Windows 10: Around 12-15 gb decrease in C drive after unsuccessful system restore

Its not working

 

Nope cant

 

You really need to supply more info e.g. error messages, screen dumps etc.

Try safe mode, or using a live linux drive etc.

 

There is no error message.
Manually I cant access sytem volume.
By CCcleaner, Disk cleaner, clean manager or by deleting system restore point i am not getting to to delete this specific system restore file. They are all deleting every other file except this 11.5 gb restore files.

Using treesize when i right click on the specif folder and delete, it is showing deleting file and moving it to recycle bin. But when i check recycle bin there is no file, the size of c drive has not increased and again when i running treesize it is showing same 11.5 gb space.

It is probably due to unaccesibility of system volume folder.

Now using third party apps, i can give access to my self and delete the folders (if i can). But i am scared that it shoudn't corrupt my system.

Any thoughts?

 

Just do a clean install of Windows 10 and also fix the problem you were trying to fix by doing the restore?

 

The problem i was trying to fix using system restore got fixed some other way. I don't want to do clean install of windows
I tried app called take ownership and gave myself access to the folder but then when went and tried to open the system volume folder, It showed messaged that i dont have access to folder.

Probably i will go on with this decrease space for now being.

 

This is what your system volume information folder should look like with no restore points:





I think you can go ahead and delete SystemRestore/AppxStaging. You can do this however you like - boot from external OS, recovery environment, install USB, Linux as you wish - any will give you authority. You could try even taking authority but this would be more complicated.

There might be some table containing links and system restore might break but if you don't want to clean install yet then try it. Then turn on system protection, create a restore point and restore to it. That will prove if it works or not.

I think your problem is due to this System Restore fails: AppxStaging %ProgramFiles%\WindowsApp 0x80070091 - Windows 10 Forums which is fixed now apparently.

There might be some table containing links and system restore might break but if you don't want to clean install yet then try it - you have nothing to lose. Then turn on system protection, create a restore point and restore to it. That will prove if it works or not.

If it doesn't work you don't lose anything - Windows will keep on working - just not system restore.

 

Thank you for your reply and time

I understood that i can delete the SystemRestore/AppxStaging files. the problem is that i don't know how to do it

The thing is i am not a computer expert or IT guy. I am biology researcher who has learn few things about computer from google.

The suggestion you are giving as to " boot from external OS, recovery environment, install USB, Linux as you wish" i dont know anything about it. I have never done booting. I can learn but i am scared that i may mess up.

The link you have given shows taking ownership of "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps" but i need a way to gain access to C:\system volume. Delete the app folder and than again restore the ownership.

Is there any easy way to do it without booting?

 

Don't do that!

If you take ownership of the whole C volume it will end in tears. You only want to delete the one directory "C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore\AppxStaging"

Try these commands from an administrator powershell prompt - you can literally copy paste the whole contents of the box below Code: $folder="C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore\AppxStaging" # take ownership takeown /f "$folder" /r /d Y # Grant full rights to current user icacls "$folder" --% /grant "%USERDOMAIN%\%USERNAME%"F) /t #delete it Remove-Item -recurse -force $folder[/quote] This is the results I get for the above - it fails as I don't have the AppxStaging directory. There is lots of red and error messages.





and here is what is should look like for you (I deleted a different folder in the same directory by making $folder equal to something else) - nothing red and things saying success.

 

This is the results I get for the above - it fails as I don't have the AppxStaging directory. There is lots of red and error messages.





and here is what is should look like for you (I deleted a different folder in the same directory by making $folder equal to something else) - nothing red and things saying success.



[/quote] I am taking a system backup now. Will try and let you know.

Thank you for reply

 

System restore does not always work very well, as you are now finding out. I've had mine completely turned off for a long time. I only use Macrium Reflect and only make complete image backups to a 2nd drive. Thats all you really need to do. Keep Windows restore off would be my suggestion for the future.

 

This is the results I get for the above - it fails as I don't have the AppxStaging directory. There is lots of red and error messages.





and here is what is should look like for you (I deleted a different folder in the same directory by making $folder equal to something else) - nothing red and things saying success.



[/quote] I tried this command and all was going successful. I could see that i was granted permission for all the files. Then deletion started and it was going well until all command started becoming red. [see the screenshot]
Attachment 152797


Using treesize i can see that 2 gb of space has been decreased.

Attachment 152798


Any idea what went wrong?

In between my edge history got deleted.

Also now using treesize i directly opened the AppxStaging folder and tried deleting it. It showing deleting but still folder and subfolders are not deleted. Folder are not seen in recycle bin.

so now i have the access. the question is how to delete it?
Edit :
It seems that i still don't have full access to the remaining folder. I can just read and write over it.

 

I can't see your picture for some reason.

That is normal - deleting from the command line (or treesize) immediately deletes things - it doesn't put them in recycle bin.

You mean you can't delete it?

Try the command icacls "C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore\whatever" to see the permissions. Here are mine for the root directory but post your for the directory you can't delete. Code: c:\>icacls "C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore" C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore X201\HaliF) BUILTIN\AdministratorsOI)(CI)(F) NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEMOI)(CI)(F) Successfully processed 1 files; Failed processing 0 files[/quote] Please also post the owner with the "dir /a /q "Whatever directory" command like this: Code: c:\>dir /a /q "C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore" Volume in drive C has no label. Volume Serial Number is 63D0-2EE0 Directory of C:\System Volume Information\SystemRestore 11-Sep-17 16:34 <DIR> X201\Hali . 11-Sep-17 16:34 <DIR> BUILTIN\Administrators .. 0 File(s) 0 bytes 2 Dir(s) 19,505,348,608 bytes free[/quote]

 

After reading this entire thread I have to wonder if anyone thought about the windows.old folder? Could it be the culprit?

Just a thought.

 

Not unless there are hard links from Windows.old to "System Volume Information". I don't know if that is even possible. Even if it was it would be a terrible bug as restore points are supposed to contain the information to revert - not contain information to run.

In any case disk clean-up gets rid of Windows.old - @OldMike (and perhaps someone else) suggested that some time ago.

The problem here is how to delete rubbish from "C:\System Volume Information" that should (but hasn't) been deleted by turning off system protection.

I did see a couple of threads on MS website where they just gave up and clean installed - this is an option of course.

Ideally if it is possible to take ownership and delete this junk it would be better for the OP. If not then perhaps someone else can explain booting from a PE environment as my communication skills aren't great.