Configuration of Shadow Copies
The configuration form allows you to configure Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS)
on each volume (hard disk) of your computer. You can open the form by clicking
the blue button located to the right of the TimeTraveler timeline. The form
shows information about the volume currently displayed in Windows Explorer.
Other volume information is accessible by clicking the Next and Previous
buttons. The volumes are individually configurable.
The configuration form contains 3 tabs: Storage, Shadow Copies and
Schedule. Figure 1 shows the Shadow Copies tab. It presents the current list
of shadow copies on the volume. For each shadow copy the date and time, the
attributes and the system identifier are displayed. You can create a new shadow
copy or delete the currently selected shadow copy with the Create and Delete
buttons respectively.
Figure 1: The Configuration form set on the Shadow Copies tab
Configuration of Shadow Copies
Figure 2 shows the storage tab. It lets you set the maximum storage space
used for shadow copies. The graphic representation will help you visualize the
volume space usage. Set the storage space large enough so you have the needed
number of shadow copies. Microsoft recommends 15% of the total capacity of the
disk.
It is important to understand that new shadow copies displace old shadow
copies when the total space used reaches the maximum you have allowed. In
addition, if you have only a small amount of space left on your volume, you may
run out of storage space altogether if you have a large allocation for shadow
copies.
After installation, a non-system volume does not have shadow copy storage
associated with it. Therefore, the maximum shadow copy storage space displayed
in the form will be zero. If you attempt to increase it, the associated storage
will not be created and you will get an error message. But, pressing the Create
button in the Shadow Copies page will create the shadow copy storage for the
volume along with the first shadow copy. Once the shadow copy storage is
created, you can configure its maximum storage to the desired value. A value of
-1 means no limit.
Figure 2: The Configuration form set on the Storage tab
Configuration of Shadow Copies
Figure 3 shows the Schedule tab. It allows you to configure one schedule per
volume. A schedule has an interval defined in minutes, hours or days. A schedule
can have start and stop dates. If no start date is specified then the schedule
starts today. If no stop date is specified then the schedule runs indefinitely.
A schedule interval specified in minutes or hours can have start and stop time.
If no times are specified then the schedule runs all day. A day interval
schedule has a start time. Implicitly a schedule starts at midnight on the start
date and stops at 23:59:59 on the stop date. To create a schedule, select the
interval using the radio button, set the parameters and then press the Apply
button. To remove a schedule, select the 'None' radio button and press the Apply
button.
Figure 3: The Configuration form set on the Schedule tab
Configuration of Shadow Copies
You will probably find that Windows has already created a number of Shadow
Copies even before you installed TimeTraveler. These can be helpful if you need
to look back to the time before your installation. Even after you configure your
own shadow copy schedule, you will probably still see a few extra copies that
Windows adds on its own. It typically creates these before making changes to
the system or part of the backup.
