Recycle Bin for Windows Server 2003 File Shares

One of the networks I administrate uses Windows Server 2003 File Shares to provide network storage for users. To prevent against accidental deletion, I use Shadow Copies to create snapshots twice a day. This method is only effective, however, for files which were on the share during the last snapshot. When users accidentally deleted files recently placed on the share, I have no recourse except to remote desktop into the server and attempt retrieval with an undelete utility (this is only effective if the file has not been overwritten).

Is there a feature like the Windows Recycle Bin for Windows Server 2003 File Shares? What is the best way to protect my users against accidental file deletion in this scenario?

Solution 1:

Third party applications like Undelete can do this - but I think Microsoft simply considers a file share as not really a document system. For storing, keeping version control over and handling important documents - something else is needed. Like the mentioned Sharepoint (though I can't say I enjoy the user experience of it) or some other of all the document management systems out there.

You could also check your backup solution and see if you can go to continuous backup instead of daily for the share. Most backup applications these days should have that at least as an add-on. That way, if supported on the server, all changes will be backed up as they occur, or with only a few minutes delay. This is a nice feature to aim at a disk backup system with a few days of history at most - while keeping nightly backups for longer as usual on tape or whatnot.

Solution 2:

Unfortunatley, there is no Recycle Bin feature for any Network Share on any version of Windows.

It did make a brief appearance in Vista but then disappeared before RTM.