Shadow Copy, or Volume Snapshot Device (VSS), is an application interdependent with System Restore that is unique to Windows Vista.This Microsoft Windows Vista’s feature, which allows you to restore your document to a previous state.Shadow Copy creates a snapshot of your files as you work on them, this will allow you to retrieve your work if it’s been accidentally deleted. The Shadow Copy is the disk space used by System Restore (up to 15% of of disk volume) which makes up the registry for backed up files on a computer.This process works alongside System Restore to allow you to access files and folders on your computer as they existed in the past.
In Windows Vista, Shadow Copy is automatically enabled by default and creates copies of your files on a scheduled basis.Only incremental changes are saved, so minimal disk space is used.
To access Windows Vista Shadow Copy:
- Right click a file or folder and select “Restore previous versions”
- Select the file that you wish to restore
- Click Restore…
The file will be restored its original location.
To view the size occupied by Shadow Copy in Windows Vista
- Click on Windows Vista Start>Computer and on Local Disk (C:) you’ll see the available disk space you have left on the hard drive of your Windows Vista desktop/notebook computer.
- Click Start>All Programs>Accessories.
- Select Command Prompt (make sure you right click on Command Prompt first, and select Run as administrator).
- Type in vssadmin list shadowstorage
- Press Enter/Return. Command Prompt will show the allocated space towards Shadow Copy. This can be reduced to allow more free hard drive space.
Reducing Hard Disk Space Allocated for Shadow Copy
- Open an Administrator Command Prompt. Find the Command Prompt in Vista under the Accessories folder. Right-click on the icon and select “Run as Administrator.”
- Go to the System32 directory which should be c:\windows\system32. Depending how your paths are set up, this may not be necessary but better to be safe than sorry.
- As described earlier,type in “vssadmin list shadowstorage” to see how much space is allocated and currently used for Shadow Copy on Drive C. There will also be a few lines of volume information, but those aren’t important for this process.
- Change the Shadow Copy size by typing in “vssadmin resize shadowstorage /on=c: /for=c: /maxsize=XXX” Instead of XXX, enter the amount of space you want Shadow Copy to use. For instance, if you want 2 gigabytes used, enter “2GB.”
Note:If you are not the administrator of the Windows Vista computer, permission from them to reduce the Shadow Copy is recommended.It is best to not reduce all of the disk space allocated for Shadow Copy.If, after several weeks or months of using your Windows Vista computer, the disk space on your computer is dropping or being ‘eaten away at’ for no known reason, that is the action of Windows Vista Shadow Copy feature.
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