I have a windows 2000 server with a 10gb partition on the C:\ drive. I noticed that this partition continues to shrink even though no additional apps have been installed on this partition. This server is running SQL 2000. How can I tell what is eating up this space before it runs out completely?
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Hard Drive space
- Thread starter dpu
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There could be many reasons for this. If you are running out of drive space on C: check for applications that could be storing data ex in the form of log files (very common). Also you may want to check the C:\TEMP or C:\WINDOWS\TEMP (or WINNT\TEMP) and delete files in there. Check C:\Documents and Settings (if you have many users logging on to the server they may be dumping files there too).
If you have the pagefile on C: considering moving it to another partition in order to gain drive space.
If your server is also a print server, considering changing the location of the spool directory.
Hope this helps.
If you have the pagefile on C: considering moving it to another partition in order to gain drive space.
If your server is also a print server, considering changing the location of the spool directory.
Hope this helps.
If you install patches and service packs, the uninstall files for those are stored in the C:\windows (or c:\winnt or whatever) directory. They will be compressed and hidden, and their names start and end with a '$'. In most cases you can delete those with no problems.
You can look here for a ton of other suggestions:
You can look here for a ton of other suggestions:
LWComputingMVP
IS-IT--Management
There's a utility by Microsoft (I believe it's a resource kit utility) called DIRUSE - it's command line and the only tool that will tell you CORRECTLY how much space is used by each folder. There are several options for it's usage, but I usually use DIRUSE /, /* /M "C:\" and then go into each suspect folder and run it there until I've hit upon the folder that is taking up the space.
(There are other and graphical utilities that claim to do this, but none include space that you may not have (NTFS) permissions to access - DIRUSE will count everything regardless of permissions).
(There are other and graphical utilities that claim to do this, but none include space that you may not have (NTFS) permissions to access - DIRUSE will count everything regardless of permissions).
- Thread starter
- #6
I've done all the above and deleted everyhting I could find in all the Temp folders. I also deleted the uninstall files for patches and service packs. And i did move the pagefile. I did stumble upon an old copy of symantec and I was able to free up a substantial amount of space but I still the partition incrementally growing. Also SQL is installed on this partion but all the data files are located on another partition. I have not tried the DIRUSE, will try that next. Thanks for all the input.
if this is not viral in nature, I would suspect something is creating a large log file
Although your SQL dbs reside on another partition, check to see the size of the SQL folder since the system dbs usually reside on the same drive as the app
Although your SQL dbs reside on another partition, check to see the size of the SQL folder since the system dbs usually reside on the same drive as the app
If you go into SQL Enterprise Manager, expand the tree until you see the names of the databases installed on that server. They will be master, model, tempdb, and the names of any DBs that you created. Right-click on each one and select properties. There is a tab for the data files and a tab for the log files, and on each tab it will show the path to where those files are stored. I'm betting that SQL is installed on another disk, but the log and/or data files are still on the C: drive.
- Thread starter
- #9
Instead of DIRUSE I found a utility called FolderSize. It's a graphical tool that functions the same as DIRUSE. I found the culprit and it was a folder embedded deep in the WINDOWS directory that had growing log files. I deleted the logfiles and recoved over 6GB of HD space.
Someting I did to free up space was in printers. If you have had installed a lot of printers in the past then you may want to go to printers/server properties and delete any drivers not in use and local ports that were created. I recovered over a gig of space.
Interesting point. If you are running a terminal server AND you have lots of users with multiple printers, it's very easy to clog the whole mess up with printer drivers. It can also effect the registry as well.
For example, if you have 30 users who all share the same network printer (let's call it Printer1), and each of those 30 users has their own PC (let's call them PC1-PC30) then your terminal server will get 30 separate printers added (Printer1 on PC1, Printer1 on PC2, Printer1 on PC3, and so on), even if it's technically all the same printer. On heavily used terminal servers it's possible to exceed the registry size limitations with just printer drivers.
LWComputingMVP
IS-IT--Management
Actually, I recently created a web page on the topic of freeing space on a server's C: drive, listing probably close to two dozen things you can do with links to details on how to do them.
Check out
Check out
pankajmhatre
IS-IT--Management
Check with Treesize ..i hv used it and i think this is the best tool available to see the files size of each and every file in your drive..
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