I like to know what’s on the drives that are supposed to be dedicated to data and log files. So I run a quick check of sys.master_files:
SELECT LEFT(physical_name, 1) as Drive,
SUM(size)*8/1024 as SizeMb
FROM sys.master_files
GROUP BY LEFT(physical_name, 1)
ORDER BY Drive;
And then I compare the numbers I got back against what Windows says. Hmm, odd. SQL says it’s using up 296,869 Mb (that’s ~289 Gb) of space on U:\, but when I go to Start > Computer it says it’s using up 390Gb of space on U:\.
Rogue files! Rogue files on my data drive! I now have to HUNT DOWN AND PUNISH those 101 Gb of files freeloading on my data drive. And oh, how they’ll pay….
First, Gather Data and Compare
Step 1: Get the physical_name of all files on that drive from sys.master_files. That’s easy: SELECT physical_name FROM sys.master_files WHERE physical_name like ‘U%’;
Step 2: Open powershell, navigat to U:\, and run get-childitem -name -recurse -filter *.*
Step 3: Compare the lists. You can, of course, import to SQL and compare that way, or just paste each list into Excel for a look-see.
Sure enough, there were about 100Gb of duplicate data files – MDFs, NDFs, and LDFs, if you can believe it! – on that server that hadn’t been touched in years. Time for vengance…
Delete Files, if you Dare
There are a number of ways we could go about removing these files, of course. In my case, it so happens that all my current, supposed-to-be-there files have recent modification dates, and everything else is pre-2012. That makes it very easy!
Let’s start with a test script, that will just list the things we want to delete:
get-childitem “U:\SQL03\” | where {$_.lastwritetime -lt (get-date).adddays(-365) } |% {write-output $_.fullname}
Explanation:
- get-childitem “U:\SQL03\” | Get all objects in the specified directory, and pipe them to the next operation.
- where {$_.lastwritetime -lt (get-date).adddays(-365) } | Test each item’s “last write time” date against today -365 days; if they’re earlier than that date, pipe them to the next operation.
- % {write-output $_.fullname} Take each item and output its name.
Awesome. All we have to do to change this into a dangerous, file-destroying script*is to replace write-output with remove-item.
Wait, I could use this to routinely clean up old backups too, right?
Funny you should ask! Yes.
Let’s say you want to delete backup files in a dedicated folder that are older than N days, and repeat regularly. Just take this and schedule it in a SQL Agent job! (You might want to change the -365 to -30, or whatever your given retention period is, in days.)
Yeah, but my SQL backups go to a UNC share 
Except that your backups aren’t on a local drive; they’re on a UNC share, and you’re getting a weird error. No problemo!
Your new, file-destroying script* that will indeed delete all files older than 30 days now looks like this:
cd “\\Server01\SQLShare”; get-childitem “\\Server01\SQLShare \SQL03\FULL” | where {$_.lastwritetime -lt (get-date).adddays(-30) } |% {remove-item $_.fullname}
Let’s make this slightly safer, and only delete the *.bak files older than 30 days:
cd “\\Server01\SQLShare”; get-childitem “\\Server01\SQLShare \SQL03\FULL” -filter *.bak | where {$_.lastwritetime -lt (get-date).adddays(-30) } |% {remove-item $_.fullname}
There we go, wielding Powershell like Foe-hammer in a goblin cave**. Feels good, don’t it?
Happy days,
Jen McCown
http://www.MidnightDBA.com/Jen
*Note that the sys.master_files “size” column isn’t in Mb, but in pages. To translate pages to Mb, SELECT name, (size*8)/1024 as SizeInMb from sys.master_files.
*Which you will test thorougly before you use in a production environment, So Help You Codd.
** Too nerdy?
Inspirational code source: Powershell delete files in subfolder older than 30 days with out deleting subfolders
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