shadowcopies on different volume?

[minorgeek]

i'd like to put my shadow copies on a different disk. anyone know how?

details:
event log tells me that shadow copies are having trouble finding space, and getting deleted. my intuition tells me a shadow on its own volume sounds incestuous. better on a different disk. just like pagefile.

searching, i found
vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=c: /on=t: /maxsize=10g
but it doesn't work on vista sp1. what's that about?

perhaps it's in the registry somewhere? anyone know...?

thanks!

 

[Brink]

Hello Minorgeek,

When you get to step 6 in the tutorial below, you can select what drive you would like to have this stored on.

http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/66971-system-restore.html

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[minorgeek]

hey, brink, thanks!
unfortunately, step 6 says:

6. To Enable System Restore -

A) Check the Available Disk letter(s) that you want System Restore to create restore points for and stored on the same drive. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Each drive selected will have it's own restore points stored on only that same drive. For example, C will not be stored on D, and D will not be store on C.

[orange emphasis added]
the note says i can't do what i'm asking, that C: shadow copies are ALWAYS kept on c: in fact, i believe it makes much more sense to store them on a different disk. and ms has system commands that do that. remember:
cmd> vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=c: /on=t: /maxsize=10gb

why two different parameters (on and for) if they're always the same value?

am i more clear now? i want to store the shadow copies from my system and boot disk c: to another disk t:. that way i won't get all the failures i'm getting now, vss memory allocation will work, and it won't compete with system and applications pounding on c:. it's actually the advice given in the error message. one hand says do it. the other hand takes it away so you can't. :|

btw, same thing applies to placing the pagefile (vm swap space) to a different (preferably, fastest) disk. then the disk arm is freed from the fight, where vm pulls it to the pagefile, and then application pulls it to its files...then back and forth. it's called thrashing. i'm glad to add that this is in fact do-able. system control panel, advanced tab, performance button, advanced tab of that, button change... and then you can specify the location, name, and size. that's what i want for vss.
​

ooops. i made the same mistake brink did. when i read that change... dialogue (for the pagefile) it seems it actually lets me change only size. not which volume. ok, i want that, too, if anyone knows how? lol

 

[Brink]

OOPS, I did miss that one.

 

[H2SO4]

hey, brink, thanks!
unfortunately, step 6 says:

6. To Enable System Restore -

A) Check the Available Disk letter(s) that you want System Restore to create restore points for and stored on the same drive. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Each drive selected will have it's own restore points stored on only that same drive. For example, C will not be stored on D, and D will not be store on C.

[orange emphasis added]
the note says i can't do what i'm asking, that C: shadow copies are ALWAYS kept on c: in fact, i believe it makes much more sense to store them on a different disk. and ms has system commands that do that. remember:
cmd> vssadmin add shadowstorage /for=c: /on=t: /maxsize=10gb

why two different parameters (on and for) if they're always the same value?

am i more clear now? i want to store the shadow copies from my system and boot disk c: to another disk t:. that way i won't get all the failures i'm getting now, vss memory allocation will work, and it won't compete with system and applications pounding on c:. it's actually the advice given in the error message. one hand says do it. the other hand takes it away so you can't. :|

btw, same thing applies to placing the pagefile (vm swap space) to a different (preferably, fastest) disk. then the disk arm is freed from the fight, where vm pulls it to the pagefile, and then application pulls it to its files...then back and forth. it's called thrashing. i'm glad to add that this is in fact do-able. system control panel, advanced tab, performance button, advanced tab of that, button change... and then you can specify the location, name, and size. that's what i want for vss.
​

ooops. i made the same mistake brink did. when i read that change... dialogue (for the pagefile) it seems it actually lets me change only size. not which volume. ok, i want that, too, if anyone knows how? lol

What is the error message you get in response to the "vssadmin add shadowstorage..." command?

Is the T: drive removable or fixed? I believe VSS will only allow fixed drives as targets in this context.

Also, FWIW the goal with pagefiles is to have multiple pagefiles spread out on multiple spindles. The OS "knows" which drive is least-busy at any given time, so it will direct writes to that one, even if it happens to be the boot partition.