Prepare Disks and Partitions

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2, Windows Server Update Services

Use the following guidelines to prepare the disks and partitions on the computer where you will install WSUS:

  • Both the system partition and the partition on which you install WSUS must be formatted with the NTFS file system.

  • A minimum of 1 GB of free space is required for the system partition.

  • A minimum of 6 GB of free space is required for the volume where WSUS stores content; 30 GB is recommended.

Note

The 30 GB recommendation is only an estimate based on a number of variables, such as the number of updates released by Microsoft for any given product, and how many products a WSUS administrator selects. Although 30 GB should work for most customers, a worst-case scenario might require more than 30 GB of disk space. If that should happen, the "Microsoft Windows Server Update Services Operations Guide" white paper offers guidance on how to recover. The latest versions of these documents are available on the Microsoft Web site for Windows Server Update Services at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=47374.

  • A minimum of 2 GB of free space is required on the volume where WSUS Setup installs Windows SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (WMSDE).

Note that WMSDE is optional. For a complete list of database software options that have been tested with WSUS, see "Selecting a Database," in Choose the Database Used for WSUS earlier in this guide.