Some process filling up the space on C drive

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Some process filling up the space on C drive

balbirsinghsodhi

SSCrazy Eights

Points: 9210
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April 16, 2008 at 12:28 pm

#154286

There is some process which fills up the space on C drive at particualr time and then releases it.
Is there a way to check what is that process. ?
I am thinking of setting up a SQL profile and see the activity. If I setup a SQL profile then which option should I use to check the activity on C drive.
Any help will be appreciated.

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SQL ORACLE One Orange Chip Points: 27807 More actions · Answer 1

It may not be SQL Server-related. You may add an alert using master..xp_fixeddrives in your alert.

balbirsinghsodhi SSCrazy Eights Points: 9210 More actions · Answer 2

Thanks for the reply.

The command you have mentioned will only tell you that how much free space on all the drives but how can you tell which process is filling up the space on C drive.?

Animal Magic SSChampion Points: 13964 More actions · Answer 3

The following few commands may help. They will tell you the size of your databases, you could monitor these to tell you if its the databases that are growing and filling the disk space.

exec sp_spaceused

select size * 8 as SizeMB, name from sysfiles

dbcc sqlperf (logspace)

It may be worth just sticking a quick monitor on a perflog too, use the SQLServer:databases - Data size(kb), monitor that and just see if the size keeps going up and up.

If it doesnt turn out to be a sql database that is taking up the space then there is a fairly decent tool out there called spacemonger (it used to be free, not sure if it still is) that gives you a graphical report of your disk allocations. You can keep refreshing that periodically and see whats using the space.

Im sure there are other ways, my brain is just a bit fried at the moment and this is all i could come up with. Hope it helps you a bit.

Steve T SSCommitted Points: 1994 More actions · Answer 4

balbirsinghsodhi (4/16/2008)
There is some process which fills up the space on C drive at particualr time and then releases it.
Is there a way to check what is that process. ?
I am thinking of setting up a SQL profile and see the activity. If I setup a SQL profile then which option should I use to check the activity on C drive.
Any help will be appreciated.

Another file that comes to mind is the paging file as you mentioned C drive. The paging files may grow if set for a dynamic value and sql is paging out due to memory constraints.

If this is a database(why is your db on C:? :)), then one or more of you databases would have autoshrink on. Don't forget to look at tempdb. This generally is not a good thing.

Good luck!