On older than 10 OS the System Volume Information folder stores System Restore, Volume Shadow Copy, and content-indexing files.
And now on 10 it also contain Tracking Service info, dubious service that may be considered as a malware if you care about your privacy.
After some time of OS use this folder may growup to a 10% or more of drive size (a big waste of space).
None of this is used on my OSs:
- I alwas have System Restore disabled, I make periodically my own backups with Wimlib-clc and are ready to restore any time.
- I don't care about Volume Shadow Copy as I prefer to make my backup images from a WinPE (faster and more reliable).
- Indexing is also disabled as I use SwiftSearch (faster and do not require to index files/folders).
- You can't dissable Tracking Service, but it can not store anything if System Volume Information folder do not exists.
I use to delete that folder and replace it with the mentioned zero bytes file, every time I format a partition/drive, internal or USB, just copying the zero bytes file before the folder is created (usually it appears after first reboot or replug of USB device).
In the case of Mini VHDs the waste of the space used by this folder is more critical than in standard installation, but it is requiered if you install the OS on Wimboot mode, there is stored all the info related to the linked WIM file.
It is preferable to replace the folder with the zero bytes file before install the OS (or re-deploy your backup WIM file), if done after the OS is installed and booted at least once, the OS may run a disk repair procedure on first boot after deletion/replacement, this is not repeated on future boots but it is something that may not like to some users.
Well, now you have all the info, decide by yourself.
alacran