Windows 7 / Getting Started

How to Configure Disk Quotas on a Single Computer

To configure disk quotas on a single computer, follow these steps:

  1. Click Start and then click Computer.
  2. In the right pane, right-click the drive on which you want to configure the quotas and then click Properties.
  3. Click the Quota tab and then click Show Quota Settings. The Quota Settings dialog box appears.
  4. Select the Enable Quota Management check box.

From this dialog box, you can configure the following disk quota options:

  • Enable Quota Management Quota management is disabled by default. Select this check box to enable quota management.
  • Deny Disk Space To Users Exceeding Quota Limit By default, users are warned only if they exceed their quota limits. Selecting this check box causes Windows to block disk access after the quota is exceeded. Typically, warning users is sufficient, provided that you also log the events and follow up with users who do not clean up their disk space. Denying disk access will cause applications to fail when they attempt to write more data to the disk and can cause users to lose unsaved work.
    Note To determine quota limitations for users, developers can call the ManagementObjectSearcher.Get WMI method to retrieve a ManagementObjectCollection object and then access the collection's QuotaVolume item.
  • Do Not Limit Disk Usage Does not configure disk quotas for new users by default. You can still use the Quota Entries window to configure disk quotas for users.
  • Limit Disk Space To and Set Warning Level To Creates a disk quota by default for new users. The value in the Set Warning Level To box should be lower than that in the Limit Disk Space To box so that the user receives a warning before running out of available disk space.
  • Log Event When A User Exceeds Their Quota Limit and Log Event When A User Exceeds Their Warning Level Configures Windows to add an event when the user exceeds her quota. You should typically select this check box and then monitor the events so that IT support can communicate directly with the user to keep the user within her quotas (or increase the quotas as needed).

Additionally, you can click Quota Entries to configure quota settings for existing users and groups.

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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