Disk Quotas were introduced in Windows 2000 and carried through to Vista. Disk Quotas lets administrators to limit how much disk space users’ can use on a volume that is formatted with NTFS. Disk Quota limits are based on file ownership. This means that if a User A creates a 300 Kb file, their disk use is increased by that amount. If User B takes ownership of that file, their disk usage is increased and User A’s disk usage is decreased.

You can enable this feature on an NTFS volume using the steps listed below:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right click the volume you want to enable disk quotas and click Properties.
3. Click the Quota tab.
4. Click the Enable Quota Management option.
5. To limit the amount of disk space for new users click the Limit disk space to option.
6. Set the appropriate values for the Limit disk space to and the Set warning level to options.
7. Click OK.

If you want users to receive an “insufficient disk space” error when they exceed the disk space limit, then you also need to select the Deny Disk Space to Users Exceeding Quota Limit option.