Classroom and Lab Computing

UDrive Space Quotas

Contents

Why Have Quotas?

Why limit disk space at all?  Disk space is cheap, right?  350MB is not much!  Yes, true, but the kind of hardware that 1000's of people can access at the same time is a bit more expensive than the disks in your average PC.  Moreover, managing the space -- particularly making backups -- is proportionally difficult with the size of the space and the number of files.

In order to accommodate as many people as possible, there must be limits on how much individuals can save.

The PASS file system has larger quotas.

What Happens

When you exceed your quota applications will get a "disk full" error when trying to write files.  Programs like Eudora won't work.

Determining Your Quota

To see your quota and space used (if you are under your quota):

1. Right-click on your home folder one of these ways
   • open your Home Folder (double-click the icon on the desktop), and right-click on the top folder; or
   • find either the U: or V: drive in any Explorer window, and right-click on the drive letter
2. Pick Properties from the context menu.
3. You will see numbers for Used space, Free space and Capacity. 
   • Capacity -- is how much space you are allowed (350MB)
   • Used space -- how much you are using, or your maximum quota, whichever is less.
   • Free space -- Capacity minus Used space

If you are over your quota, keep reading to see how much you are using and what folders to look into to reduce your space.

Determining Space Used

When you are over you quota, see how much space is used in each folder by picking TreeSize Directory Info under the Start Menu and Accessories.  Pick your home folder (e.g., U:\x\y\xyz123).

You can also right-click on your folder in Windows Explorer and it will show you the total space used.  However, for users on separate "mounted" volumes (userids starting with a, c, j, m, and s) you will have to find your folder under the UDrive root (usually mapped as "U:", then right-click that.

NOTE: the status line in Windows Explorer shows the space used only by the files in the currently selected folder, excluding those under it. It is not an indication of your total disk use.

Hints and Tips

• There may be large files in your ..\Eudora\spool folder, which are parts of messages that didn't download, perhaps because of large attachments.  Close Eudora and erase them.  Do not erased the LMOS.DAT file.
• You may have may large files and duplicate files in your ..\Eudora\attach folder.
• Pictures in the TIFF and BMP formats waste a lot of space; convert them to JPEG or put them into a ZIP file.
• You can also use the PASS file system to store files.  On a Windows Lab machine, look for the W: and X: drives.
• You can put files on a CD or other removable medium.

File Sharing

Disk space quotas are maintained and enforced by the file system (NTFS).  They are defined for each logical volume and linked to file owners (not location).  The owner of a file is usually the person who originally wrote the file.   If someone gives you write access to a folder under their root folder, and you put a file there, the space it takes initially counts against your quota.  Since this would be confusing (you may never be able to find out where all "your" files are), every night a job runs that resets the owner of every file under each person's home folder.

For example, if Jane writes a 5MB file to Sally's folder, Jane's disk space use will go up by 5MB, but Sally won't see an increase in her disk space quota use until the next day.