Default file storage quotas

Storage space for staff and students

Personal File Stores | Shared Areas (File Shares) | SharePoint | Non Core University Business

The following file storage capacities are available for staff and students:

Personal File Store

For staff, the current quota is 4Gb. For students, the quota is 1Gb. 

Why should I use my Personal File Store?

Your Personal File Store, accessed via the M: drive from any university PC, is your recommended primary file storage area for personal information. It can also be used to host your Personal Web Pages. In addition, it can also be accessed from off campus via FTP, or the Off Campus Application Service. It is secure, and regularly backed up on a nightly basis. 

Find out more about Personal File Stores here.

Shared Areas (File Shares)

Shared Areas for use in support of core University Business will be provided free-of-charge and incremented as necessary to meet increasing storage requirements. Currently, free usage is capped at 750Mb.

What should I use a shared area for?

If a group of staff need to work on or access the same files, a shared area of filestore or File Share can be set up on the network. This works in a similar way to a Personal Filestore (M drive) but can be accessed by more than one person. It has all the advantages of the M drive in terms of safety, security, and convenience, and is much more efficient than other ways of sharing files (e.g. passing floppy disks around the office).

Find out more about File Shares, and request a new one be set up here.

SharePoint

Storage space for SharePoint use in support of core University business will be provided free of charge, and will not be subject to direct quota restrictions.

Find out more about SharePoint here

Non-core University Business

File storage or SharePoint provision for purposes other than core University Business, (such as externally funded projects, funded research or commercial activity) will be charged at the rate of £6 per Gigabyte for a four year period; with a minimum purchase 5Gb for 4 years (@£30).

Find out more about hosting charges here

Managing your files

Disk storage is a finite resource, and requires proper housekeeping;

• All users are required to use their file stores sensibly and responsibly, for the purposes intended, and to minimise unnecessary use by deleting files which are no longer required. Provision of additional storage is subject to this.

• In the future, CIS will be implementing archiving technologies to optimise storage use by moving older files to lower cost secondary storage. Further to this it is anticipated the University will introduce document retention policies to further assist in the optimal management of storage whilst maximising its provision.