1. In a computer system that includes a volatile primary storage and a persistent secondary storage, the computer system supporting transaction processing of user data using shadow copying, a method of removing shadow copies from the persistent secondary storage as part of a recovery from a failure, comprising the steps of: providing a logical organization of objects, the logical organization being logically divided into named partitions with each partition being capable of holding one or more objects that contain user data; providing a transaction table, stored in the persistent secondary storage, for holding names of partitions that have been opened by transactions; opening selected partitions for writing by transactions, a shadow copy of at least one object held by each of the selected partitions being generated in the persistent secondary storage; adding a name of each of the selected partitions to the transaction table in response to the selected partitions being opened; performing a last close on at least one, but not all, of the selected partitions; removing the name of each of said at least one of the selected partitions in response to said at least one of the selected partitions being closed; and recovering from a failure, including deleting any shadow copies of the at least one object of the selected partitions whose names remain in the transaction table.