Vancouver Island University

Managing Quota Limits on Network Storage

Quota Limits

Default Quota Limits

Determining your Quota Usage

Quota Increases

Recommendations for Quota Management

File Storage Options

Links

 

Quota Limits

Quota limits are imposed on all network storage: U: drives*, Network shared drives and Employee Email. These limits have been applied to track usage progression for planning purposes and ensure everyone has equal access to network storage resources. As all VIU users (Faculty, Staff and Students) share these network resources, it is important that everyone makes efficient use of the available space.

*Roaming Profile users - a roaming profile is stored on the server and is considered part of your U: drive quota
For more information, please see our web page on User Profiles

Default Quota Limits

The default quota limits for network storage are as follows:

• Student U: Drive: 200 MB
• Employee Email: 100 MB
• Employee U: Drive: 250 MB
• Network Shares: 250 MB/person

Determining your Quota Usage

Once you have mapped to the share (your U: drive is automatically mapped for you on login), open My Computer and click once on the Drive. In the left hand pane you will see your personal usage for that share (Total and Free space).

Shared Drive Note:

For shared drives this will only display 'your' allotted space on the shared drive, NOT the amount of space being used by other members of your group, or the total size of the share.

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Quota Increases

Students

Please see below for recommendations on Quota Management.

Please also see our web page for information on Student Quota Increases

Employees

It is important that you review your space usage before requesting an increase. Use the guidelines listed below. If after reviewing these sections you feel you still require an increase send an email request to Helpdesk (include information about your review).

Recommendations for Quota Management

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Roaming Profile Cleanup

Quick and Easy Ways to reduce the size of your Roaming Profile

• Empty Temporary Internet Files and Cookies
  • Open an Internet Explorer window and go to Tools -> Internet Options
  • Under the Temporary Internet Files section click the Delete Files... and Delete Cookies... buttons
  • Click OK to close the window
• Reduce the amount of disk space used by Temporary Internet files
  • Open an Internet Explorer window and go to Tools -> Internet Options
  • Under the Temporary Internet Files section click the Settings... Button
  • Lower the Amount of disk space to use (for example 10MB)
  • Click OK, then OK again to close window
• Empty Internet History (or reduce the number of days the History is kept)
  • Open an Internet Explorer window and go to Tools -> Internet Options
  • Under the History section click the Clear History button and/or reduce the number of days the History is maintained
  • Click OK to close the window
• Empty the Recycle bin
• Move files and folders from your desktop or My Documents to your U: drive
• Google Desktop and Windows Desktop Search users - Desktop Search programs should NOT be installed on VIU computers or laptops. There is no easy way to manage the size of the index files they creates, and these can grow to 4 - 8GB in size. These files are stored in your profile. *For Faculty & Staff* - there may be an alternate indexing service available, please contact the IT Helpdesk.
• Google Earth users - Google Earth stores information about the maps you have visited in a cache file. This file can easily grow to take up your entire quote.
  • See the Technology FAQs page and search for Google Earth for more information

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File Storage Options

Depending on the types of data that you are storing, how frequently you need to access the data, and the need for producing backups, you have a number of options available.

U: Drive Recommendations

• Active/development files that you use or reference frequently
• Files are backed up by ITS
• No Recycle Bin for U: drive - files deleted are gone*

Shared Drive Recommendations

• Files that are needed for shared group access
• In development or referenced frequently
• Files are backed up by ITS
• No Recycle Bin for items on network shares - files deleted are gone*

C: Drive Recommendations

• Files that do not need to be backed up
• Files that are already backed up to CD
• Files are NOT backed up by ITS
• Deleted items are sent to the Recycle Bin

CD Recommendations

• Unchanging files - i.e. photos
• Files that are needed for occasional reference
• Earlier versions of documents

*Faculty & Staff - If items have been deleted or overwritten in error, contact the IT Helpdesk to recover these items. The Helpdesk will need the following information: name of the file (including file extension or type of file), network location of the file (including all sub-folders), date of the last known good copy of the file.

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Links:

CD/DVD Burning
Watershed: an open network storage resource
File Management Basics for Students
Network Storage
Shared Drives
Mapping a Network Drive
Managing your Outlook Email Quota