so it cant be removed
permanently. The exception is if you delete Recycler for example and never connect the drive to
an XP system, or vice versa.
The best solution is therefore to delete the folders inside of the main $Recycle.bin or Recycler
folder as they wont return and will delete all recycled content. This is a useful trick if for some
reason Recycle Bin content has become corrupted as it wont delete itself by emptying the bin
normally. This will also delete Recycle Bin content for all users not just the current user.

If youre unable to delete files inside the Recycle folder, you can use a number of tools such
as Unlocker to unlock and delete files that are being used. Doing this is not something you need
to do very often, only if you suspect there has been a problem deleting Recycle Bin content or
receive any Recycle Bin related errors.
Read More: https://www.raymond.cc/blog/about-recycler-and-system-volume-information-folderin-xp-and-vista/2/