Backup and restore services

* This information applies to users with access to the University's network using desktops with the Novell Netware Client installed.

ITS recommendations for data management

In order to avoid the necessity of restoring data from backup, ITS recommends the following guidelines for data management:

• Save your files regularly
• If you are concerned about accidentally mis-editing a work-in-progress, save it as multiple files of different revisions. For example, save the important document “mywork.doc” every 15 minutes as “myworkV1.doc”, “myworkV2.doc”, etc.

Data stored on local media, such as hard disks (typically seen in My Computer as D:NOTBACKEDUP), is not backed up by ITS (see File Storage and Access), and thus it is the responsibility of the user to maintain a backup of files stored on these mediums.

Data stored in your home directory (normally U:) is backed-up by ITS on a nightly basis, and is archived for a period of up to thirteen months. A service is provided by ITS to restore lost or damaged data from this resource.

Restoring data from backup

Procedure

If you are certain that you have lost a file or need to restore a file from backup, you will need to contact the ITS helpdesk. The following information is needed by ITS in order to restore from backup:

• The date from which you wish to restore.
• The name of the file(s) you wish to restore.

The network path where your data is saved. This information can be obtained by going into "Windows Explorer" or "My Computer" and observing the label on your Home Directory (see figure 1.1) In this case, the path for the user Bdavey01 is "Babbage\Main\Users"

Timelines

Please allow up to 3 days for a restore.

Policies

Information Technology Network User Space Policy

Related services

File storage and access

This service is the responsibility of the Desktop Management Services team.