What is windows 7 shadow copy?

Windows 7 has a number of underlying services that runs along with the operating system without actively notifying the user about them. These services are utmost important for stability and security of the operating system. Shadow Copy, exactly speaking Volume Shadow Copy belongs to this list.

Shadow Copy (Volume Snapshot Service or Volume Shadow Copy Service or VSS), is a technology included in Microsoft Windows that allows taking manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of data, even if it has a lock, on a specific volume at a specific point in time over regular intervals. It is implemented as a Windows service called the Volume Shadow Copy service. A software VSS provider service is also included as part of Windows to be used by Windows applications. Shadow Copy technology requires the file system to be NTFS to be able to create and store shadow copies. Shadow Copies can be created on local and external (removable or network) volumes by any Windows component that uses this technology, such as when creating a scheduled Windows Backup or automatic System Restore point.

Snapshots have two primary purposes: they allow the creation of consistent backups of a volume, ensuring that the contents cannot change while the backup is being made; and they avoid problems with file locking. By creating a read-only copy of the volume, backup programs are able to access every file without interfering with other programs writing to those same files.

The data copy process can be handled by the file system or by specialized hardware; in the latter case a hardware VSS provider abstracts the functionality to the operating system. Applications can provide specific support for VSS through VSS writers which control how data is set to a consistent state at the beginning of a VSS operation and maintain that consistency throughout the process, among other functions.