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How to find and cleanup growing Exchange SE disk space?

Admin SIRWA 0 Reputation points
2025-10-28T15:34:14.1033333+00:00

We have an Exchange Server SE setup on a virtual Server 2019. It is the only Exchange server and was upgraded from 2016 this summer. Prior to the upgrade the server ran with little attention for multiple years. There is a Sonicwall Email Security appliance (SPAM and Virus filter) between the Exchange server and the internet as well as a firewall. OWA/ECP is accessable internally only.

VMWare provides six virtual disk drives.

First drive Is C: and contains the OS

Second is E: and contains Exchange and the three mount points in a folder (Mount).

Third is F: and contains the pagefile.

Fourth and fifth are database drives mounted in a folder on E:\Mount

Sixth is the logs and mounted in a folder on E:\Mount

Backups are done nightly by a Unitrends appliance and agent on the server.

The E: drive has started growing by 30GB a month. IT currently is at 180GB. Windows Explorer shows 36GB free. But when I check the Exchange folder properties it shows as only 5.33GB. WinDirStat shows the total drive as only 5.2GB. Show hidden files is enabled. Where is the other 138GB? And how do I free some of it back up?

Thanks

Exchange | Exchange Server | Management
Exchange | Exchange Server | Management
The administration and maintenance of Microsoft Exchange Server to ensure secure, reliable, and efficient email and collaboration services across an organization.
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  1. Vergil-V 6,375 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2025-10-29T02:23:29.87+00:00

    Hi @Admin SIRWA 
    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Learn Q&A!    
    Based on your description, I understand that you're trying to identify where the 138GB of storage is being used and how to reclaim some of it. I truly appreciate the detailed information you've shared. It helps us better understand your situation. 

    To assist you further, could you please clarify what you mean by "Exchange Server SE setup on a virtual Server 2019"? Are you referring to running Exchange Server SE on a virtual machine with Windows Server 2019 as the operating system? 

    If so, may I suggest checking whether you're using Windows Server Backup with Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) to back up your Exchange Server? You can verify this by: 

    • Reviewing the Windows Server Backup logs 
    • Checking the Event Viewer 
    • Running the following PowerShell command :
    Get-MailboxDatabase -Server <ServerName> -Status | Format-List Name,*FullBackup

    Reference: Use Windows Server Backup to back up Exchange | Microsoft Learn 

    If VSS is enabled, you can list all existing shadow copies of a specified volume using this command: vssadmin list shadows 
    Reference: vssadmin list shadows | Microsoft Learn 

    If you decide to make any changes to VSS data, please remember to back up your data beforehand to avoid any potential loss. 

    If I’ve misunderstood any part of your setup or if you have any updates, please don’t hesitate to let me know. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you. 

    Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

  2. Admin SIRWA 0 Reputation points
    2025-11-04T19:29:59.7833333+00:00

    Spotted it finally. E: drive vssstorage was at 122GB - 62% of the drive.

    Setting the drive Shadow properties to a temporary lower limit freed up space. Now to talk to Kaseya to see why Unitrends isn't freeing the space after backups.

    Thanks.

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