Solved: Low Disk Space in Windows Server SBS 2011

About Windows SBS 2011

Windows SBS 2011 refers to Windows Small Business Server 2011 released by Microsoft on December 13, 2010 and it appeared to be the last version of Small Business Server as we know it. The Windows Small Business Server 2011 is designed for small and medium enterprises, which has two editions, the Standard edition and Essentials edition. Compared with the previous versions like SBS 2000, 2003 and 2008, it comes with some new updates and features.

The SBS 2011 provides many core functionality in the application aspect, such as user management, file and print sharing, network fax, remote access based on Web, VPN, email, Sharepoint, and unified patch distribution (WSUS) function and so on.

Low disk space in Small Business Server 2011

Although Small Business Server 2011 offers lots of system utilities, features to make more use of hard disk space, the SBS 2011 occupies lots of C drive space and keeps on filling it time by time. Therefore, some users are troubled by the low disk space warning in SBS 2011.

“I’m running SBS 2011, I have 180GB HDD and about 12GB free space left. The low disk space error message always pops out and the Server is running slower now. I have checked the server over and can account for about 60GB of data, so what is using the rest space? What should I do to solve it? Thanks”

As low disk space can slow down your computer and accumulate it with viruses, you had better solve this issue as soon as possible. The following content will focus on how to resolve it.

How to solve the “low disk space” issue in SBS 2011?

To get rid of the “low disk space” issue in Small Business Server 2011, you can try to recover the missing hard drive space, or extend the drive to make it bigger. Below come more details.

Part 1. Solve low disk space by recover hard drive space

To restore har drive space in Small Business Server 2011, it makes sense to identify which folders or files takes the most space on your C drive and causes the low disk space issue:

▶Hibernation file - c:\hiberfil.sys

▶Memory swap file (c:\pagefile.sys)

▶Windows Error Reporting (C:\programdata\microsoft\windows\wer\reportqueue)

▶SharePoint Databases (C:\Windows\SYSMSI\SSEE\MSSQL.2005)

▶Component Store - C:\windows\WinSXS

▶Old Log Files (C:\Program Files\Windows Small Business Server\Logs\)

▶Windows Server Update Services (C:\WSUS)

At that point, we can try to recover hard drive space with the following methods.

Method 1. Turn off Hibernation File

Hiberfil.sys is a file created by OS (operating system) when the computer goes into Hibernation Mode. This feature is turned ON by default and takes gigabytes of space (the actual number depends on the size of the physical memory). Luckily you can turn it off via Command Prompt by executing the command: powercfg.exe /hibernate off.

Method 2. Move Swap file from C drive to D drive

The Swap file is also called page file, space on a hard drive used as a temporary location to store information when RAM is fully utilized. So it is not advised to disable it altogether. What makes more sense is to transfer the Page file ( c:\pagefile.sys ) to another partition with more free space ( like d-drive).

Briefly, you can change its location in this way: right-click "Computer" and choose ”Properties”; then switch to ”Advanced” -> “Performance / Settings” -> “Advanced / Virtual Memory” -> “Change”. Disable the swap file on the C-Drive and create one on D.

Method 3. Disable Windows Error Reporting

Windows Error Reporting (WER) is an event-based feedback infrastructure designed to gather information about the hardware and software problems Windows detects, report the information to Microsoft and provide users with available solutions. If you indeed do not want to participate in Microsoft's Error reporting program. You can disable it:

1. Use the Windows Key+R keyboard shortcut to open the Run dialog box. Input ”services.msc” and press on OK.

2. Right-click “Windows Error Reporting Service” and choose “Properties”.

3. Click ”Disabled” from the menu next to ”Startup type”.

4. At last, click “OK” or ”Apply”.

Besides the above, you can also try to reduce SharePoint Database, move Windows Update Services data from C drive to another, clean up old log files, etc.

Method 4. Move some apps from C drive to another drive

Besides, if there are lots of big applications on the SBS 2011 C drive, you can transfer some of them from the C drive to another drive to free up space. Then, you might need the help of  AOMEI Partition Assistant Server (Windows Server SBS 2003, 2008, 2011 and 2003, 2008 (R2), 2012(R2), 2016, 2019 and Windows 10/8/7 supported). Its "App Mover" can help move applications from one partition to another partition or disk. Now you can download the Demo version for a free trial.

 Step 1. Download and install AOMEI partition Assistant Server. After opening, you can see many useful functions on the main interface, click “Free up” on in the top toolbar, and choose “App Mover”.

Step 2. Choose the C drive and click on "Next".

Step 3. Select the applications you want to move and click "Move".

Step 4. Hit on "OK" when prompted to close running applications forcefully.

Part 2. Fix low disk space by extending SBS 2011 C drive

The above methods can help restore some space on the C drive to some degree. To solve low disk space in SBS 2011 essentially, it is better to extend C drive in Windows SBS 2011. For this task, you can make use of Disk Management if the C drive is followed by adjacent unallocated space.

However, if the Extend Volume greyed out because there is no contiguous unallocated space, you can run AOMEI Partition Assistant Server  as well. This Server partition manager can combine non-adjacent unallocated space into C drive directly, and allocate some free space into another partition.

◆If there is unallocated space available on the disk, try the “Merge Partition” function.

Step 1. Run and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant Server, right-click the C drive, choose “Advanced” and select “Merge Partition”.

Step 2. Tick the unallocated space and click “OK”.

Step 3. Back to the main interface, click “Apply” and "Proceed" to commit the pending operation.

◆If there is no unallocated space on the disk, you can try “Allocate Free Space” function.

Step 1. Right-click the partition, which has lots of free space, and click “Allocate Free Space”.

Step 2. In this window, you can decide how much space you want to add into C drive and click “OK”.

Step 3. Click “Apply” and “Proceed” to execute the pending operation.

Note: a restart will be required since it involves system drive. If the C drive is formatted with NTFS file system, you can use the “Extend Partition Wizard”, which can help you extend NTFS system drive without rebooting computer.

Summary

To solve “low disk space” in Windows SBS 2011, you can take measures from two aspects: restoring drive space and extending drive space. Choose the proper method as you need. Worth to mention, AOMEI Partition Assistant Server also has other many other functions. For example, it is able to move Server operating system to new hard drive (SSD/HDD), split partitions, change SD card serial number, convert boot disk between MBR and GPT without deleting partitions, etc