Disk Quotas

Overview

While LFCDS has a large amount network storage space, we still need to be proactive in managing how much space is allocated for various uses in order to prevent service disruptions. To that end LFCDS implements disk quotas on both the Employee & Student file servers. Quotas allow us to limit how much storage space each person uses on these servers so as not to allow a user to needlessly or unintentionally take up an excessive amount of disk space. The default limits are as follows:

Employee File Server -> 5 GB (Gigabytes) for Faculty & Staff
This server holds employee files including employee's ‘Documents’ (T: drive), the Employee File Share (S: drive), and some personal application settings. Files in faculty/staff ‘Documents’ folders and files that faculty or staff have created or placed in the Employee File Share will count toward this limit. To give you an idea how large a gigabyte is, in just 1 GB you can hold the text of more than 1,000 novels (100,000 words per novel). 

Student File Server - > 5 GB for Faculty & Students
This server contains students’ personal files (T: drive) and shared student/class/grade level files (S: drive for students, P: drive for faculty).

Important Note: Students' Documents folders (T:\ drive) are further restricted to 2.5 GB of storage (half their total allowed). Students will receive an automated e-mail if they come close to or exceed this quota.

Increasing Your Quota

We understand that certain types of academic coursework and administrative files require extra storage space and that digital pictures, videos, slideshow presentations, etc. can consume storage space rather quickly. In view of that, we will increase quotas as needed on a case-by-case basis for school-related files. If you would like to request more space, please contact the IT Service Center at @IT Support or x222.

Cleanup Tips

• Moving Personal Media Files: Collections of multimedia files (music, pictures, video, etc.) take up the majority of our network storage space. Please move any personal collections of music, pictures, and other media files out of your My Documents folder & the Employee Share. We have recently created a C:\@Personal folder on your computer’s local hard drive that is ideal for these personal files. More information on these storage locations may be found on the Electronic Document Filing Guidelines page on the IT intranet. (School-related media collections should remain on the network in your My Documents folder or the Employee share, as appropriate, to be backed up.) 
   
• Moving Sharable Pictures: Pictures that can be shared with LFCDS faculty & staff can safely be moved to the P:\Photographs folder. On a nightly basis, anything placed there will be subtracted from your quota use.
   
• Weeding/Archiving Unneeded Files: Everyone should delete any unneeded files (especially photographs, movies, or music) from your My Documents folder and the Employee share. Refer to the Employee File Share Organization chart, which outlines who is responsible for coordinating the organization & weeding of each of the folders in the Employee share. If you don’t need a file, but can’t bring yourself to delete it permanently for fear it may be useful “some day”, just move it to the corresponding directory in the S:\ARCHIVE folder. This allows us to back the file up to tape to restore if you ever need it, but remove it from active storage now.