As an alternative to storing files on the local workstation, Auxiliary Services IT currently maintains nine departmental servers where Auxiliary Services units as well as individual users can store data.

In order to ensure the preservation of data, the Auxiliary Services IT office recommends that each user store his or her work-related files on a departmental server. This method of storage is strongly recommended for several reasons. By storing data on a departmental server, your data will be preserved in the event of a catastrophic workstation failure (for example, failure of the workstation hard drive or a virus infection that requires a rebuild). Additionally, the data stored on departmental servers is backed up on a regular basis. This means that if you accidentally delete a file, or if a file becomes corrupted, an earlier version of that file could be recovered.

Every employee of Auxiliary Services has access to server-based storage for his or her work-related files. This space is known as the user's personal folder or "U:" drive. This drive can be accessed by double-clicking the U: drive in "My Computer." Each user's personal folder can only be accessed by that user and should be available when logging in to any Auxiliary Services computer. If you have trouble locating or accessing this drive, or would like assistance moving your data to it, please contact the Auxiliary Services IT office via the contact information on the Office Hours portion of the AuxIT website.

Some units need to share files amongst multiple employees. Server shares are a method of network storage that allow multiple users to access files in the same location. Because these shares reside on departmental servers, they are also backed up on a regular basis.

Auxiliary Services IT has chosen to use the university's tape backup system, Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM), as the current method of backing up server data. The two tape silos in McVey Hall can currently store up to 300 terabytes (or 300,000 gigabytes) of compressed data. This software-based backup system copies the files that are stored on the departmental servers every night, provideing data redundancy and an easy means of retrieval. This allows data to be easily restored to its original location if it is lost, deleted, or overwritten. To have a file restored from the TSM backup, please contact the Auxiliary Services IT office via the contact information on the Office Hours Page.