diskshadow in Windows: create, expose and delete shadow copies
How to create a persistent VSS shadow copy with diskshadow, expose it as a drive letter, script it in a .dsh file, and delete it without collateral.
Storage and backup
Disks, file systems, shadow copies and backup: VSS, wbadmin, diskpart, fsutil, chkdsk and NTFS links.
wbadmin Command in Windows: Versions, Recovery and Error Codes
wbadmin is the command line front end to Windows Server Backup. It creates one off and scheduled backups, restores volumes, files, applications…
vssadmin in Windows: shadow copies, VSS writers and why backups fail
Almost every backup on Windows is taken from a shadow copy rather than from the live volume. The Volume Shadow Copy Service…
fsutil in Windows: volume, file and sparse file operations
Most administrators meet fsutil exactly once, in a forum answer that says to run fsutil hardlink list or fsutil dirty query, and…
chkdsk in Windows: what each switch does, and when not to run it
Most of what administrators know about chkdsk was true in 2005. Run it with /f /r, reboot, watch a progress percentage for…
DISKPART: practical guide for sysadmins — 5 scenarios where Disk Management fails
Most disk operations in Windows can be done through the graphical Disk Management tool. But there are situations where the GUI refuses…
How to sync game saves to the cloud on Windows using mklink
Many games store save files in a fixed local path with no built-in cloud sync option. If you reinstall Windows, switch machines,…
How to move AppData folder to another drive on Windows
Some applications write gigabytes of cache, logs, and profile data to C:\Users\John\AppData — with no built-in option to change that location. On…
How to list all symbolic links on Windows
Symbolic links and junctions are invisible in normal directory listings — they appear as regular folders or files in File Explorer and…
NTFS links on Windows: symbolic links, junctions, and hard links compared
Windows supports three distinct types of filesystem links: symbolic links, directory junctions, and hard links. They look similar from the outside but…