Troubleshooting Shadow Copies for Shared Folders

  • Article

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

Troubleshooting

This section provides problem-solving guidelines for deploying Shadow Copies of Shared Folders.

What problem are you having?

  • The Properties dialog box does not contain a Previous Versions tab (for example, on the shared resource or local volume). I cannot the list of previous versions that have been created.

  • The Event Log is filled with Event ID: 7001.

  • Shadow copies are being deleted, but I still have plenty of storage space available.

The Properties dialog box does not contain a Previous Versions tab (for example, on the shared resource or local volume). I cannot the list of previous versions that have been created.

Cause: You cannot view previous versions of files on a local shared resource. You must have a working network connection and be viewing the volume as a shared resource.

Solution: Verify that your network connection is available. Then, create a connection to the shared resource on your local computer as if it were in another location on the network. For example: To view previous versions of files in the shared folder \Documents on the local computer \\Server1, you would need to create a network connection to \\Server1\Documents and access the previous versions as if they were on a remote computer. Right-click this network connection and select Properties to see the Previous Versions tab.

The Event Log is filled with Event ID: 7001.

Cause: A volume that was scheduled for shadow copies has been removed or is unavailable. The task scheduler is attempting the task and every time the task fails, it writes an error to the event log.

Solution: Delete the scheduled task using the Task Scheduler. For more information, see Remove a scheduled task.

If you are removing a volume that is being shadow copied, delete the scheduled task before deleting the volume so the event log is not filled with errors.

Shadow copies are being deleted, but I still have plenty of storage space available.

Cause: There is an upper limit of 64 shadow copies per volume that can be stored.

Solution: Adjust the schedule for taking shadow copies to a rate which retains a long enough history of the files without reaching the limit of 64 shadow copies.

See also:  Defining a schedule for shadow copies; Determining storage options for shadow copies