IS Connection

Z drive changes for Fac-Staff

Information Systems will be reorganizing the Z drive (for faculty and staff) for ease of use and administration. At the moment, there are over 200 folders at the root of Z (FS.USERDATA/shared for Mac users). Without a mechanism for assigning ownership to files and folders, it's nearly impossible for IS to maintain this shared storage space.

The Z drive exists primarily to store content that has relevance outside of a single department. This could be for committees, collaboration among departments, and for institution-wide items. Items that are personal or not intended for an institution-wide audience should not be stored on the Z drive.

Beginning at 5 p.m. on Oct. 30, the new structure will be:
Z:\
{_holding} (where unidentified folders will be placed until Dec. 19)
{dept}
{special} (e.g., AIER, CMPT; restricted access)
{universal} (e.g., forms, policies, regulations)
{committees} (with subfolders for all committees)

Obvious departmental folders will be retained as-is. New folders will be created for departments that do not currently have them.

All current folders at the root of Z that do not fit into the above scheme will be moved to Z:\_holding. You may move them to the appropriate place in the new heirarchy. All contents of Z:\_holding will be deleted on Dec. 19.

PLEASE NOTE: It will no longer be possible to create or rename folders at the root (base) of the Z drive. If you would like your department's folder to be renamed, please send a request, with dept. head approval, to the Help Desk. Requests for special folders should also be directed to the Help Desk.

Also note that disk quotas for the new base level folders will be phased in at a later date. You will not be penalized for existing space use, but are encouraged to delete obsolete files.

Suggested action: After Oct. 30, look in Z:\_holding for files or folders that should be retained, and move them to the appropriate department or committee folder.

Thanks for helping us turn back the clock on years of entropy on the Z drive!