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→Using Computer Management to Enable and Configure Volume Shadow Copies
[[Image:windows_server_2008_shadow_copy_properties.jpg|The Shadow Copy Properties Panel]]
The ''Select a volume'' section of the properties dialog lists the volumes present on the local system. Select the volume in this list for which Shadow Copy is to be enabled. With the volume selected click on the ''Settings'' to display the following Shadow Copy ''Settings'' dialog box:
[[Image:windows_server_2008_shadow_copy_settings.jpg|Shadow Copy Volume Settings]]
In the ''Located on this volume'' specify the volume on which the shadow copies are to be stored. This can be either the current volume or a different volume on the system. The ''Details'' button displays free and total disk space information for the currently specified volume. Once a sutiable volume for the shadow copies has been selected the maximum size to be made available for the shadow copies may be defined. This can either be set to ''Maximum size'' which will use all available space on the specified volume, or capped to a specific size (keeping in mind that a minimum of 300MB is required for the shadow storage volume.
Schedule the shadow copy snapshots by clicking on the ''Schedule...'' button. By default, Windows configures two snapshots each day (at 7:00am and 12:00pm respectively). To remove a currently defined snapshots select it from the drop down list and click on ''Delete''. To modify a run, select it from the drop down list, modify the settings in the lower section of the dialog and click on ''OK''.
To specify different schedules click on the ''New'' button and specify the days and time of the snapshot. Note that snapshost can also be configured to occur at logon, reboot and when the system is idle. In fact, Windows Server 2008 provides considerable flexibility in terms of scheduling shadow copies. It is important to keep in mind, however, that there are disadvantages to running a copy too frequently. Firstly, shadow copies are resource intensive tasks. Repeated snapshots during periods when the server is heavily used may well degrade overall performance. Secondly, it is important to keep in mind that Shadow Copy retains the last 64 version of a file. Therefore, if a snapshot is run every hour, the oldest restore point available to a user will be approximately two and half days. If, on the other hand, snapshots are taken twice a day, the user will have the luxury of restoring a file from a point as much as 32 days in the past. The following screenshot illustrates the Shadow Copy scheduling dialog:
[[Image:windows_server_2008_shadow_copy_scheduling.jpg|Shadow Copy Scheduling Dialog]]
Once the schedules have been configured, click on ''OK'' to dismiss the scheduling dialog. CLick ''OK'' once again in the ''Settings'' dialog to return to the ''Shadow Copy'' properties panel. At this point, the volume for which a schedule has been defined will have a small clock image superimposed over the the volume icon and will indicate that 0 bytes of shadow copy storage have been used. The next step is to enable shadow copies on the volume by selecting the volume from the list and clicking on the ''Create Now'' button.
