SBS 2003 System Drive Space

Larry Struckmeyer MVP
CERTIFIED EXPERT
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The problem of the system drive in SBS 2003 getting full continues to be an issue, even though SBS 2008 and SBS 2011 are both in the market place.  There are several solutions to this, including adding additional drive space or using third party utiliies to re partition the drives, where the system partition is a portion of the actual total drive space.  

However, in most cases, except perhaps the first released installations where the OEM's created system partitions as small as 10 or 12 GB, the issue of space on the system partition can be managed.  It takes a little work, but for some it is the best option.

Here are some  space saving/making tips accumulated from various sources, including this forum and the MS SBS newsgroups.
 
NOTE: When moving folders, especially your Exchange data base, revisit the exclusions in your Anti Virus program. It is "critical" that these not be scanned by your real time scanner.
 
Moving Data Folders for Windows Small Business Server 2003
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sbs/2003/maintain/movedata.mspx
 
How to move Exchange databases and logs in Exchange Server 2003
<http://support.microsoft.com/kb/821915>
 
How to Move Small Business Server 2000 Company and Users Shared Folders
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;329640>
 
How to Move the Client Programs Folder to Another Location in Windows Small Business Server 2003
 <http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=kb;en-us;830254>
 
How to Move the Windows Default Paging File and Print Spooler to a Different Hard Disk
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/314105

NOTE: Remember that moving the default paging file will prevent Windows from creating a .dmp file for analysis should your system hit a critical error and "blue screen".
 
Also: Look at where the ISA logs are kept if you have SBS Premium.

You can move the C:\windows\uninstall$ folders off your systemroot, but you may want to keep them in case you have to move them back to uninstall something in the future. I have only ever had to to this once, and it was not an SBS.

Remove any folders or files under:
c:\documents and settings\user name\local settings\temp folders.

If Monitoring is enabled it can create a file that could be large. Run through the wizard again to flush out the gooey stuff.
 
Delete logs older than "date of your choice" from the system32 folder.

Likewise the logs and reports from the ISA folder.
 
Search for and delete old dmp files.

You can move the page file to another partition. The only downside is that if you get a "blue screen" you will not get a full memory dump, and since only MS can read them anyway, I don't see that it matters much.
 
You can delete files older than a few (days/weeks/months) under C:\Windows\System32\Logfiles to purge old log files.
 
Verify that your AV program is not accumulating the old pattern files in its download folder. Some of these files can be quite large.
 
You may gain some usable space and increase system performance in Windows Server 2003 by moving the printer spool files to a different drive than the one that holds the operating system. Note that this should be a different spindle, but a different partition will help the OS a bit also.

By default, Windows Server 2003 places the printer spool folder at %systemroot%\System32\Spool\Printers. However, you can potentially increase system performance by moving the printer spool files to a different drive than the one that holds the operating system.
 
Computers frequently access system files, so moving the printer files to a different location allows faster access to those files.   The drive won't have to try to service requests simultaneously.
 
To change the location for the printer spooler files, follow these steps:
 1. Go to Start | Printers And Faxes.
 2. From the File menu, select Server Properties.
 3. On the Advanced tab, enter the location where you would like to spool print jobs. If the location doesn't exist, this process will create it for you. Make sure the new location has sufficient disk space to handle large print jobs.
 4. Stop and restart the printer spooler service, or reboot the server.
 
WSUS is also a big space hog. If you want to move the WSUS data, download the following document and read the part about relocating the WSUS database and meta data.
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=E26BCDB4-EF0B-4399-8A71-9B3B00C4F4CD&displaylang=en

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Larry Struckmeyer MVP
CERTIFIED EXPERT

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