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One of my baby (Windows 2003 small business server) was having low disk space error yesterday. Its not the first time this Windows Server low disk space on its C: drive (system drive). I have do necessary housekeeping, cleanup temporary files.

After a day, the warning pop up again. It cause my application can’t proceed data into SQL database. I wonder why it eat up disk space so fast?

Root Cause: System Volume Information

Without anymore files to clean, I need to find out the root cause. I compare folders one by one in C: drive. Finally, found the folder “System Volume Information” contains 8GB files! It is under C: root drive after uncheck “Hide Protected Operating System files”.

It is the root cause. Lots of system files inside, looks like growing too everyday. In Windows XP, system volume information is location to store restore point. In Windows 2003 small business server, it contains shadow copy of shared folders or drive depends on settings.

Remove Shadow Copies

In this case, the shadow copies has been turn on for some shared folders in C: drive. I decide to turn off since we have backup on another drive. To turn it off, go to Computer Management > Right click Shared Folders > All Tasks > Configure Shadow Copies > Disable. Wait for the system to purge the shadow files.

My baby now has 8GB extra and I don’t see “Low Disk Space” error anymore. Wait! Don’t forget to backup those data files in shared folders.

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Tags: disk space, Low disk space, system volume information, troubleshoot, windows 2003 server, windows server