[MS Windows System Backup] There is not enough space on the disk

Error

[MS Windows System Backup] There is not enough space on the disk

This error appears on Windows System (Bare Metal Image) backups, and can also appear on System State backups.

Cause

There are two possible causes:

• The temporary storage location is low on space. The backup image is written to the backup set’s temporary storage location first, so it needs enough free space for the whole image.
• Files in the temporary storage location are locked. We have also seen this error when there was plenty of free space. Files left in the temporary storage location from an earlier backup were open and locked, so the backup software couldn’t overwrite them. The likely cause was antivirus software scanning them.

Fix

1. Check the free space on the drive used as the backup set’s temporary storage location. See How to Create a Windows System or System State Backup Set for where this is set. If space is low, free some up or choose a drive with more space.
2. If there is plenty of space, check for locked files. Open Resource Monitor (press Windows key + R, type resmon and press Enter). On the CPU tab, type the temporary storage location’s path in the Associated Handles search box to see which programs have files open there.
3. Restart the server. This releases any locked files.
4. Exclude these folders from antivirus scanning:
   • C:\Users\<username>\.obm
   • the backup set’s temporary storage location (for example D:\; this is different on each device)
5. Run the backup again.

If the error mentions the volume shadow copy, see There is not enough disk space to create the volume shadow copy on the storage location.