Policy for allocation of space on network drives. Current date: May 12, 2008 Approved by: Dr. Vicky Stewart, Vice President Planning and Organizational Effectiveness
Policy
Network drive space is a college resource provided for the purpose of storing current work-related materials and files. All employees are responsible for managing this space, which includes deleting nonessential or obsolete files to keep space utilization at a minimum. Personal media files such as music files, personal images, or video clips are not to be stored on network drives.
The College allots a specific amount of network drive space to meet the needs of individuals and departments. Technology Services is responsible for monitoring network drive space and notifying individuals and departments when they exceed the allotted space. Individuals and departments may request a quota increase. Upon receipt of a request, the drive space will be reviewed for compliance with the data storage policy. Additional space may be allocated based upon need and availability of resources.
Network Drives
The following is a list of the most common drives accessible to employees:
The H:\ drive is the individual network drive. Disk space on this drive is to be used to store college related information including instructional or class-related materials. Each employee is allotted 2 gigabytes of individual network drive space.
The W:\ drive is the departmental drive. This drive serves as active file storage and file sharing within departments. Departments are allocated 50-100 gigabytes of network drive space. On occasion an employee may also have an M:\ drive. This drive is designated for an employee who is the member of one department but also needs to access files from another departmental W:\ drive. The W:\ for the other department is assigned the drive letter M:\.
The Q:\ drive provides for file sharing among different departments and enterprise-wide committees. Read/write privileges vary depending upon the users and departments. Two gigabytes are allotted per folder for this purpose.
The L:\ drive is available to instructors for storing class materials for distribution to students. Students have read-only privileges. Two gigabytes per instructor are allotted for this purpose.
Backup Schedule
All network drives are backed up nightly. Once each month a single copy is retained replacing the previous months copy. No backups are kept longer than one month.
Local drives on individual desktops and laptops are not backed up. Local drives typically include C:\ , D:\ , and E:\ drives. The “My Documents” folder is saved on a local drive, typically the D:\ drive on college computers. Peripheral devices such as thumb drives (other names include jump drives or thumb drives) are not backed up. If a failure occurs on the local drives or on a thumb drive, there is the risk that files may not be retrieved.
Rationale for the Policy
College network drive resources are provided to ensure safe and secure locations where employees of the college may store current, work-related documents. Prudent use of this resource ensures that everyone has the storage they need to execute their daily tasks and maintain documents and files.
Drive Charts
The chart provides a guideline for the type of data appropriate for each network drive resource.
H: Drive (Personal drive) – 2 GB
Suggested Uses
Not Intended For
Active file storage for individuals
Course materials for current classes (Faculty)
Critical individual document backup
Short term data transport
Active file storage for departments
Archival course materials (Faculty)
Critical department document backup
Department wide software
Department file sharing
Non-work related music, movies, or pictures
System backups
Course materials for classes a faculty or staff member is enrolled in
Non-work related software
Executable programs
W: Drive (Departmental Drive) – 50 - 100 GB (Individuals linked to a departmental drive my also have the M:\)
Suggested Uses
Not Intended For
Active file storage for departments
Administrative information storage
Critical departmental document backup
Departmental file sharing
Active file storage for individuals
Critical individual document backup
Document archiving
Non-work related music, movies, or pictures
System backups
Non-work related software
Archival course materials
Q: Drive (Network Apps) – 2 GB (Contents of this drive as well as read/write privileges vary between users and departments)
Suggested Uses
Not Intended For
Active file storage for multi-departmental or enterprise wide committees file sharing
Administrative information storage
Sharing of multi-departmental software
Shared databases
Active file storage for individuals or single department
Critical individual or department document backup
Document archiving as defined by Technology Services
Non-work related music, movies, or pictures
System backups
L: Drive (Class Data Drive) – 2 GB (Faculty have read/write privileges to store class data. Students have read only privileges)
Suggested Uses
Not Intended For
Class materials for distribution to current classes
Active file storage for individuals or single department
Critical individual or single department document backup
Document archiving as defined by Technology Services
Non-work related music, movies, or pictures
System backups
Class materials from previous years
Procedures
Employees and departmental representatives should review the contents of the drives they have access to and delete any files that are not allowed within this policy. Suggestions for reducing the size of the network drives include:
Remove personal files from all network drives.
Remove outdated class materials that are no longer needed or have been replaced by new course materials on their H:\ drives.
Review with the departmental supervisor to identify any materials that should be removed from the departmental drive. If there are old materials that should be archived, the departments can send a request to the Help Desk to arrange for archiving to optical media.
Faculty should work with their departments to identify and remove duplicated and or out-dated course materials such as textbook provided data files (especially on the L:\ drive).
Departments that teach multiple sections of the same course, using the same textbook should place the textbook files in one subdirectory on the L:\ drive and make sure the old files are removed.
Responsibilities
Users are expected to use college resources in a responsible manner. The Director of Technology Services is responsible for ensuring that the storage resources are sufficient to meet the employee and department needs of the College. When an exception to this policy is granted, Technology Services is responsible for reviewing all requests for additional allotments and making appropriate adjustments as deemed essential to the operation of the College.