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eHelp » Windows File System FAQ

Q. What is this temporary Windows file system?

A. The Windows file system was set up as a temporary bridging file storage system, pending a permanent replacement for Intranet email and file storage. This temporary solution was intended to serve faculty members who receive their laptops before the Intranet file system replacement is in place, and has a hard limit of 2.4 Terabytes for all users. With a current total potential user base of about 2,500 faculty and staff, this translates to a hard limit of about 1 Gigabyte per user if everyone on campus started using it.

Q. Why can’t I&IT just increase the storage limit for those who need it since not everyone needs that much space?

A. It is not feasible to increase this storage without completely replacing the back-end storage at a cost of several tens of thousands of dollars. So, we need to either limit the number of users and/or limit the per user storage allocation until we have the replacement up and in service.

Q. Why haven’t we heard about this before?

A. Quotas were enabled when the service was turned on, the Campus Tech group was informed of the quota limits nearly a year ago and faculty members who received laptops were told about the limits when they received their laptops.

Q. What is the current file storage quota?

A. On the temporary Windows file cluster, users are allocated an initial quota of 750 Megabytes. The Help Desk can increase this on request in 250-Megabyte increments up to 1.5 Gigabytes. Beyond that, the Help Desk contacts the I&IT Systems staff, who will increase storage limits up to 2.5 Gigabytes. If users ask for more than that, they are directed to the Director of I&IT Systems, who would then work with each user to examine their needs and consider alternatives, which include:

1. Currently on the Intranet, we give users by default 50 Megabytes of storage, which serves as file storage and their web and email storage. This can be increased upon request to the Help Desk to 300 Megabytes. Beyond that, users must contact the Systems Director, who can discuss each user’s needs.
2. I&IT has another system available for file storage. This system, controlled by I&IT Learning, has an additional 690 Gigabytes. This system is currently being used by the Digital Media Minor (DMM) faculty and students for their coursework but is available to anyone or any group with special needs.
3. In addition to all this, the DMM technical support staff is in the process of setting up their own Macintosh server.
4. In addition to this file storage capacity, all Exchange users have a separate default storage quota for email of 100 Mbytes, extensible to 2 Gigabytes on request.

Q. Under what circumstances does I&IT allocate additional space?

A. Currently this is done entirely on the honor system, on request from either the user or designated departmental support technicians. If someone seeks to exceed the specified thresholds, they are vectored to the I&IT Systems Director to examine alternatives.

Q. What is the text of the message a person would get and when they have exceeded or are about to exceed their quota and when would they receive these messages?

A. The quota warning threshold is hit when the user has only 10 per cent of free space remaining and results in a WARNING message (see below). The quota limit threshold is hit when the use has 0 per cent free space remaining and results in the LIMIT EXCEEDED message.

Here are the default messages:

WARNING message:

LIMIT EXCEEDED message: