SBS 2008 low disk space

[navychop]

Had our computer consultant in today. We've been getting low disk space warnings on C: and sometimes find we have zero space. Cleanup might get to a few hundred MB, never to a GB. Partition is only 60GB because that's the only way Dell would deliver it. Claimed they had good reason but never fully explained so we let it ride. We've removed everything we feel safe doing. When we recover some space, "something" eats it up almost immediately. Can't figure out what - any ideas?

Obviously it won't do anything - no Windows update, no backup, and very limited file transfers only.

We're going to open a TT with MicroSoft. But I was hoping to get some ideas here.

There are things like Partition Magic for servers, but THAT would be a HUGE risk. And even if it doubled our partition, might it turn out Dell was right?

 

[wallyhts]

Do you have a ftp server running or SQL server running? What about SharePoint? Is it behind a firewall you can view inbound and outbound traffic?

I seen this before. One time it was a hacked ftp server the other time it was daily SQL backup gone wild.

 

[mike123abc]

We run windows server 2008 R2 without any size restriction on the C: drive.

I would consider buying a replacement drive, doing a C: drive image backup (MS standard backup utility in the the control panel), replacing the disk and doing a restore. That way if anything goes wrong you can always just put back in the old drive.

 

[navychop]

SQL. SharePoint gone.

Backup isn't working. At all. Period. Whines about low disk space, min 1 GB needed. It's a RAID but I'm getting worried about no decent backup.

 

[StevenD]

We run windows server 2008 R2 without any size restriction on the C: drive.

I would consider buying a replacement drive, doing a C: drive image backup (MS standard backup utility in the the control panel), replacing the disk and doing a restore. That way if anything goes wrong you can always just put back in the old drive.

This action is NOT safe if the server is acting as a domain controller, as most SBS servers do.

 

[StevenD]

If its running IIS, it has a ton of logs you could probably delete.

Use this software and post the screen shot and we can help you out further.

http://www.jam-software.com/treesize_free/

 

[. Raine]

60 GB is the minimum size and also the default size for the system partition for SBS 2008, primary server, when first setting it up. Seems odd that Dell insisted on not going bigger.

Try using an external usb drive for a backup. I'd be worried about messing with it without having a current backup.

maybe one drive in the raid array is going south?

 

[navychop]

I use a USB 3 EHD for backup. Except backup no longer works. As of this moment, 0 bytes on C:

Logs are all gone.

"Cache" off for C: Min for D:

RAID shows fine.

Will investigate the jam bit, must shut down for night, big day tomorrow. Auth external computer help to file MS TT. That's 2 or 3 C notes.

Thank you all. This is "mission critical."