Solved How to remove a Shadow Copy Storage Association

[WebMaximus]

Hi guys!

Trying to figure out how to remove a Shadow Copy Storage Association but can't figure out how to.

I have 4 HDDs in my computer and I use one of the disks as a pure backup disk holding both manually performed file copies but also an image of my system disk. The drive letter for this disk is E: and using the vssadmin resize shadowstorage command I have chosed to set 100 GB aside for this but when I run the command vssadmin list shadowstorage (as seen in the pic linked below) Windows for some reason I don't understand also has one of my other disks ( D: ) associated with shadow copy storage.

This is what it looks like ->

Thanks a lot in advance for any tips on how to get rid of this association for the D: disk!

//Richard

 

[Brink]

Hello Richard, and welcome to Seven Forums.

Shadow copy is part of system protection.

Double check to make sure that you have system protection turned off for the D: drive to no longer have restore points and shadow copies (previous versions) created for it.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/330-system-protection-turn-off.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[WebMaximus]

Thanks Shawn but I already made sure System Protection is OFF, I even tried enable/disable it to really make sure it's OFF. I attached the links below to a couple of more screenshots to better show my issue.

As you can see System Protection is OFF for all my disks (also my C/System disk not seen in the screenshot) and when I click the Configure button for any of my other disks Max Usage is blank but when I do the same thing for the D disk it reports 1% (18.63 GB) although I've moved the slider as far to the left as possible.

 

[Kaktussoft]

vssadmin  delete  shadows  /for=D:
vssadmin  list  shadows

post output

 

[WebMaximus]

Already tried that but anyway here's the output

 

[Brink]

Richard,

It's showing as 0 bytes for actual usage, and no shadow copies on your drives.

The "max" is just the max limit if system protection was turned on. It's not allocated space unless turned on.

Basically, if you have System Protection turned off for a drive, then that drive is no longer using shadow copies or restore points.

 

[WebMaximus]

Thanks but I do understand that. What I don't understand is why my D disk is listed using the vssadmin list shadowstorage command when my other disks are not except for my E disk which should be listed since that is my backup disk where I keep both my manually backed up data but also the image of my system drive created by wbadmin.

Thanks as well for the private hint on how to post images directly. Tried to reply to that message but either I'm plain stupid or blind but couldn't find a reply button

 

[Brink]

Are the other disks removable?

If so, then that's why since system protection is only available for internal disks.

 

[WebMaximus]

My disk setup looks as below

C: My system drive where I have Windows installed, this is a SSD disk
D: My data drive where I keep all my media and installation files, a normal mechanical drive
E: My backup drive where I keep both manually backed up files and images of my C: drive, a normal mechanical drive
F: My MS Flight Simulator X drive where I only keep installed things related to FSX, this is a SSD disk

I have System Protection turned OFF for all 4 disks but as mentioned above I have 100 GB VSS space reserved on my E: disk to hold my images of the C: disk.

So to answer your question all disks are internal disks but as listed above I have 2 SSD disks and 2 mechanical disks and both these mechanical disks are associated with VSS according to Windows - could that be the thing that there's a difference if the disk is a SSD disk vs a mechanical disk...?

 

[Brink]

A SSD drive wouldn't be any different than a HDD for this.

Go ahead and post a screenshot showing the full layout of your Disk Management window to see if it may help reveal why.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/274797-disk-management-post-screen-capture-image.html

 

[WebMaximus]

This is what it looks like

 

[Brink]

No issues in your Disk Management.

I have System Protection turned OFF for all 4 disks but as mentioned above I have 100 GB VSS space reserved on my E: disk to hold my images of the C: disk.

The max space is not allocated on a drive unless you have System Protection turned on for it.

That's only showing you what the max size would be if you had System Protection turned on again for them.

You do not see your C: or F: drives listed from vssadmin list shadowstorage since they do not have a "max usage" size displayed in System Protection.

You're fine, and have nothing to worry about.

 

[WebMaximus]

Ok, that's great but I still don't understand what the difference is between my D drive compared to my C and F drive.

Why is max usage displayed for my D drive when it's not for my C and F drive? Or to put it very simple, is there anyway I can have Windows forget about my D drive when it comes to VSS?

 

[Brink]

The only difference is that you do not have a max usage showing for your C and F drive, and you do for your D and F drives.

This can happen if you never had system protection turned on for the drive with a max usage set, or never turned on long enough for it to create a restore point or shadow copy for the drive yet.

The only way that I know of that would have Windows forget it would be to format the drive while System Protection is off for it. However, there's really no need to make it forget since it's not tying up or using any space on the drive.

 

[WebMaximus]

Ok, thanks for your help and input in this matter!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome.