File Storage

Written by Chris Lee

Last published at: June 13th, 2022

Overview

The District currently has many solutions deployed for file storage ranging from on-site network drives to cloud hosted (Google "my" and "share" drives).  Each has Pros/Cons.  We will focus here on storage that physically exists somewhere other than the actual device.

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Local Files = Potential Data Loss

Nothing important should be saved locally on a system.  Common examples of local storage include the desktop or My Documents folder.  If a system is lost or non-functional (damage or defect) those files would be considered lost and in most cases unrecoverable

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Staff Drives - 

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Warning

Network drives are dependent on district data center resources. They are limited in capacity and only available when on district network.

Currently district supports following network staff drives (commonly used on Windows systems):

  • P Drive:
    • Limited to 600 MB for most staff some exceptions have granted up to 1.5GB
    • Consider moving to using Google Drive for more flexibility
    • If related to work position consider requesting a Google Share Drive for ease of sharing with others.
  • Staff Share:
    • Central sharing point for many district documents for departments. 
    • Working to migrate to Google Share Drive where appropriate.
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Student Drives

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Warning

Network drives are dependent on district data center resources. They are limited in capacity and only available when on district network.

Currently district supports following network student drives (commonly used on Windows systems):

  • P Drive (Deprecated):
    • Limited to 400 MB for students.
    • Students strongly encouraged to use Google Drive
    • Purged 1 year after graduation year.
      • Class of 2015 data deleted following summer of 2016
    • SY 23-24 graduating class 2029 and beyond will not have P Drives
    • Graduation classes 2023-2028 will continue to have personal drives through graduation.
  • Student Share:
    • Central sharing point for staff to provide content to students.
    • Possible use of Google Shared Drives is being looked into.
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Google Drives

It is strongly encouraged to utilize Google Drive for storing data.

Google Drive offers feature called file stream that makes Google Drive appear as local storage (typically G drive on Windows / Google Drive in Finder on Macbooks).

File stream is an feature that lets you stream My Drive and Shared Drive files directly from the cloud, which in turn: 

  • Allows quick access to all of your Google Drive files on demand, directly from your computer 
  • Frees up disk space and network bandwidth 
  • Decreases sync time 
  • Minimizes the amount of data stored on users’ hard drives 
  • Allows you to browse and organize Google Drive files without downloading all of them to your computer 
  • Choose which files or folders you'd like to make available offline 
  • Use desktop applications like Microsoft Office and Adobe Photoshop to open and edit files stored in Google Drive

Review Google Drive article for more information.

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iCloud

Notes on when iCloud storage may be available and applicable.

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