ShadowStorage keeps changing it's own size.

AndyTampa · Nov 28, 2016

Is there a way to see which program keeps changing the ShadowStorage Maxsize to unbounded?

It keeps filling up my hard drive and I have to reset it, but then it resets itself to unbounded. It was using 450 GB and I just lowered it to 100GB even though that's probably a little overkill. That particular drive is 600GB.

Is there any way to figure out which program is doing this so I can stop it?

Does something about Vista trigger this automatic reset?

AndyTampa · Mar 5, 2017

Well, nobody answered. It happened again, so I'll ask again. VSSADMIN keeps changing its size to UNBOUNDED. Is there an event log I can look up or something to see when this setting is getting changed and by which program?

ilikefree · Mar 6, 2017

Are you setting it in CMD run as administrator with this command

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=100GB

AndyTampa · Mar 11, 2017

ilikefree said:
Are you setting it in CMD run as administrator with this command

vssadmin Resize ShadowStorage /For=C: /On=C: /Maxsize=100GB

Yes, and after some time I get a notice that my Hard Drive is almost full. Then I check and it's set to UNBOUNDED again.

Is there a log somewhere to see when it changes or what changed it?

AndyTampa · Jul 4, 2018

It's been over a year and I haven't had this problem resolved yet. Is there an event logged somewhere each time the VSS is changed? Is there a program that I can use to capture such changes to the VSS?

I'm trying to determine which program is making the changes.

wither 3 · Jul 27, 2018

Is it possible that you have Vista set to periodically create a system restore point? That will affect VSS.

AndyTampa · Aug 11, 2018

wither 3 said:
Is it possible that you have Vista set to periodically create a system restore point? That will affect VSS.

The last restore point is from 7/24/18 when Kaspersky updated itself. At some point, the VSSADMIN reset itself back to UNBOUNDED again when I had set it to 50GB. Currently, it's using less than 25GB. It shouldn't matter if it's doing periodic restore points anyway. It should delete the oldest instead of making itself limitless.

I do have Acronis True Image doing backups. I've often wondered if Acronis is doing it, but I can't find anything online stating so.

I'm looking for a way to see when it's happening or what is causing/requesting it to happen.

wither 3 · Aug 12, 2018

Windows doesn't delete restore points. In fact, the folder where they're stored (have to look up where that is) can get so large that it can really slow down a system.

I don't think imaging a drive would affect VSS but, that's just my opinion.

townsbg · Aug 12, 2018

Windows does delete restore points.

wither 3 · Aug 13, 2018

Thank you for that. My apologies. Need to be more careful. I see that one needs 300 MB of free space on each drive that's being protected and when it reaches that point, older ones are deleted.

AndyTampa · Sep 16, 2018

townsbg said:
Windows does delete restore points.

Apparently not on my machine. It just makes more room.

My question remains, and nobody has actually said yes or no, but is there a program or utility that will let me monitor or see when the shadowstorage limit changes and what prompts the change?

wither 3 · Sep 16, 2018

If you run this command from the command prompt as administrator-

vssadmin list shadows

the "Provider" in each instance listed is supposed to tell you what program is using the shadow storage. I ran it and, in every instance, the program is Microsoft Software Shadow Copy Provider Service 1.0. Since the date and time that each instance is created is shown, that should answer your question about when it is changing. Trouble is, it really doesn't tell you what program changed it. I wonder if this, from Microsoft, might help with that question-

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 WMI writer, and a search service writer, among others. SQL Server also provides a Volume Shadow Copy writer.

AndyTampa · Oct 16, 2018

I get the same thing you do and a list of writers didn't provide anything useful either. While the list of shadows and their creation dates is interesting, it doesn't tell me what changed the storage size. I keep changing it to 100GB, which is more than enough room, but something keeps changing it back to "UNBOUNDED".

Code:

C:\Windows\system32>vssadmin list shadowstorage
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{68d47df8-92e3-11dc-845d-806e6f6e6963}\
   Shadow Copy Storage volume: (C:)\\?\Volume{68d47df8-92e3-11dc-845d-806e6f6e69
63}\
   Used Shadow Copy Storage space: 404.674 GB
   Allocated Shadow Copy Storage space: 407.589 GB
   Maximum Shadow Copy Storage space: UNBOUNDED

AndyTampa · Oct 16, 2018

On a hunch, I searched for Acronis True Image VSS unbounded and found a reference in the Acronis forum that mentions the same symptom, so I may be on my way to discovering how to fix it. Unfortunately, they keep talking about going to option settings I can't find yet. That may or may not be because I'm on Vista. The site isn't specific on windows versions because it's all about Acronis.

wither 3 · Oct 19, 2018

Are you using Acronis to do backups? If so, does either going to the snapshot method (as suggested in the Acronis forum) or disabling Acronis stop the problem?

wither 3 · Oct 26, 2018

Any progress?

AndyTampa · Nov 3, 2018

I know that I posted in an Acronis Forum, but haven't seen a response yet. I'll look again soon.

ShadowStorage keeps changing it's own size.

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