Freeing up C: Drive space on Win Server r2 2008

For the paging file, you should let Windows manage this.

For winsxs, do not change or delete this. Windows needs it.

My winevt folder is negligible, how big is yours?

Run Disk Cleanup. This could easily reclaim a sizeable amount of space if you have never run it.

... Thinkpads_User

My winevt folder is 710Mb, most of that's made up of 3 or 4 log files.  I cleaned them up a month or two back, but I guess that has to be an on-going process.

I know there's a disk cleanup utility in Win 7 etc, but can't find anything similar on the server, can you be more specific?

Ta

Catch-22, have to install files to get rid of other files.  My Windows\Temp folder only has 2Mb, so I think SQL Server may be the way to go.  Will investigate.  And thanks for the comment about pagefile.sys DcpKing, makes sense.

Are your System SQL Databases still residing on C:?

By Default a SQL install puts them somewhere like here...
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL10_50.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA
or
C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.1\MSSQL\DATA

If the tempdb.mdf and tempdb.ldf files are there it could be putting a lot of pressure on C: drive.

tempdb can however be moved, it also reduces in size because it is recreated with a SQL Server Service restart. (you'll have to kick off users to do that).

Matavai, I don't know if you can take downtime, but it sounds like you'll have to very soon. SQL Server can -and should - be moved from C. Tempdb is NOT in your windows\temp file, and is one of the most-used files on your system

Have decided that as nothing on the C: drive is safely moveable, we are going to move everything off the D: drive which makes up the other partition on that disk, as those files are 'easily' moveable.  Then we'll delete the D: partition & expand C: to use the whole drive, which can be done without messing with any of the C: drive files.  Thanks for all suggestions and advice.

A system engineers solution no doubt. I would profess a solution, but far from the best solution.
Please research a bit more, before you commit, if possible.

Two of you mention SQL tempdb as a problem file spacewise, but from what I can see, the only tempdb files I have (2 of them) are both 3Mb, so don't appear to be causing me much problem.  Even if I moved the whole SQL installation of C:, it'd gain me 3Gb.  By re-allocation space from the D: partition I'm gaining 75Gb.  I'm no expert by any definition, so you'll have to be patient with me explaining why that's a bad idea.

Hi,

Curious to know matavai, do you have any of the non system databases in C drive?

I also think upon reflection, that the C may have been underprovisioned in the first place and so a re allocate to it from elsewhere may be wise. (Those windows updates fill a C drive like you wouldn't believe). Does it need and extra 75GB though?

BUT from the SQL side....
The ideal situation for SQL is.

Binaries on C Drive.
Data on another drive. (including msdb, master, model system databases)
Logs on another drive not used above. (including msdb, master, model system databases)
The tempdb on another drive not used above.
Backups on another drive not used above.

I know the tempdb says 3Mb at present, I suspect you have recently restarted the SQL service or rebooted the machine. This will grow when it needs to. If you have a really intensive process, say end of month billing, the tempdb will grow. When that process has finished it doesn't shrink, but it may have a lot of unused space in that expanded file. So, you will see over time tempdb get to be as big as it needs to be as weeks and months roll on.

Secondly, the actual disk speed affects the performance of tempdb. Slower disk, slower performance....added to the fact that the same C drive is dealing with OS as well, then performance is compromised.

Having said that, real world is what we are dealing with here not the perfect world.

If your partions are on the same disc anyway then it is a moot point.

OK, here is a reasonable article on tempdb (i'll get in trouble for posting from elsewhere).
http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2008/03/sql-server-2005-setup-checklist-part-2-after-the-install/

But here is an EE article associated.
https://www.experts-exchange.com/questions/28208936/SQL-TempDB-Question.html

Without knowing if the actual OS uses SQL databases, then the reason it may not be a problem for us is that I'm only aware of one tiny SQL database we have, we don't use it for any daily data whatsoever.  The SBS Monitoring reports take up about 700Mb, but other than that, I think the only SQL files are programs as opposed to databases.  

Having said that, on Wednesday I had 6.5Gb free on C:, on Thursday I suddenly had 9Gb, & today I'm back to 6.6Gb, I don't know if SQL is responsible for those big changes, but I can't identify anything else that is.

Agree entirely that windows updates are using up a lot of space, very frustrating.  Its also not so much that C: was underprovisioned in the first place, so much as the drive itself wasn't big enough in the first place.  We needed all the space we have on the D: partition, so couldn't have divided the drive up any better, just needed there to have been more of it.  We've now added another drive & are re-allocating space to make up for the initial mis-calculation.

Moving the Exchange database & User Redirected folders was dead easy with the built in wizards, it was only the small SQL database that took time because there was no easy way to repoint the software to relocated files, so we removed SQL, re-installed, move the files & then attached them.  Have yet to made the final committment of deleting the D: partition & expanding C: but so far its looking like a good solution.  I appreciate the other opinions & suggestions made.

Sounds like progress anyway.

Make sure you do log backups on the SQL Databases that are set to FULL Recovery mode, in between FULL data base backups.

Use the maintenance wizard to do this, it is a fairly intuitive tool.....next, next, next, next end type stuff.

Cheers
T

@matavai - Thanks and I was happy to help.

... Thinkpads_User