Troubleshooting Disk Quotas

  • Article

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

Troubleshooting

What problem are you having?

  • The Quota tab does not appear on the Properties dialog box.

  • Cannot delete a quota entry.

  • A user gets an "insufficient disk space" message when trying to add files to a volume.

  • Users exceeded their quota limits when Windows NT 4.0 was running.

  • Quota entries appear to be outdated.

  • Cannot enable quotas for a volume on a remote computer.

The Quota tab does not appear on the Properties dialog box.

Cause: Disk quotas can only be set by members of the Administrators group on volumes formatted with the NTFS file system. Therefore, the Quota tab does not appear if you are not a member of the Administrators group, if the volume is not shared from the volume's root directory, or if the volume is not formatted with NTFS.

Solution: If you want to track or limit disk space usage, ensure that you are a member of the Administrators group, that the volume is shared from the volume's root directory, and that the volume is formatted with NTFS.

See also  Quotas and converted NTFS volumes.

Cannot delete a quota entry.

Cause:  You cannot delete a quota entry for a user account until all files that the user owns have been removed from the volume or another user has taken ownership of the files.

Solution:  Move, delete, or take ownership of all files that the user owns on that volume.

See also  Delete quota entries.

A user gets an "insufficient disk space" message when trying to add files to a volume.

Cause:  The user has exceeded the quota limit.

Solution:  Increase the user's quota limit, move or delete files from the volume, or clear the Deny disk space to users exceeding quota limit check box in Disk Quotas.

See also  Enable disk quotas.

Users exceeded their quota limits when Windows NT 4.0 was running.

Cause:  Disk quotas work under the Windows 2000, the Windows XP, and the Windows server 2003 families of operating systems only. For example, if you set disk quota limits on a computer that is configured to run both Windows NT 4.0 and Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, users can exceed their quota limit while Windows NT 4.0 is running. If this happens, the next time that Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, is started, users who have exceeded their quota limit while Windows NT 4.0 was running cannot add files to the volume to which the quota is applied.

Solution:  To enable users to add more files to the volume while Windows Server 2003, Standard Edition, is running, see the previous issue. To prevent users from exceeding their quota limit on a volume under Windows NT 4.0, change permissions on the volume so that users do not have Write permission.

See also  File and folder permissions.

Quota entries appear to be outdated.

Cause:  The Enable quota management check box on the Quota tab for the volume is not selected. Windows retains any pre-existing quota information but cannot update it unless quotas are enabled.

Solution:  Enable disk quotas. For instructions describing how to enable disk quotas, see Enable disk quotas.

Cannot enable quotas for a volume on a remote computer.

Solution:  Establish a connection to the remote volume and then enable quotas. For instructions on how to establish a connection to a remote volume and manage quotas on that volume, see Manage disk quotas on a remote computer. For instructions on how to enable disk quotas, see Enable disk quotas.