Manage Disk Quota

Disk Allocation

When an engineering account is created Engineering students are allotted 400 megabytes of disk space and engineering faculty and staff are allotted a minimum of 1 gigabyte of disk space. It's best to be aware of your disk usage because if you near or pass the quota limit, you may not be able to save files, and may encounter cases where your files can become corrupt.

If you are having quota difficulties regarding disk space, please follow these steps...

Check Disk Usage using the Website

To check your disk uage using the DECS website, see the Engineering Accounts page here, and enter your username and password. After you have logged in, you will be presented with a variety of information including your Disk Usage.

Check Disk Usage using Windows

To check your disk usage from Windows, you must follow the Website instructions above or use WinDirStat . Right clicking on your M:\ drive, and clicking properties will NOT give the correct information.

Check your quota using UNIX

In order to check your quota, type 'my_quota' at any Unix prompt. This will give you an output which shows how much space you are using, and how much space you are allowed. 'quota -v username' is another command you may use. If you are indeed over quota, or close to being over quota, there are a few things you can do.

Cleaning Script

To do a quick cleaning of your home directory from UNIX, you can run the 'clean_me' script. This program will allow you to view/remove files that appear to be logs or temporary files. Remember, your files are backed up and can be retrieved.

For directions on remotely connecting to a UNIX machine, please see How to download and utilize SSH.

Check Disk Usage and Remove files

With Windows

Use WinDirStat .

With UNIX or Linux

At a unix prompt while in your home directory type 'du -h --max-depth=1'.
The output will look something like this...

<1 [jelneckt@chavez]:~ >du -h --max-depth=1
20k ./Desktop
12k ./.acrobat
204k ./.adobe
8.0k ./.ansys
28k ./.dia
64k ./.dt

etc... The number to the left of the directory shows how much space (in kilobytes) the files within the directory are taking up. In this way you can find out where the majority of your quota is being utilized. From this point, you can proceed 'cd <directory name>' into individual directories and eliminate uneeded files. The 'du -h --max-depth=1' command can also be run in the directories.

Look for files that you have saved that take up a large amount of space. If you no longer need these files, delete them using the 'rm' command. DO NOT delete files in which you do not recognize, or in which you do not know their purpose. Deletion of system files can be detrimental to your account.

After following these steps, enter `my_quota` again. It may not have updated yet. A more authoritative value can be obtained by du -s ~.

Further Assistance in removing files

For further information about additional file to be removed, click here .