Shadow Copies of Shared Folders

Applies To: Windows Server 2008

Shadow Copies of Shared Folders provides point-in-time copies of files that are located on shared resources, such as a file server. With Shadow Copies of Shared Folders, you can view shared files and folders as they existed at points in time in the past. This can help you to quickly recover deleted or changed files, or to compare versions of a file you are working on.

Aspects

The following is a list of all aspects that are part of this managed entity:

Name Description

Diff Area Integrity

The Diff Area is the storage space that Shadow Copies of Shared Folders allocates on a volume for maintaining the snapshots of the contents of shared folders. A snapshot is a block-level set of information that represents the differences between the current content and content from a previous point in time. The integrity of existing and new snapshots depends on the integrity of the Diff Area.

Volume Revert Operations

You can use shadow copies to return a volume to the state it was in when a shadow copy was created. When you revert a volume, all changes made to files and folders on the volume after the point in time when the shadow copy was created are lost.

Volume Snapshot Driver Integrity

Shadow Copies of Shared Folders uses the Volume Snapshot driver (Volsnap.sys) to create shadow copies in Windows. This driver uses storage space allocated on a volume to maintain a snapshot of the contents of the shared folders. This storage space is called the Diff Area.

File Services