Clearing out my HDD

Okay /comp/, I'm doing a spring clean of my HDD.
Now, I've got this folder "C:\System Volume Information" which is a nice fat 10GB, I don't know what it's for but I'm pretty sure I don't want it around. Should I delete this folder or is there a correct way of clearing this data of my hard drive?

FORMAT

That folder contains information for the automatic recovery feature/nuisance. Because Microsoft thinks the OS shouldn't trust you, you can't access it with your administrator accounts, but you can change its permissions and see what's inside.

You can disable System Restore to get rid of this. It's said to be a major performance hit to have it enabled.

>>2
Format doesn't erase data.

Awesome.

Disabled it and now I have a nice chunk of my hard drive back and one less thing to worry about. Thanks for the help, problem solved.

>>1
its summer you asshole

formatting erases data as far as the OS is concerned