> There has been no complaints about disk usage to data. How much does a
> TByte cost anyway- about the equivalent of an hour of labour?

It depends what sort of TB. If it's a disk for a PC being installed then it's cheap. If it's being added later as a second drive then it's also cheap, but then you've got a non standard setup, with some data on C: and some on D:, and the CD is suddenly E instead of D:. That might be no trouble, or it might cause hassles.

If you need to replace the existing drive, it's more time consuming. I don't know how to do it other than by reinstalling Windows, although I'm sure it can be done without that.

If it's a server being installed then it's a bit more expensive for the drives because they're high speed SCSI, and you'll need more that one because it's RAID. And you might need a bigger tape drive and a new set of tapes to go with it for backups.

If you're adding it later, and it's an existing volume that needs expanding, then you can copy all the shares over to replace it, or fiddle around with way to expand onto it that may eventually cause trouble, but it still takes time.

I hate adding disk space, not just because of the bother, but because I know half the files probably aren't needed anyway.

> I have lots of survey field data which I am not registering and hold in
> my laptop and arguably comes uninportant once the report is finalised.
> Most people hold this stuff in the personal drive on the server which is
> safer but it is said that option will soon be taken away and temporary
> files will always be on local drive, and because they are temporary are
> considered not important enough to back up. I still make sure another
> copy still exists on the survey instrument or memory stick at least till
> processing is finalised and that finalised data is registered, either on
> the survey instrument

Wise thinking. They might be temporary, but they're valuable till they've been used. My solution for that sort of file is to have what we call the "temp drive". Everything on this drive is deleted at the start of the week. It would be better if we deleted files in there after 7 days, but once a week is simpler and seems to work.

I'd love to ban that file from the server, but there are too many people who don't have a good grasp of file maintenance, and just keep everything and don't separate drafts from finals. Add to that the brilliant idea someone had to make everyone's My Documents a synch copy of their home directory, and the server fill up quick sometimes.