When you are trying to copy a file that is currently being used exclusively by some other program in Windows, the operating system might refuse to copy that file. But what if you have to perform a backup of the entire system volumes on your PC? Windows gives you two options in this regard – either you turn off the PC and use a bootable media tool to create the backup of the system volumes or you can use the VSS Service provided by Windows. Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) gives you access to all the files irrespective of whether they are being used by other programs in exclusive mode or not.
If you want to know the status of the VSS service in your Windows PC, then you can use the free Z-VSSCopy program. This program displays the current contents of the shadow copies on each and every partition of your disks. You can also see how much disk space is reserved for volume shadow copies on each volume.
You can also define how much space should be used for VSS functions on a particular partition. It allows users to restore old file versions, to track changes in the system, and to delete unneeded Shadow Copies.
In addition, it can show you the status of the VSS service – if it is running or if it has stopped. You can start the service from withing the Z-VSSCopy interface if it is found to be stopped.
The System Restore feature in Windows could create many System Restore points on your hard disk leading to the filling up of the disk space without any real necessity. Since the System Restore feature uses VSS service to create the Restore points, you can use Z-VSSCopy to view and remove such Restore points easily.
Z-VSSCopy can be used to view and delete all the Volume Shadow Copy snapshots easily in any Windows PC. It also lets users copy files from VSS snapshots back into Windows system in case it gets accidentally removed or becomes corrupted.
You can download Z-VSSCopy from http://www.z-dbackup.com/.