Regarding space used in the backup drive

ashwin · Thu Jul 28, 2005 5:30 pm

OK.. Here is a situation. I have starwind on the remote server and using Microsoft ISCSI initiator in the client machine. I connect to the target , create a backupdrive in the client machine.. Let me explain with an example. I create a 500 MB image file in the server..

When I create a basic drive in my client computer which is NTFS formatted. The size is shown as 494 MB..

Situation1:
------------
I backup a big file of size 200 MB into this backup drive. Now the drive says
used space : 200 MB.
Free space : 294 MB.

I delete this big file and I regain the entire drive space.. It is back to Free space : 494 MB..

Situation 2:
-------------
I backup small files and folders of size around 40 MB.. Now the drive would say
Used space : 40 MB
Free space : 454 MB
I delete these small files and folders and I am NOT regaining the entire free space of the drive. It would show still I am using 40 MB..

Why is that and What should I be doing to regain the space ?

Once I delete the files from the backup drive , I also clear the recycle bin..

Thanks,
Ashwin

Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:24 pm

It's the way NTFS works with fragmentation. It has nothing to do with iSCSI, StarWind, Rocket Division or whatever. Use disk defragmentation software. And ask correct questions in the correct newsgroups. Maybe some of the MS gurus would help you more.

ashwin wrote:OK.. Here is a situation. I have starwind on the remote server and using Microsoft ISCSI initiator in the client machine. I connect to the target , create a backupdrive in the client machine.. Let me explain with an example. I create a 500 MB image file in the server..

When I create a basic drive in my client computer which is NTFS formatted. The size is shown as 494 MB..

Situation1:
------------
I backup a big file of size 200 MB into this backup drive. Now the drive says
used space : 200 MB.
Free space : 294 MB.

I delete this big file and I regain the entire drive space.. It is back to Free space : 494 MB..

Situation 2:
-------------
I backup small files and folders of size around 40 MB.. Now the drive would say
Used space : 40 MB
Free space : 454 MB
I delete these small files and folders and I am NOT regaining the entire free space of the drive. It would show still I am using 40 MB..

Why is that and What should I be doing to regain the space ?

Once I delete the files from the backup drive , I also clear the recycle bin..

Thanks,
Ashwin

Val (staff) · Thu Jul 28, 2005 8:38 pm

Hi Ashwin,

The case you described is nothing to do with disc-level access and iSCSI.

There is some NTFS filesystem's issue that the free space is not shown correctly.
You could perform a simple test - just copy a 490MB file to the drive and you'll see is the space missed or simply the free space reported is not updated.

ashwin · Tue Aug 02, 2005 8:10 pm

Valery,

In the server were Starwinds is installed , I navigate to program files\rocketdivision software\starwind\images and in there I see all the image files that I have created..

For the image that I am actually testing the size for , when I right-click that image file and go to properties , i see

size : 500 MB <== when i created the image file , i created a 500 MB one.

size on disk : 183 MB <=== Does this mean 183 MB of data is stored in this image file..

Is this the only way to know from the server or wherever starwinds is installed , how much of free space is there in an image file ?

Thanks

Val (staff) · Tue Aug 02, 2005 9:05 pm

Ashwin,

The ImageFiles are created as NTFS SPARSE files in StarWind v2.6.1.
Disk space is allocated for a Sparse file only if data is written to it.
So in your case the 500MB image file uses 187MB of disk space.

There is no way to see how much of free space is there in an image file but mounting it with an iSCSI initiator and looking at the drive's properties reported by its filesystem(s).