ICT Services stores and backs up hundreds of terabytes of data every year, across a number of storage systems.
Every person with a user account at College has an allocation of space on our file server in which they can
store their own files. Most documents you create when logged into a College computer, as well as the settings for the programs you use, end up here.
This area is known as your home folder.
Currently, the standard home folder allocation for students is 5GB and for staff is 10GB. Students
taking digital media courses with intensive file storage needs receive a larger allocation.
If you run our of space in your home folder, the first thing you should do is try deleting some unncecessary files by moving them to the Trash and emptying it.
If you have a legitimate need for more storage space, this is easily arranged, so please contact ICT Services.
You will soon be able to access the files stored in your home folder remotely — that is, from home, from the boarding houses, indeed from anywhere on
the internet. You will be able to copy your files, modify them, even upload new files.
Keep an eye on our home page for news about this!
All files in users' home folders are backed up nightly to our LTO-3 tape backup system.
If you accidentally delete a file, or find a file to be corrupt, we can recover
it from our tape backup for you, as long as it was present the previous night. Please contact us if you need to arrange this.
Other vital services, such as email and our student databases, are also backed up onto tape each night.
If your work was not in your network home folder, because it was on your laptop or on an external hard disk for example, it will not be backed up automatically.
ICT Services urges all users to take responsibility for performing personal backups! Most computers around
the school have CD or DVD writers, or both; all computers accept USB flash drives and external hard disks. Blank CDs and 1GB USB flash drives are available from
the school stationery shop. If you'd like advice about purchasing external storage, please contact ICT Services.