ndidomenico
asked on
System Volume Information using 40% of the disk
I have a data partition on a SBS2011 server where the System Volume Information folder is using 200Gb (136 files) out of a total of 500Gb for that partition. This partition is not an OS or Exchange partition, just contains regular data files. Is there a way to find out what the GUI files in that folder belong to and see if they can be safely deleted ?
I suspect they are related to Shadow Copies, or more precisely old Shadow Copy files that were maybe copied along with all the regular files from the previous file server where the files were migrated from (using Robocopy). Shadow Copies on this 500Gb data partition are presently set to a maximum of 50Gb and have not been changed since the new server was setup.
All files in this System Volume Information folder end with ...11e2-b250-005056862911}
Thank you.
I suspect they are related to Shadow Copies, or more precisely old Shadow Copy files that were maybe copied along with all the regular files from the previous file server where the files were migrated from (using Robocopy). Shadow Copies on this 500Gb data partition are presently set to a maximum of 50Gb and have not been changed since the new server was setup.
All files in this System Volume Information folder end with ...11e2-b250-005056862911}
Thank you.
It is "normal" for it to get large. But it can be cleaned up.
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-performance/why-is-system-volume-information-so-big-and-why-is/bc282494-3179-4cd2-b521-557af468b9b3
You can find tons more information this by running a Google on "clean up system volume information"
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-performance/why-is-system-volume-information-so-big-and-why-is/bc282494-3179-4cd2-b521-557af468b9b3
You can find tons more information this by running a Google on "clean up system volume information"
ASKER
Won't this erase versions of files stored in Shadow Copies that are older than 1 week, 1 month, etc. Or disrupt Shadow Copy functionality ? It is important for us to keep all of the "good" existing previous versions of files part of Shadow Copy.
Look it will only keep the recent one and delete all if you do from the Properties of the drive
- Rancy
- Rancy
You can't eat your pie and have it .. if you are running low on disk space, increase your storage or reduce the maximum percentage of space allowed. Doing so will reduce the number of available shadow copies/restore points.
ASKER
The maximum percentage is set to 10%, which is 50 GB in our case, and we would be happy with that. But the System Volume Information is presently using 200 GB, so I would really like to get back the 150GB lost there. I will look at your link for the cleanup and get back to you.
Thanks.
Thanks.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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Look this source: http://encase-forensic-blog.guidancesoftware.com/2012/06/examining-volume-shadow-copies-easy-way.html
Quite well written.
Quite well written.
ASKER
Thanks ve3ofa. This link got me to be able to find out from where the 150Gb of extra files were comming from. In fact, this volume was hosting shadow copies created by another volume on the server. After setting the maximum percentage to 20 GB for shadow copies for this other volume, I recovered instantly 130 GB !
- Rancy