Network filespace

Note: For full details of current filespace allocations and, where applicable, charges,
please see the IT Service Catalogue.

Network storage provision

Personal filespace - the H: drive

Each member of staff and research postgraduate student has a default allocation of personal filespace on the University network. This filespace, usually referred to as the H: drive or home filespace, is accessible via Computer or Windows Explorer from your desktop PC or from any PC that you log onto using your University username and password. After logging in, your home filespace will appear as the H: drive.

You may also access your home filespace remotely via the University’s Virtual Private Network (VPN). The VPN provides you with secure, authenticated access to your H: drive - all you need is an internet connection.

Additional personal filespace may be purchased, if approved by your department.

Other network filespace

Colleges, Schools, University Administration, and the PC Classrooms all have allocated filespace. All data on the network storage system can be accessed from one starting point: \\uoa\global. Once this path is mapped in Windows, you will see:

You can navigate through this structure to folders and files you have permissions to access. This is additional to your mapped drives. Contact local admin colleagues for further information.

Additional shared filespace may also be purchased (minimum purchase ½ TB). This must be owned by a member of staff who will be responsible for ensuring that the storage is used appropriately. See the Service Catalogue for details.

File back ups and restores

Files are backed up nightly, weekly and monthly, and backups retained for up to 18 months. Service Desk staff can assist you with recovery of deleted files up to this age limit. A full description of our backup policy is in the Service Catalogue.

Automatic file compression

You may notice some of your file names on network drives appear in blue rather than black.

This simply means they have been compressed to reduce the amount of storage space they take up. Compression does not affect the content of the files, but does reduce a file’s footprint by 10-15%.

Maximising access speed

Our network storage system gives priority to more recently accessed files. At present, files of 8K and above, and over one year old are stored in a separate area. You can still access these files but it may take slightly longer to retrieve them. Once accessed, however, they are moved back to the ‘recently accessed’ area.

Any file you haven’t accessed in over 12 months appears with a grey cross (Windows 7) or black ‘clockface’ (Windows XP) over the file icon:

Windows 7		Windows XP

This will help you to easily identify files for archiving or deleting (as per the University’s retention policy
www.abdn.ac.uk/central/records-management/retention-schedules.pdf), and so free up more storage space.