Why should I save my work to my personal file space on the server, the X: drive?

The X: drive is your personal protected save space on our network. Work stored there is backed up automatically by the server on a regular basis. It's only available to someone who knows your login name and password. Under normal circumstances that's just you. You can access work saved to your X: drive from anywhere on the network.

Floppy disk use IS NOT recommended. If you save your work to a floppy disk keep a backup on another floppy disk or your U drive. Floppy disks become damaged very easily. Disk damage and data loss can be the result of: too much pressure on the disk, too much heat, too much cold, too much humidity, use of a bad/dirty floppy drive, and even regular use.

If you save your documents to the internal hard drive, the C: drive, anyone sitting at the computer where the work was saved can view, modify, or delete that work. When work is saved to the C: drive you must sit at the computer where the work was saved to retrieve the work. If your computer has a problem we will not search the C: drive for any saved work. There are too many places that one could tuck away a file for us to even attempt to do this.  We will come in to do the repair/fix with the assumption that all your personal work is saved to your U: drive. If software has to be re-installed on a computer the personal saved files on that individual computers C: drive may be lost. However, files that you have saved to your X: drive would be unaffected and not deleted. As a special consideration you should also keep in mind that when mail is received at a computer it is automatically stored to the email in box located on the C: drive of the specific computer you are sitting at when you check your mail. To protect or save email documents you should print them and/or move them to your X: drive.

Summary:
1. If your machine's hard drive has to be reloaded from scratch all work on the C: drive is lost. Work saved to the X: drive is not lost.

2. If your machine's hard drive fails all data on the drive is lost. Work saved to the X: drive is not lost.

3. The server is backed up regularly. Your machine is not backed up regularly.

4. If your machine begins acting strangely or a program begins misbehaving you can access work that has been saved to your X: drive from any other workstation while your machine is being fixed.

5. If you get a replacement computer you can continue working as usual if your work has been saved to the X: drive. If the work has been saved across the internal hard drive of a machine you must try to track down all of that work and transfer it.... a time consuming process which most likely will result in lost files no matter how careful you are.

6. Saving to the internal hard drive does not protect you against data snoops. Anything on the C: drive can be viewed by anyone sitting at the computer where the work was saved.