How to Enable Disk Quotas in Windows 2000 (183322)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
This article was previously published under Q183322

SUMMARY

Disk quotas provide administrators with a way to limit each user's utilization of disk space on a volume. In order to set quotas, you must have Administrator rights, and the volume must be formatted with the NTFS file system. This article describes how you can set Windows NT File System (NTFS) volume disk quotas in Windows 2000.

MORE INFORMATION

Set Quotas On NTFS Volume

Disk quotas are based on file ownership and are independent of the folder location of the user's files within the volume. For example, if users move their files from one folder to another on the same volume, their volume space usage does not change. However, if users copy their files to a different folder on the same volume, their volume space usage doubles. If one user creates a 200 kilobyte (KB) file, and another user takes ownership of that file, the first user's disk use decreases by 200 KB and the second user's disk use increases by 200 KB.

You can set disk quotas to limit the amount of disk space users can access on a partition, that uses the NTFS. To do so, follow these steps:

NOTE: You cannot enable disk quotas on a partition that is not using NTFS. For information about how to convert a partition that is not using NTFS, please consult the Windows 2000 release notes.
  1. Double-click My Computer.
  2. Right-click the partition on which you want to set disk quotas, and then click Properties.
  3. On the Quota tab, click the Enable Quota Management check box.
  4. If you want all new users to have access to an unlimited amount of disk space, click Do Not Limit Disk Space.

    If you want all new users to have access to a limited amount of disk space, click Limit Disk Space To, and then type the amount of disk space (in megabytes [MB] or KBs). If you want a warning message to be displayed when a user is close to reaching his or her quota limit, click Set Warning Level To, and then type the amount of disk space (in MB or KB) that can be used before the warning message is displayed.
  5. If you want to set a custom disk quota for a user, click Quota Entries.
  6. On the Quota menu, click New Quota Entry.
  7. In the Domain\Name box, type "<domain>\<username>" (without quotation marks), where <domain> is the Windows domain on which the user has an account, and <username> is the user for whom you are setting a disk quota.
  8. If you want the user to have access to an unlimited amount of disk space, click Do Not Limit Disk Space.

    If you want the user to have access to a limited amount of disk space, click Limit Disk Space To, and then type the amount of disk space (in MB or KB). If you want a warning message to be displayed when the user is close to reaching his or her quota limit, click Set Warning Level To, and then type the amount of disk space (in MB or KB) that can be used before the warning message is displayed.
  9. Click OK.
  10. On the Quota menu, click Close.
  11. Click OK, and then click OK again when you are prompted to enable disk quotas.

Additional Options Under Disk Quotas

  • Deny Disk Space to Users Exceeding Quota Limit - Users who exceed their quota limit receive an "insufficient disk space" error 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 or not 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 has to 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, GB, etc.).
  • Log Event When a User Exceeds the 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, filtering for disk event types.
  • Log Event When a User Exceeds the 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.

    After you enable disk quotas on a volume, any users with write access to the volume who have not exceeded their quota limit can store data on the volume. The first time a user writes data to a quota-enabled volume, default values for disk space limit and warning level are automatically assigned by the quota system. The Administrator account is not included in the quota system.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:11/4/2003
Keywords:kbenv kbhowto KB183322
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