Windows 7 / Getting Started

How to Manage Shadow Copies

You can manage the Volume Shadow Copy service using the Vssadmin command-line tool from an elevated command prompt. You can use this tool to run the following commands:

  • Vssadmin List Providers Lists registered Volume Shadow Copy providers. Windows 7 includes Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider 1.0.
  • Vssadmin List Shadows Lists existing volume shadow copies, the time the shadow copy was created, and its location. The following sample output shows two shadow copies.
    vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
    (C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
    
    Contents of shadow copy set ID: {79f6e5e8-0211-43bf-9480-c65e51b4b40d}
    
      Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 12/20/2006 1:05:08 PM
         Shadow Copy ID: {26fc6f1c-9610-4c0c-b10b-7e9f6fab042c}
    	Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3e59796e-cf1b-11da-af4b-806d6172696f}\
    	Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy1
    	Originating Machine: WIN7
    	Service Machine: WIN7
    	Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
    	Type: DataVolumeRollback
    	Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No writers, Differential
    
    Contents of shadow copy set ID: {d14c728d-ff85-4be1-b048-24f3aced48a9}
      Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 12/20/2006 4:42:12 PM
         Shadow Copy ID: {271752a4-e886-4c92-9671-10624ca36cd4}
    	Original Volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3e59796e-cf1b-11da-af4b-806d6172696f}\
    	Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy2
    	Originating Machine: WIN7
    	Service Machine: WIN7
    	Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
    	Type: DataVolumeRollback
    	Attributes: Persistent, No auto release, No Writers, Differential
    
  • Vssadmin List ShadowStorage Lists the volume shadow storage space currently in use, the space that is reserved for future use (labeled as allocated), and the maximum space that might be dedicated. This space is used to store changes while a shadow copy is active. The following sample output was generated using a computer that currently has about 3 GB of files stored in a shadow copy, but that might allocate as much as 6.4 GB.
    Vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
    (C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
    
    Shadow Copy Storage association
       For volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3e59796e-cf1b-11da-af4b-806d6172696f}\
       Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{3e59796e-cf1b-11da-af4b-
    806d6172696f}\
       Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 32.703 MB (0%)
       Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 1.904 GB (1%)
       Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: 38.061 GB (30%)
    
  • Vssadmin List Volumes Lists volumes that are eligible for shadow copies.
  • Vssadmin List Writers Lists shadow copy writers, which support communicating with the Volume Shadow Copy service to ensure that files are captured in a consistent state. By default, subscribed writers include an operating system writer, a registry writer, a Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) writer, and a search service writer, among others. SQL Server also provides a Volume Shadow Copy writer.
  • Vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage Resizes Volume Shadow Copy storage. You can use this command to increase the maximum space that might be used by Volume Shadow Copy. Typically, this is unnecessary. However, if you discover that backups are failing on a computer because of an extremely high volume of changes during a backup and if Vssadmin List ShadowStorage reveals that the used Shadow Copy Storage space is at the maximum, you might be able to resolve the problem by manually increasing the maximum size.

Note Vssadmin in Windows 7 does not provide all of the commands that Windows Server 2008 provides because the ability to manually create and manage shadow copies typically is unnecessary on client computers.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Disks and File Systems
  2. Overview of Partitioning Disks
  3. How to Choose Between MBR or GPT
  4. Converting from MBR to GPT Disks
  5. GPT Partitions
  6. Choosing Basic or Dynamic Disks
  7. Working with Volumes
  8. How to Create a Simple Volume
  9. How to Create a Spanned Volume
  10. How to Create a Striped Volume
  11. How to Resize a Volume
  12. How to Delete a Volume
  13. How to Create and Use a Virtual Hard Disk
  14. File System Fragmentation
  15. Backup And Restore
  16. How File Backups Work
  17. File and Folder Backup Structure
  18. How System Image Backups Work
  19. How to Start a System Image Backup from the Command Line
  20. How to Restore a System Image Backup
  21. System Image Backup Structure
  22. Best Practices for Computer Backups
  23. How to Manage Backup Using Group Policy Settings
  24. Previous Versions and Shadow Copies
  25. How to Manage Shadow Copies
  26. How to Restore a File with Previous Versions
  27. How to Configure Previous Versions with Group Policy Settings
  28. Windows ReadyBoost
  29. BitLocker Drive Encryption
  30. How BitLocker Encrypts Data
  31. How BitLocker Protects Data
  32. TPM with External Key (Require Startup USB Key At Every Startup)
  33. TPM with PIN (Require PIN At Every Startup)
  34. TPM with PIN and External Key
  35. BitLocker To Go
  36. BitLocker Phases
  37. Requirements for Protecting the System Volume with BitLocker
  38. How to Enable the Use of BitLocker on the System Volume on Computers Without TPM
  39. How to Enable BitLocker Encryption on System Volumes
  40. How to Enable BitLocker Encryption on Data Volumes
  41. How to Manage BitLocker Keys on a Local Computer
  42. How to Manage BitLocker from the Command Line
  43. How to Recover Data Protected by BitLocker
  44. How to Disable or Remove BitLocker Drive Encryption
  45. How to Decommission a BitLocker Drive Permanently
  46. How to Prepare AD DS for BitLocker
  47. How to Configure a Data Recovery Agent
  48. How to Manage BitLocker with Group Policy
  49. The Costs of BitLocker
  50. Windows 7 Encrypting File System
  51. How to Export Personal Certificates
  52. How to Import Personal Certificates
  53. How to Grant Users Access to an Encrypted File
  54. Symbolic Links
  55. How to Create Symbolic Links
  56. How to Create Relative or Absolute Symbolic Links
  57. How to Create Symbolic Links to Shared Folders
  58. How to Use Hard Links
  59. Disk Quotas
  60. How to Configure Disk Quotas on a Single Computer
  61. How to Configure Disk Quotas from a Command Prompt
  62. How to Configure Disk Quotas by Using Group Policy Settings
  63. Disk Tools
  64. EFSDump
  65. SDelete
  66. Streams
  67. Sync
  68. MoveFile and PendMoves