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Stopping SVI (System Volume Info) files from External drives



 
 
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  #1  
Old December 20th 17, 10:44 AM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
No_Name
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Posts: 177
Default Stopping SVI (System Volume Info) files from External drives

I'm running XP Pro SP3 on both a laptop and a desktop computers. I have
System completely turned off on both machines. I know that those pesky
SVI files can not be eliminated on permanent hard drives installed
inside the computer. (Even though they serve no purpose with System
Restore disabled. However, I sure would like to find out if there is any
means to stop those SVI files from being created on EXTERNAL drives.
That would be all Flash sticks, and portable hard drives that get
plugged into a USB port.

Is this possible?

All I know is that they are annoying and when I plug in a flash drive
into my Win98 machine, I dont want to see them. Particularly because I
often transfer files and those pesky things keep getting copied to
folders when I copy the whole flash drive, so I have to manually keep
deleting them, only to find them recreated as soon as I plug that flash
stick back into any XP machine.

Sometimes I think Microsoft just wants to annoy people, because they
have a secret desire to drive people insane.

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  #2  
Old December 20th 17, 07:36 PM posted to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general
Paul[_32_]
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Posts: 11,873
Default Stopping SVI (System Volume Info) files from External drives

wrote:
I'm running XP Pro SP3 on both a laptop and a desktop computers. I have
System completely turned off on both machines. I know that those pesky
SVI files can not be eliminated on permanent hard drives installed
inside the computer. (Even though they serve no purpose with System
Restore disabled. However, I sure would like to find out if there is any
means to stop those SVI files from being created on EXTERNAL drives.
That would be all Flash sticks, and portable hard drives that get
plugged into a USB port.

Is this possible?

All I know is that they are annoying and when I plug in a flash drive
into my Win98 machine, I dont want to see them. Particularly because I
often transfer files and those pesky things keep getting copied to
folders when I copy the whole flash drive, so I have to manually keep
deleting them, only to find them recreated as soon as I plug that flash
stick back into any XP machine.

Sometimes I think Microsoft just wants to annoy people, because they
have a secret desire to drive people insane.


The SVI folder may contain Restore Points (RPxxx.exe).
You can turn off System Restore subsystem, and you've
already done that.

But SVI also holds VSS shadow files, used by modern
backup software. By having a known location to use,
the backup software can keep the things it needs,
out of your hair.

That's a partial justification for keeping it.

Because SVI exists on C: , you can use a modern
backup program, to back up the C: drive while you
continue to edit a Microsoft Word document.
You can do real-time backups (without a "Ghost reboot").
This is more convenient, and more likely to encourage
people to run backups. That's a justification for
SVI right there. It's the home of VSS file system
copies (a way to "freeze" an image of C: with little effort).
The shadow file is supposed to keep track of deltas,
rather than just dumbly copying the entire contents
of C: and hiding it inside SVI. A shadow doesn't have
to be huge.

On WinXP, the documentation says shadows are not
persistent across reboots. That means WinXP SVI should
be empty of shadows on a reboot. Later OSes allow
up to 64 shadows to be "persistent" and survive reboots.
I don't know how modern backup software compensates
for this "difference" in feature set. The WinXP edition
of VSS wasn't really finished when it was shipped. I'm
surprised the later versions weren't back-ported for
a more uniform feature set all-round.

Paul
 




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