You can remove this folder, but that action removes that ability to revert changes. This allows you the ability to revert or uninstall any updates that were previously installed.
If you have feedback for TechNet Subscriber Support, WinSXS folder stores files that were updated by Windows Update. Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help. This can be done by uninstalling superseded versions of packages that are on your system. That installed the components in the first place. In another blog in Microsoft, it mentions that the only way to safely reduce the size of the WinSxS folder is to reduce the set of possible actions that the system can take – the easiest way to do that is to remove the packages The WinSXS folder stores files that were updated by Windows Update. Lots of perserverance and learning on this one! Hope this helps others!
On Drive D: My Veritas imaging backup ran normally and I have a fresh image of D: in its new physical location on the drive. I moved my pagefile back to drive D: and reenabled shadow copies with the original 10GB of usable space
Now there is plenty of room for the WinSxS folder to grow (as it will in the future) which caused the original lack of free space. Then I used the OS EXTEND VOLUME function to exend Volume C: by 40GB. This put the unallocated space between Volumes C: and D. Last steps were to (using AOMEI) MOVE partition D: all the way to the right into the unallocated space. The Lite version is free but has lots of limitations.
I now could see the unallocated space to the right of D: I next used a free software called AOMEI Partition Manager LITE.
I shrunk D by 40GB using the OS Shrink function. More importantly, it no longer blocked the Shrink funciton of Volume D: NOW THE SYSTEM VOLUME INFORMATION FOLDER decreased to only a few MBs since all the old shadow copy data was gone. I reduced it to the minimum size allowed of 320 MB. In that applet, you can change the amount of space dedicated to shadow copies. To right click the D: drive and choose the menu item "Configure Shadow Copies". I found that this folder also stores shadow copies, but I already disabled shadow copies in the Administrative Tools-Share and Storage Management. System restore is not a function on Server OS. Research showed that it usually contains files created by System Restore. I added the administrator account to the security of this folder so I could view its contents and could see it was about 6GB. Next shrink analysis showed files in the System Volume Information folder as being unmovable and preventing BUT, that only allowed the shrink function to get me 2GB and I was looking for around 40GB. vtrack hidden folder (unmovable and unable to delete) as being associated with Veritas System Recovery software that I have loaded on this server. Solution: I'm not including exhaustive details but will answer any questions that may be posted. The last unmovable file as reported by event 259 in the Application Log is D:\.vtrack\vtrackdiskmap.mpx I still get the "unmovable files" situation. I have followed the reference articles and removed the pagefile from Drive D: and also turned off Shadow Copies on Drive D: I rebooted (I've exposed hidden and OS files in Windows Explorer). Is an unmovable file blocking the shrink function. But the shrink function in Disk Management for Volume D: offered very little space. Volume D: to the right which would give me unallocated space just to the right of volume C: and enable me to extend C. I would then use a partition management software to move I "simply" want to SHRINK volume D: to create unallocated space. That I can't easily uninstall-reinstall (otherwise I'd simply remove the volume and recreate it in a smaller size). Drive D: is mostly empty with many free GBs. To do that, I need to create some unallocated space just to the right of the C: volume.
Of C: due to low free space after using all the cleanup tools available. My physical disk drive contains volumes C: and D: and I want to increase the size Issue: Quick Summary: Windows Server 2008R2. I'm going to summarize the issue and what I needed to do to resolve it for the benefit of other partners. I have finally solved this problem with the result of being able to increase the size of Drive C: from 60 to 100GB.