Resolved [Folder named HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy?]

Can anyone please explain what this is, and if it's normal or not?

This screenshot ( http://gyazo.com/ad9f156b4f0b6dedd27570e31f49874e ) of Windows Explorer shows my C drive, circled in the left pane, and a folder on it named HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy14 (it looks like a shortcut, but when double-clicked it displays contents like a folder) circled in the right pane. The contents of the folder is exactly the same as the contents of the C drive. The whole C drive has a capacity of 287 GB, of which 103 GB is used and 184 GB is free.

The thing that confuses me is that the properties of this single folder show it holds 90 GB of files, which is just about the contents of the entire drive, allowing for the 10 GB of files that are in the D drive (the logical HP recovery drive partition on the C drive).

I never saw this folder until about a week ago, and I've had this computer since July 2010. What is this shortcut/folder, why is it showing up at all, and only in the past week?

As background, I never use Windows 7's built-in backup. I use only Acronis TrueImage Home and store my backups on an external USB drive. Can anyone help? Thanks!

Frank D

 

See here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc757854(WS.10).aspx

HTH,
mickzer.

 

Thanks, Mickzer. That seems to explain what a Shadow Copy is, but the whole article is coated in a technical jargon that I can't understand. I don't know why it's on my C drive (I didn't put it there or initiate it) or what caused it to be written. In addition, how would it be used? I now see by the date of the folder/shortcut that it was created on October 7; I just didn't see it until a week ago. I went back to my Windows Event Viewer and couldn't find anything related to the creation of a Shadow Copy on that date. So I'm still in the dark.

Frank D

 

Sorry, I'm no wiser than you

But this is a little easier to understand (I think):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_Copy

mickzer.

 

Arie, thank you for your response, and I have a curiosity question. I've been using Acronis TIH 2010 since February 2011, have successfully done three full restores from the continuous Nonstop Backup on the external drive since then (due to crashes and a boot failure), and this is the first time this unusual folder has appeared. Aside from why it's where it is, what I don't understand, and maybe you can clue me in, is that the presence of this folder in the main list of my C drive's contents doesn't appear to have any effect on the size of its total contents. It's sort of like a ghost. How can it be there and show a size of 90 GB (see screenshot at http://gyazo.com/298eaf8ef6c2aa4b03a09587e1a12c06 ), and yet have no effect on the size of the C partition?

Frank D

New info: I found out what happened on October 7 (the date the harddiskvolumeshadowcopy folder/shortcut was created). That was the date and time (about 5 pm) I finished restoring my PC from the Acronis Nonstop backup. That doesn't explain, however, why the same thing didn't happen the previous times I did the same thing. OK, given that the harddiskvolumeshadowcopy folder was created by Acronis, my next question is: can I safely delete it from the C drive? Or should I leave well enough alone?

Frank

More new info: Here's what I did: I looked at the properties of the C drive and the F drive (the 500 GB outboard USB drive that I store my backups on). I then clicked on the Disk Cleanup button in the Properties dialog box for each. In the Disk Cleanup dialog box I noticed for the first time the option to clean up System Restore and Shadow Copies! The text read: "In some editions of Windows, the disk might include file shadow copies and older Windows Complete PC Backup images as part of restore points. This information will also be deleted." (See the screenshot at http://gyazo.com/965e08f6c9a824f9e530ac87c4bb20e1 ) I figured that this might get rid of the harddiskvolumeshadowcopy folders for me. So for each drive I clicked on the Clean up button. After checking the properties of each of these folders, I now see that they are both empty. So I selected each and deleted them. They are now gone, the sizes of both the C and F drives are unchanged, and my Nonstop Backup folder on the outboard drive is still there and the backup is still working normally! I looks like Disk Cleanup has solved the problem for me. If no one objects, I'm going to mark this topic as solved.

Thanks, Arie and Mickzer!

Frank D

 

Arie,

I searched the Acronis forum and browsed quite a way back, but there's nothing there as "simple" as, or in any way like, my glitch. All the problems seem to be very complicated, there's very little there on the 2010 version of TIH, and I could find only one, irrelevant item concerning Nonstop Backup. I think Nonstop Backup is the best thing since the invention of the wheel, but nobody else seems interested -- or maybe it works so well nobody has any problems with it. Anyway, my problem has gone away, so I'm just going to relax and enjoy computing (until the next big one). Thanks again for helping me along.

Frank