Volume Shadow Copies Overview
Volume shadow copies, a new Windows Server 2003 feature, are used to create copies of files at a specific point in time, or set time interval. Shadow copies can only be created on NTFS volumes to create automatic backups of files or data per volume. When enabled, the Shadow copies feature protects you from accidentally losing important files in a network share. Remember that when users delete files from over the network, those files are permanently deleted. Because shadow copies enable users to view previous versions of files, the feature allows them to restore a backup of deleted files.
A few advantages of enabling volume shadow copies on shared folders are:
- If volume shadow copies are enabled for shared folders, you can restore or recover files which have been accidentally deleted or which have become corrupt. The prior versions of files can be copied to the same location, or to another location.
- Through volume shadow copies, you can recover files which have been overwritten when you need to use a previous version of the file.
- Volume shadow copies also enable you to compare changes between a current version of the file and a previous version of the file.
- The integrity of the previous file versions are maintained because they are read-only copies, thereby preventing any user from changing a file which was shadow copied. If users need to change a previous version of a file, they have to copy the version to a different location, and then perform the necessary changes.
As mentioned previously, you can only configure volume shadow copies on NTFS volumes. The shadow copies feature is in fact a new NTFS feature introduced with Windows Server 2003. Shadow copies are used to create shadowed copies of files, at a specified point in time and on a per volume basis, which means that you basically configure shadow copies at the volume level. You cannot therefore specify only certain files and folders for volume shadow copies.
The main requirements for enabling the shadow copies feature are:
- Shadow copies must be configured on NTFS volumes, and on a per volume basis.
- The NTFS volume that you want to configure for volume shadow copies must have 100MB of free volume space (minimum requirement). The maximum is 10% of the volume’s free disk space, by default.
A few important points to consider when working with shadow copies are:
- Each volume enabled for shadow copies can only store 64 shadow copies. When this limit is reached on a volume, the oldest shadow copy is permanently deleted, and cannot be restored. You can therefore only view a maximum of 64 previous versions of files.
- Shadow copies should not be utilized to replace performing regular backups, but should be used to enhance the backup strategy of your organization.
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