System Volume Information Folder

I have a customer that is running Windows 2003 SBS SP1 has over 11 GB of data
in their System Volume Information folder. What is this data, do I need it
and if I don't need it how can I delete it ???

Thanks,
Mike

Hi Mike:

In there are Volume Shadow Copies and other system vol stuff.. The only one
that you have much control over is the number of VSS Copies that you store.
It may take a few days for the results to become apparent.

--
Regards:

Anna Clark
Please do post the conclusion or solution
to your issue so that others may benefit.

"Mike Bommer" <MikeBommer@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:110E2CB1-A20D-415E-BB0C-CE89638D8697@microsoft.com...
>I have a customer that is running Windows 2003 SBS SP1 has over 11 GB of
>data
> in their System Volume Information folder. What is this data, do I need
> it
> and if I don't need it how can I delete it ???
>
> Thanks,
> Mike

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting here.

From your problem description, I understand your issue to be: the system
volume information folder occupy too much drive space on your drive.

Actually, the files in the System Volume information folder are the
Snapshots of your Shared Folder on your SBS drive, in order to let your
user have a chance to recover the previous data in the shared folder. This
is the feature of Volume Shadow Copy for shared folders.

To purge the Snapshot or move the content to another volume for Volume
Share Copy for Shared Folder, I would also like to provide you with
following additional information.

The volume shadow copy content would be stored at <Drive>:\System Volume
Information by Default.
Storing the shadow copies on other volumes is a recommended suggestion. To
store the shadow copies of another volume on the same file server, a volume
can be dedicated on separate disks. For example, if user files are stored
on H:\, another volume such as S:\ can be used to store the shadow copies.
Using a separate volume on separate disks provides better performance and
is recommended for heavily used file servers.

The volume where the shadow copies are stored is set to the volume that
contains the source files by default. You can change the storage volume
when there are no shadow copies present. If you need to change the storage
volume for a volume that has already been enabled, you must first delete
all of the shadow copies on that volume.

A. Open Computer Management.
B. In the console tree, right-click Shared Folders, select All Tasks, and
click Configure Shadow Copies.
C. Click the volume where you want to make changes, and then click Settings
(If shadow copy is enabled, you should first click Disable).
D. In the Settings dialog box, change the "Located on this volume" and
click OK.
E. Click Enable.

However, you cannot use a network drive for storing your shadow copies on a
network share. You can use a local volume only. Even in cluster
configurations, the original (shadowed) disk, and the shadow storage disk
must be in the same cluster group, which means that they are both visible
to the active node.

More information:

Volume Shadow Copy Service Technical Reference
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...003/all/techre
f/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windowsServ/2003/all/techre
f/en-us/W2K3TR_vss_intro.asp

In addition, if you find there is not enough free space on your C drive,
you could use the following white paper to move the data to another drive.

Moving Data Folders for Windows Small Business Server 2003
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...c-870f-db36fd2
1a7d2/SBS_MoveDataFolders.DOC

If you have any questions or concerns related to this issue, please let me
know.


I appreciate your time. I am happy to be of assistance and look forward to
your reply.


Have a nice day!

Best regards,

Jacky Luo (MSFT)
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
====================================================
PLEASE NOTE: The partner managed newsgroups are provided to
assist with break/fix issues and simple how to questions.
We also love to hear your product feedback! Let us know what you think by
posting

from the web interface: Partner Feedback
from your newsreader: microsoft.private.directaccess.partnerfeedback.

We look forward to hearing from you!
====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
so that others may learn and benefit from this issue.
====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
====================================================

Thanks for the replies folks. I will look into it.

Mike


""Jacky Luo [MSFT]"" wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> Thanks for posting here.
>
> From your problem description, I understand your issue to be: the system
> volume information folder occupy too much drive space on your drive.
>
> Actually, the files in the System Volume information folder are the
> Snapshots of your Shared Folder on your SBS drive, in order to let your
> user have a chance to recover the previous data in the shared folder. This
> is the feature of Volume Shadow Copy for shared folders.
>
> To purge the Snapshot or move the content to another volume for Volume
> Share Copy for Shared Folder, I would also like to provide you with
> following additional information.
>
> The volume shadow copy content would be stored at <Drive>:\System Volume
> Information by Default.
> Storing the shadow copies on other volumes is a recommended suggestion. To
> store the shadow copies of another volume on the same file server, a volume
> can be dedicated on separate disks. For example, if user files are stored
> on H:\, another volume such as S:\ can be used to store the shadow copies.
> Using a separate volume on separate disks provides better performance and
> is recommended for heavily used file servers.
>
> The volume where the shadow copies are stored is set to the volume that
> contains the source files by default. You can change the storage volume
> when there are no shadow copies present. If you need to change the storage
> volume for a volume that has already been enabled, you must first delete
> all of the shadow copies on that volume.
>
> A. Open Computer Management.
> B. In the console tree, right-click Shared Folders, select All Tasks, and
> click Configure Shadow Copies.
> C. Click the volume where you want to make changes, and then click Settings
> (If shadow copy is enabled, you should first click Disable).
> D. In the Settings dialog box, change the "Located on this volume" and
> click OK.
> E. Click Enable.
>
> However, you cannot use a network drive for storing your shadow copies on a
> network share. You can use a local volume only. Even in cluster
> configurations, the original (shadowed) disk, and the shadow storage disk
> must be in the same cluster group, which means that they are both visible
> to the active node.
>
> More information:
>
> Volume Shadow Copy Service Technical Reference
> http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...003/all/techre
> f/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/windowsServ/2003/all/techre
> f/en-us/W2K3TR_vss_intro.asp
>
> In addition, if you find there is not enough free space on your C drive,
> you could use the following white paper to move the data to another drive.
>
> Moving Data Folders for Windows Small Business Server 2003
> http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...c-870f-db36fd2
> 1a7d2/SBS_MoveDataFolders.DOC
>
> If you have any questions or concerns related to this issue, please let me
> know.
>
>
> I appreciate your time. I am happy to be of assistance and look forward to
> your reply.
>
>
> Have a nice day!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jacky Luo (MSFT)
> Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
>
> Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
> ====================================================
> PLEASE NOTE: The partner managed newsgroups are provided to
> assist with break/fix issues and simple how to questions.
> We also love to hear your product feedback! Let us know what you think by
> posting
>
> from the web interface: Partner Feedback
> from your newsreader: microsoft.private.directaccess.partnerfeedback.
>
> We look forward to hearing from you!
> ====================================================
> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
> so that others may learn and benefit from this issue.
> ====================================================
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> ====================================================
>
>

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting back.

you may feel free to post back when you have any update and we will be here
for you.

have a great day!

Best regards,

Jacky Luo (MSFT)
Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support

Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
====================================================
PLEASE NOTE: The partner managed newsgroups are provided to
assist with break/fix issues and simple how to questions.
We also love to hear your product feedback! Let us know what you think by
posting

from the web interface: Partner Feedback
from your newsreader: microsoft.private.directaccess.partnerfeedback.

We look forward to hearing from you!
====================================================
When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
so that others may learn and benefit from this issue.
====================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
====================================================

Hi,

I have this same problem. It's on an Exchange Server and the System Volume
Information folder is taking up 64 GB.

I tried going into the Shadow Copy configuration as suggested in this
thread, but it shows that they are all disabled. If I try and Disable it
anyway I am told that the shadow copy storage association is in use and can't
be deleted.

Any other ideas or suggestions???

My Exchange Server is down to 7 GB free, i need help!

thanks!

Heather





""Jacky Luo [MSFT]"" wrote:

> Hi Mike,
>
> Thanks for posting back.
>
> you may feel free to post back when you have any update and we will be here
> for you.
>
> have a great day!
>
> Best regards,
>
> Jacky Luo (MSFT)
> Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
>
> Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
> ====================================================
> PLEASE NOTE: The partner managed newsgroups are provided to
> assist with break/fix issues and simple how to questions.
> We also love to hear your product feedback! Let us know what you think by
> posting
>
> from the web interface: Partner Feedback
> from your newsreader: microsoft.private.directaccess.partnerfeedback.
>
> We look forward to hearing from you!
> ====================================================
> When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
> so that others may learn and benefit from this issue.
> ====================================================
> This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> ====================================================
>
>

Okay, so I resolved my own problem.

I spoke to a colleague and since Volume Shadow Copy was turned off, we tried
turning it on and setting a limit on how big it could get.

TADAA! The entire System Volume Information folder was recreated at a very
reasonable size and freed up the 70GB I wanted back.


=)



"Heather" wrote:

>
>
> Hi,
>
> I have this same problem. It's on an Exchange Server and the System Volume
> Information folder is taking up 64 GB.
>
> I tried going into the Shadow Copy configuration as suggested in this
> thread, but it shows that they are all disabled. If I try and Disable it
> anyway I am told that the shadow copy storage association is in use and can't
> be deleted.
>
> Any other ideas or suggestions???
>
> My Exchange Server is down to 7 GB free, i need help!
>
> thanks!
>
> Heather
>
>
>
>
>
> ""Jacky Luo [MSFT]"" wrote:
>
> > Hi Mike,
> >
> > Thanks for posting back.
> >
> > you may feel free to post back when you have any update and we will be here
> > for you.
> >
> > have a great day!
> >
> > Best regards,
> >
> > Jacky Luo (MSFT)
> > Microsoft CSS Online Newsgroup Support
> >
> > Get Secure! - www.microsoft.com/security
> > ====================================================
> > PLEASE NOTE: The partner managed newsgroups are provided to
> > assist with break/fix issues and simple how to questions.
> > We also love to hear your product feedback! Let us know what you think by
> > posting
> >
> > from the web interface: Partner Feedback
> > from your newsreader: microsoft.private.directaccess.partnerfeedback.
> >
> > We look forward to hearing from you!
> > ====================================================
> > When responding to posts, please "Reply to Group" via your newsreader
> > so that others may learn and benefit from this issue.
> > ====================================================
> > This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
> > ====================================================
> >
> >