Excluding Drives from ConfigMgr Use

By default, the Site Component Manager will select the NTFS volume with the most available free space to copy component binaries or to store distribution point content to. That may not always be appropriate, and if you would like to exclude a drive from SMS component usage, just create an empty file in the root of the drive named no_sms_on_drive.sms. Prior to using a drive, the site component manager will check for the existence of this file in the root of each drive, and will not use any drives on which the file exists. For Microsoft’s documentation of this check out http://support.microsoft.com/kb/871234.

 Please note that it will not affect any SMS components that already exist on the drive before you create the file. This is not a new trick, but it’s amazing how many people are not aware of it.