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BlueGene
Asked: 2010-05-26 11:40:02 +0800 CST

Large temp files created in Windows Server 2003 temp folder

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I'm managing a Windows Server 2003. A couple of times the server has crashed with error message saying that the C: drive is full. After searching folders to free up space, I found that lot of temp files being created in C:\WINNT\Temp and some of them of enormous size with more than 2GB. The temp files seem to have a common name pattern, Efs###.tmp. Since we encrypt files frequently using Windows's EFS, I initially suspected Windows encryption. But as per the documentation, Efs###.tmp are created only under the folder which is currently being encrypted, not in Temp folder.

This looks very strange; unless someone tried to encrypt that Temp folder itself, the temp files(Efs###.tmp) shouldn't be created under C:\WINNT\Temp. The server has Tivoli Backup client. Could that be messing with windows Encryption? Can anyone shed some light on what could be causing the issue?

Note:Edited for brewity

windows-server-2003 filesystems encrypting-file-system

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    I'd setup File Monitor with a suitable filter and leave it running. Or have it triggered by Performance Monitor. Certainly leave Perfmon running to see the time as this might give an indication of a cronjob running at the same time etc..

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  2. Have you tried to unencrypt these files? You can also use the efsinfo command from the Resource kit to get more information about the files.

    Cipher /d /a Efs###.tmp
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