Enable disk quotas

Article
10/08/2009

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

To enable disk quotas

Open My Computer.
Right-click the disk volume for which you want to enable disk quotas, and then click Properties.
In the Properties dialog box, click the Quota tab.
On the Quota tab, click the Enable quota management check box.
Select one or more of the following options, and then click OK:

Deny disk space to users exceeding quota limit

Users who exceed their quota limit receive an "insufficient disk space" error from Windows and cannot write additional data to the volume without first deleting or moving some existing files from it.

Individual programs determine their own error handling for this condition. To the program, it appears that the volume is full. If you clear this check box, users can exceed their quota limit. Enabling quotas and not limiting disk space use are useful when you do not want to deny users access to a volume but want to track disk space use on a per-user basis. You can also specify whether or not to log an event when users exceed either their quota warning level or their quota limit.

Limit disk space to

Enter the amount of disk space that new users of the volume are allowed to use and the amount of disk space that has to be used before an event is written to the system log. Administrators can view these events in Event Viewer. You can use decimal values (for example, 20.5) For the disk space and warning levels, select the appropriate units from the drop-down list (for example, KB, MB, GB). For more information about Event Viewer, see Related Topics.

Log event when a user exceeds their quota limit

If quotas are enabled, an event is written to the system log on the local computer whenever users exceed their quota limit. Administrators can view these events in Event Viewer, filtering for disk event types.

By default, quota events are written hourly to the system log on the local computer. You can change the interval at which quota events are written to the system log on the local computer using the fsutil behavior command. For more information about Event Viewer or the fsutil behavior command, see Related Topics.

Log event when a user exceeds their warning level

If quotas are enabled, an event is written to the system log on the local computer whenever users exceed their quota warning level. Administrators can view these events in Event Viewer, filtering for disk event types.

Notes

To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure. For more information, see Default local groups, Default groups, and Using Run as.
To open My Computer, click Start, and then click My Computer.
If the volume is not formatted with the NTFS file system, or if you are not a member of the Administrators group, the Quota tab is not displayed in the volume`s properties dialog box.
Event Viewer builds a historical, chronological record of which users exceeded their quota warning level and quota limits, and when they exceeded them. However, it does not provide information about which users are currently over their quota warning level. To find that information, click the Quota Entries button.

Information about functional differences

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see Viewing Help on the Web.

Enable disk quotas

To enable disk quotas

Information about functional differences

See Also

Concepts

Additional resources