Configuring Disk Quotas on NTFS Volumes

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

To enable disk quotas, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority.

To enable disk quotas

  1. Open My Computer, right-click the disk volume for which you want to enable disk quotas, and then click Properties.

  2. On the Quota tab, click the Enable quota management check box.

  3. Specify the quota limits, thresholds, and event logging options that you want to use, and then click OK.

Table 7.20 shows the available options for disk quotas.

Table 7.20   Quota Management Options

Option Description

Deny disk space to users exceeding quota limit

Users who exceed their quota limit receive an "insufficient disk space" error message 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 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 must 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, or GB).

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 and filter 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. Fsutil is a command-line tool that you can use to perform tasks related to FAT and NTFS file systems.

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. 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 by using the Fsutil behavior command.

For more information about using disk quotas, see "Disk Quotas" in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003. For more information about the command-line tool Fsutil, in Help and Support Center for Windows Server 2003, click Tools, and then click Command-line reference A-Z.