File storage
On this page:
Quick guide to storage options
| If you need to: | Consider using: |
|---|---|
| Access your word-processing documents, spreadsheets, media files, and presentations and work on them from multiple locations | Removable storage media, Box, or Oncourse Resources |
| Store and access data and program output related to your research | Distributed storage services |
| Share files with a class you're teaching or a project team | Oncourse Resources or Box |
| Share files with colleagues (outside of Indiana University as well as within) via a web interface (grad students, faculty, staff) | Slashtmp or Box |
Note: Your campus may have additional or alternative options. For details, contact your campus Support Center.
Also, see a comparison of enterprise and commercial storage solutions.
Removable storage media
An excellent option for storing and transporting your files is a portable USB drive (thumb or flash drive). Flash drives are useful for word processing files (e.g., papers or other assignments, notes), PowerPoint presentations, and other files you need to access and work on from multiple computers.
For more permanent storage, consider burning a CD-R or DVD. This might be useful for completed projects or as a backup.
While these media give you greater physical control over your files, use of them is subject to the availability of the drives (except for portable USB drives, which require only a USB port). For more about removable media at IU Bloomington, see Removable media devices in the IUB STCs and At IUB, in a Mac OS X STC, how can I view a DVD? For more about removable media at IUPUI, see Removable media devices in the IUPUI STCs
Note: Removable storage media can be easily misplaced, damaged, or magnetized, causing you to lose data. You should always have more than one copy of important files. For critical files, you should have one copy on your computer for convenience and easy access, one on removable media for quick recovery, and one on a server that is regularly backed up and can be reliably recovered (e.g., Oncourse).
Cloud storage
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Box: The IU Box service provides 50 GB of simple,
secure online storage. You can use your Box account to securely share files with anyone who has an email
address. For more, see About Box at IU.
Important: Box at IU is designed as a flexible storage service and collaboration tool, but is not acceptable for any institutional data classified as "restricted" or "critical". The service is appropriate for personal files and institutional information classified as public or university-internal. See Classifications of Institutional Data and appropriate data for Box at IU.
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Oncourse: The Resources tool in
Oncourse provides 1 GB of storage space for
individual use. In addition to storing files in Resources for your own
use, if you are an instructor or the owner of a project
site, you can use Resources to share files with a class or
project team. For more, see File storage in Oncourse.
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Research systems: Home directories on IU's
Unix-based research systems (Big Red, Quarry,
Mason, and the Research Database Complex) allow
you to store 10 GB of data. The 10 GB disk quota is shared among the
systems on which you have accounts. For more, see Disk space on IU's research systems
Note: If you need more than 10 GB of permanent storage for your research, consider applying for an account on one of IU's distributed storage services (see below).
- Distributed storage services: IU offers a rich set of distributed storage services to researchers on all IU campuses, including the Research File System (RFS) and the Scholarly Data Archive (SDA). Accounts are available on these systems for faculty, staff, and graduate students. For more, see Quotas on the RFS and SDA and Applying for your SDA or RFS account
Temporary storage
Graduate students, faculty, and staff can use the Slashtmp service to temporarily store and share large files via a web interface.
Important: When using Slashtmp to store data subject to HIPAA or FDA CFR 11 regulations, or other information classified as critical at IU (e.g., Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or bank account numbers), you must choose the "Critical" version from the Slashtmp home page before proceeding with your upload.
Scratch disk space for temporary storage of data is available locally on Big Red, Quarry, Mason, and the Research Data Complex. Additionally, the Data Capacitor is mounted to each system, providing shared scratch space for running programs and temporary storage of program output. UITS does not maintain any backups for scratch directories, so you will not be able to retrieve your files if they are deleted. For more, including purge policies, see Disk space on IU's research systems
