Determining total disk size
To determine the total space that a network drive, it is necessary to following these steps:
- Open My Computer by double left clicking on the icon on the desktop.
- Double left click on your I:\ drive.
- Select everything stored in your I:\ drive by pressing the CTRL key and the "A" key at the same time.
- Move the mouse over a highlighted item and right click. From the menu that appears, select the Properties option.
- The properties window that appears will show you the total size that the highlighted items is currently taking up.
"The pie chart or details says I have plenty of space left"
Typically when viewing drives and folders in My Computer, the details on the left hand side of the window will show the details of the item that is
highlighted ( see image to the right). However, since the I:\ drive is a network drive and is stored on a network server, these details actually show you the free space and
total size of the entire server partition, not just everything that is stored in that shared portion of the server.
Organizing your I:\ drive
If you run into disk quota limitations or want to clean up your I:\ drive, here are a few important tips to remember.
1. You can delete anything on your I:\ drive that you like EXCEPT the SETUP and USERDATA folders. These folders provide essential elements for some of the software to run. (See image above)
2. If you keep your I:\ drive in a clean and orderly fashion, then it will be easier to clean up that which you do not want. You can do this by using folders and filenames that are good descriptors of what the folder or file contains.
Files you can easily spot and delete
- AutoCAD backup files (*.bak)
- Temporary files (*.tmp or files beginning with a ~)
- Plot files generated when printing to the HP 1055 CM (typically have no file extension or *.plt)
- Temporary internet files
Other Tips and Tricks:
- Remove any files that you have already finished and burn them to a CD-ROM.
- If you have a large number of large images, burn them to a CD and then use your I:\ drive to reformat the pictures to decrease their physical size (not dimensional). See also Handling Images for Publication.
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Viewing Details in Windows Explorer
To view details within Windows Explorer (My Computer):
- When viewing a folder of files, click on the View menu and select Details. You can then click on the Size column header to sort the files according to their size.
- If you need to find out how much space an entire folder is using, you can right click on the folder and select Properties from the pop-up menu or you can move your mouse pointer to a folder and "stall" the pointer. A details box will appear (see image to the right) showing all of the details for that particular folder.
