How to delete Shadow Copies in Windows

[HappyAndyK]

Windows Explorer may show that a disk has plenty of disk space available. When you look at the same disk in Disk Management, you see that it is almost full. One thing that can cause this is leftover shadow copies. Some backup software will create a persistent shadow copy and after they have backed up the shadow copy to the designation, they fail to delete the original copy that is stored on the volume.

If you do not need these shadow copies, then there are two ways that you can delete them.

1. Use the VSSAdmin Delete Shadows command.

Example:

Vssadmin delete shadows /For=F:

2. In some cases, the shadow copies could not be deleted this way. In order to remove the shadow copies, you can set the maximum storage down to 300MB and Windows deleted the entries automatically.
Once you set the maximum to 300MB and click on OK, any shadow copies that are over 300MB will be removed from the drive and your drive space should be reclaimed.

Visit Technet Blogs for a nice detailed read!

[bkr3]

I could not see this feature in my properties of HDD Partitions. I use W7U

[whs]

I could not see this feature in my properties of HDD Partitions. I use W7U

What exactly were you looking for in Properties?

[mstealth]

Thanks for sharing this and letting us know about this.

[Bellaar]

I just go to Disk Clean UP click system files it has option there to delete shadow copy files

[connect012]

Which type of Shadow copies are u asking about,
I use the same version but havn`t heard about shadow copies

[whs]

Which type of Shadow copies are u asking about,
I use the same version but havn`t heard about shadow copies

Shadow copies are restore points that reside in the shadowstorage. Run this command in an elevated command prompt:

vssadmin list shadows

Then you will see them.

[J_B_MVP]

If you are running out of space quickly due to system restore creating numerous shadow copies you can reduce the amount of space allocated to system restore. For further details see my Vista support website. Visit the FAQ section and look at Question 53. (sorry forum is not allowing me to add links to my posts:-( ) This can be used for both Vista an Windows 7.

Link added by admin: http://vistasupport.mvps.org/decreas...em_restore.htm

[HappyAndyK]

Hi John, You will soon be able to add links after completing 10 posts. This is a general anti-spam measure in place. Pls post the links without the http/www and I will edit it, till then.

[J_B_MVP]

Thanks Anand, looks like i'm almost reaching the magical number:-)