How to reduce "windows.edb" size or limit it

That is your mail file and deleting stuff in it will limit users as you note.

Accordingly, you need to add space (and I suggest lots) to your server.

Hi John,

Thanks for the reply but C drive already have 400GB size and no matter how big the C drive windows.edb will consume all the space. I hope, there is some solution where we restrict windows.edb file to grow.

The Windows.edb is a database file of the Windows Search service, which provides content indexing, property caching, and search results for files, e-mail, and other content.

So as you know, since the Windows.edb file will continue to grow in size, the best bet to avoid problems for end users would be to index the file in another drive. which can be done as follows:

open Control Panel > Indexing Options > Advanced > Index location > Select new.

There are also options to defragment the database using esentutl.exe, but moving the database location sounds like the best option for you and you end users.

Hope this helps,

Devin Becker
DevOps Associate @ EE

Maybe put mail on another drive that is at least a Terabyte and possibly more

Also worth noting, there was a patch that server 2012 had that prevented  this kind of growth of that file, however, I have not been able to find a patch for such problem on server 2016.

If I find something I will make sure to let you know here.

EDIT: Alternatively, you could write a script that you could put on a schedule to delete and rebuild the index so that the size stays lower, however, it's kind of just a bandage for now. Nothing I've found seems concrete in fixing this specific issue "permanently"

Devin Becker
DevOps Associate @ EE

So you don't want to disable search, don't want to increase the drive and do not want to move it to another drive.

Your only option is to reduce the items being indexed or periodically defrag the edb

sc config wsearch start=disabled
sc stop wsearch
esentutl.exe /d %AllUsersProfile%\Microsoft\Search\Data\Applications\Windows\Windows.edb
sc config wsearch start=delayed-auto
sc start wsearch

Select allOpen in new window

http://woshub.com/windows-edb-file-too-big-how-to-reduce-size/

Since I administered a file server index for a long time, I can tell you that 180 GBs is incredibly large for a single server. May I ask how big the folders are that are being indexed? How many TB?

Hi,
Please close the ticket. Shaun Vermaak and Devin Becker suggestion is helpful.
Thanks guys for your replies.

Geforce, please close this question, you as author are supposed to do it by selecting helpful comments and selecting comments that led to a solution as solution. If you found your own solution, please share it and select that as solution.