--- title: Microsoft VSS: Still Essential, But Not the Whole Story description: Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) remains foundational for Windows-native application-consistent backups, coordinating a Requester, Writer, and... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Microsoft VSS: Still Essential, But Not the Whole Story | daily.dev og:description: Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) remains foundational for Windows-native application-consistent backups, coordinating a Requester, Writer, and... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/dvkidREzn.png og:image:alt: Microsoft VSS: Still Essential, But Not the Whole Story og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Microsoft VSS: Still Essential, But Not the Whole Story **[Huntress Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/huntress-blog)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) remains foundational for Windows-native application-consistent backups, coordinating a Requester, Writer, and Provider to create point-in-time snapshots. However, it hits hard limits at scale: a 64TB volume ceiling, Copy-on-Write performance overhead on modern NVMe storage, Windows-only lock-in, and false confidence against ransomware, which often specifically deletes local VSS snapshots. ReFS Block Cloning is compared as a complementary, not competing, technology, offering near-instant metadata-based copies up to 35 petabytes but lacking VSS's application-aware freeze/thaw ecosystem. The piece argues VSS should be one layer within a broader resilience strategy that includes off-site, immutable backups. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is the maximum volume size supported by Microsoft VSS before it fails? Microsoft VSS does not support volumes larger than 64TB. Attempting to run VSS on a volume above that limit results in error codes such as 0x80042306 or system instability. Organizations with large-scale storage environments need to use hardware-level or filesystem-native snapshotting instead, such as ReFS Block Cloning, which scales up to 35 petabytes. _Teams sizing storage for backups can compare snapshot limits and tooling trade-offs on daily.dev._ ### Can Volume Shadow Copy snapshots protect against ransomware? No, local VSS shadow copies should never be treated as a definitive ransomware defense. While they can help with quick operational rollbacks, modern ransomware variants explicitly target and delete local VSS snapshots immediately upon execution, so off-site immutable backups are required for real protection. _Security-minded engineers weighing backup resilience against ransomware track guidance like this on daily.dev._ ### How do VSS and ReFS Block Cloning work together in backup software? VSS handles application-consistent freezing while ReFS Block Cloning handles the actual data copy. VSS orchestrates application Writers (like SQL Server) to pause and flush writes so data is consistent, then ReFS Block Cloning uses near-instantaneous metadata pointer manipulation to duplicate large files without physical copying overhead, such as Hyper-V virtual disk checkpoints. _Infrastructure teams designing backup pipelines around VSS and ReFS can find this kind of detail on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Windows has too many backup tools, but this free app beats them all](https://daily.dev/posts/windows-has-too-many-backup-tools-but-this-free-app-beats-them-all-flcfjnzov) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [April KB5083769 Windows 11 update causes backup software failures](https://daily.dev/posts/april-kb5083769-windows-11-update-causes-backup-software-failures-s8x272otn) · BleepingComputer · 7 upvotes · 0 comments - [Your Windows 11 SSD just lost up to 50GB to a new feature you've never heard of — and that's a good thing](https://daily.dev/posts/your-windows-11-ssd-just-lost-up-to-50gb-to-a-new-feature-you-ve-never-heard-of-and-that-s-a-good--rg5o0yson) · XDA Developers · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [No backup, no cry](https://daily.dev/posts/no-backup-no-cry-bl8deav5b) · David Heinemeier Hansson · 180 upvotes · 7 comments --- Tags: [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#ransomware](https://daily.dev/tags/ransomware) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Microsoft VSS: Still Essential, But Not the Whole Story","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn"},"datePublished":"2026-08-18T16:16:33.408Z","dateModified":"2026-09-13T19:32:29.794Z","description":"Microsoft's Volume Shadow Copy Service (VSS) remains foundational for Windows-native application-consistent backups, coordinating a Requester, Writer, and...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9605e15a1253d70877ff76e50cc17721?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/9605e15a1253d70877ff76e50cc17721?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Huntress Blog","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Huntress Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--kDC1MDsj--/f_auto,q_auto/v1780213277/logos/huntress-blog?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/huntress-blog"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"microsoft,ransomware","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Huntress Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/huntress-blog"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Microsoft VSS: Still Essential, But Not the Whole Story"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/microsoft-vss-still-essential-but-not-the-whole-story-dvkidrezn#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is the maximum volume size supported by Microsoft VSS before it fails?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Microsoft VSS does not support volumes larger than 64TB. 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