Quote:
Originally Posted by SlowLane
Hi Garry, thanks for the welcome and your response.
The problem as I see it, is the way Server2008 stores multiple dlls etc for the side-by-side support. The winsxs folder on my VPS is using up 6GB of the 11GB being used by C:\windows.
There is actually very little installed, only the standard stuff like Plesk, SmarterTools, SQL 2005 and so on, that one needs to run a functional server. Fact remains 2008 eats up a stack more hdd than 2003 ever did, and what I am griping about is that your VPS bundle does not seen realistic where Server 2008 is the OS. Just a few more gigs on the Starter VPS would make it very nice.
On my 2003 server with 10GB disk and with everything installed, and a bunch of users and sites running, and I still have about 3GB free.
Anyway, it looks like an upgrade is in the only way out! 
T. |
The Winsxs folder it the component store in the operating system. All of the components are found here. In practice, nearly every file in the WinSxS directory is a "hard link" to the physical files elsewhere on the system-meaning that the files are not actually in this directory. The WinSxS folder is supposed or designed to have duplicates of system and other components files. This is one of the main reasons for it being created in the first place. Earlier, you would have software installation programs that would overwrite system dll files with their own versions and cause other programs to break in the process. This was a huge problem and the WinSxS folder was created to solve this problem. WinSxS contains multiple versions of many files so that a program can use whatever version that it was created for, without bothering other installed software programs on the system. Deleting duplicates in this folder will have only one result. A complete reinstallation of the operating system and other programs.
In order to reduce the size of Winsxs folder, please try the methods below.
- Uninstall unnecessary applications if possible
- If your computer is running Windows Server 2008 SP1, please use Vsp1cln.exe tool to clean up the space or if your computer is running Windows Server 2008 SP2, please use Cmpcln.exe tool to clean up the space. (They are located under \%windir%\system32\)
To do this, please follow these steps:
- Open an elevated command window
- Type vsp1cln or cmpcln.exe
- Type Y to start the cleanup process.
*Note: After you use this cleanup tool, you will no longer be able to remove the Service Pack, should any problems occur. Make sure that the system is stable before using. This tool is a one-time use tool. Once it's used it will no longer work on the same installation.
- Delete blobs.bin file & reboot the system.
The blobs.bin file which is located at \Windows\winsxs\ManifestCache\blobs.bin is used as a caching mechanism for servicing operations that are set to happen against the system. The file will naturally grow & shrink in size as various servicing actions take place against the machine & are satisfied. It the file grows out of control, let’s say it occupies several GBs space. You can safely delete this file without any fear of it damaging anything on the server as this file is just for caching. The file will be recreated when you reboot the system.
If deleting the file does not resolve the growth issue, set the permission of the file to deny everyone from writing to it. The stack will see a failure to write to this as a signal that it doesn’t need caching & it will move on servicing files..
NOTE: I'd recommend a complete system backup before trying anything..