How to find every user's quota files in a Windows server 2003?

Question

I have a Windows server 2003 R1 with 150 users using some folders in a disk limited by quotas. I am asking users to delete old files but it happens that they do not know which files are their own so they can delete them. How can I view a list with the owned per user files in a folder or disk? Is there a Windows Administrative tool which I can use from a Windows 7 or 8 or whatever (linux?) pc to achieve this ?

Answer 1

A simple way to display files and owning accounts is to use the -q parameter of the dir command in a Command Prompt. A more selective display can be done via:

dir /q | find "Administrator"

To display each folder name followed by all files (if any) owned by the Administrator account, pipe the command as follows:

dir /q /s | findstr "Administrator Directory"

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Another solution is via Windows Explorer : Right-click a column and choose to display Owner.

Once the Owner column is displayed, one can sort the files by the owner. Selecting files will display the total size of the selected files in the bottom panel.

One can also display only files owned by a user, by entering in the Search box (top right) the query owner:<user-name>, for example owner:administrator.

Answer 2

Files in a quota are determined by who owns the file. The quota usage is a sum of all files owned by user "domain\username". With this in mind, the best way to see who is abusing space, who has what in their quota etc is to enumerate all files with their size, owner and last used date.

By getting this info and exporting to CSV, you can then group the files in excel to see whats too big, whats too unused and who has a million files more than they should.

When I had to accomplish a similar task, I used teh following piece of VBS. This piece of script will prompt you for a base folder and will recurse everything under it. On completion, a CSV is created in the same folder that the script itself is in:

on error resume next

' Flags for browse dialog
Const BIF_returnonlyfsdirs   = &H0001
Const BIF_dontgobelowdomain  = &H0002
Const BIF_statustext         = &H0004
Const BIF_returnfsancestors  = &H0008
Const BIF_editbox            = &H0010
Const BIF_validate           = &H0020
Const BIF_browseforcomputer  = &H1000
Const BIF_browseforprinter   = &H2000
Const BIF_browseincludefiles = &H4000

Const ForReading = 1
Const ForWriting = 2
Const ForAppending = 8

Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objDlg = WScript.CreateObject("Shell.Application")
Set objShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set objNetwork = CreateObject("WScript.Network") 

'Get the Source Folder
' Use the BrowseForFolder method.
Set objStartFolder = objDlg.BrowseForFolder (&H0, _
    "Please select the FOLDER to report on.", BIF_editbox + BIF_returnonlyfsdirs)

' Here we use TypeName to detect the result.
If InStr(1, TypeName(objStartFolder), "Folder") > 0 Then
    sourceFolder = objStartFolder.ParentFolder.ParseName(objStartFolder.Title).Path
Else
    MsgBox "An error has occured: Unable to read destination folder"
End if

'Ask to open the report now or just close
strMbox = MsgBox("Are youn sure you want to run the report of: " & sourceFolder & chr(13) & chr(10) & chr(13) & chr(10) & "If you continue this may take an exteneded period of time, a message will be displayed when complete, continue?",4,"Are you sure?")

if strMbox = 6 Then
    currentScriptPath = Replace(WScript.ScriptFullName, WScript.ScriptName, "") 
    reportFile = currentScriptPath & "File_Properties_Report.csv"

    'OpenTextFile(destination, forwriting, createnew, open as Unicode) 
    Set objReportFile = objFSO.OpenTextFile(reportFile, ForWriting, True, True)

    'Add headers
    objReportFile.Write("Path, Size(kb), Type, Created, Last Accessed, Last Modified, Owner"  & chr(13) & chr(10))

    'Run though file report process
    ReportFiles sourceFolder

    'Close the file 
    objReportFile.Close

    'Compete
    strMbox = MsgBox("Report Complete")
End if

Function ReportFiles(currentFolder)
   Dim objFolder, objFile, fileCollection, folderCollection, subFolder

   Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(currentFolder)
   Set fileCollection = objFolder.Files

   For Each objFile In fileCollection

        'Get File Properties
        strFilePath = objFile.Path
        strFileName = objFile.Name
        strFileSize = objFile.Size / 1024
        strFileType = objFile.Type
        strFileDateCreated = objFile.DateCreated
        strFileDateLastAccessed = objFile.DateLastAccessed
        strFileDateLastModified = objFile.DateLastModified

        'Get File owner
        strFileOwnerDomain = ""
        strFileOwner = ""

        strComputer = "."
            Set objWMIService = GetObject("winmgmts:" _
            & "{impersonationLevel=impersonate}!\\" & strComputer & "\root\cimv2")

        if strFileType <> "Shortcut" or InStr(1,strFileName, "AlbumArt",1) = 0 or InStr(1,strFileName, "£",1) Then
            Set colItems = objWMIService.ExecQuery ("ASSOCIATORS OF {Win32_LogicalFileSecuritySetting=""" & Replace(strFilePath, "\", "\\") & """}" & " WHERE AssocClass=Win32_LogicalFileOwner ResultRole=Owner")

            For Each objItem in colItems
                strFileOwnerDomain =  objItem.ReferencedDomainName
                strFileOwner = objItem.AccountName
            Next
        End If

        objReportFile.Write(chr(34) & strFilePath & chr(34) & ", " _
                            &  Round(strFileSize,2) & ", " _
                            & chr(34) & strFileType & chr(34) & "," _
                            & strFileDateCreated & "," _
                            & strFileDateLastAccessed & "," _
                            & strFileDateLastModified & "," _
                            & chr(34) & strFileOwnerDomain & "\" & strFileOwner & chr(34) & "," _
                            & chr(13) & chr(10))    
    Next

    'Loop for each sub folder
    Set folderCollection = objFolder.SubFolders

    For Each subFolder In folderCollection
       ReportFiles subFolder.Path
   Next
End Function

If you are wanting to help your users, I would run this overnight and then speak to a user the following day to establish what they can reduce/remove.

If you only want infor for a specific user, you can always tell the VBS to only write out on a match similar to:

strTargetUser = "domain\person"
if strFileOwnerDomain & "\" & strFileOwner = strTargetUser then
objReportFile.Write(chr(34) & strFilePath & chr(34) & ", " _
                            &  Round(strFileSize,2) & ", " _
                            & chr(34) & strFileType & chr(34) & "," _
                            & strFileDateCreated & "," _
                            & strFileDateLastAccessed & "," _
                            & strFileDateLastModified & "," _
                            & chr(34) & strFileOwnerDomain & "\" & strFileOwner & chr(34) & "," _
                            & chr(13) & chr(10))  
end if