Admin Tips
- Windows Server 2008/2003/2000/XP/NT Administrator Knowledge Base
  - Windows 2000
    - Admin Tips
      - File Systems
        Disk Quota "Gotchas"

Section(s): TroubleShooting, File Systems
Published on Mar 08, 2005.
Last Modified on Mar 08, 2005.
Last Modified by Mitch Tulloch.
Rating: Not Rated

Some things to watch out for when configuring disk quotas on Windows servers.

Services like IIS can fail if they have no room for writing their log files. Printing can also fail since the print spooler folders reside on the system volume. Even administrative tools like Computer Management may not start if the TEMP folder has no room to grow. Worst case, the operating system could grind to a halt if there is no room for the pagefile to grow. So be careful when setting disk quotas on volumes used by these services. Also, don't set hard quotas on the system or boot volume or some applications may fail, particularly if you install them using an account that doesn't have administrative privileges. And don't modify the default quota entry setting of No Limit for special identifies like NT_AUTHORITY\SYSTEM, otherwise you may not be able to log on afterwards.

About Mitch Tulloch

Mitch Tulloch was lead author for the Windows Vista Resource Kit from Microsoft Press, which is the book for IT pros who want to deploy, maintain and support Windows Vista in mid- and large-sized network environments. Mitch was also the author of Introducing Windows Server 2008 and technical project lead for the Microsoft Office Communications Server 2007 Resource Kit, both books also from Microsoft Press. For more information on these and other books by Mitch, see www.mtit.com .