With registration on the NWU network the user is automatically assigned data storage on a centralised storage area.
A backup process is automatically executed on a regular basis on the centralised storage area. (It is important to note that centralised storage area refers to P:\ and departmental network drives and not the C:\drives of individual people's computers.) Backup is the activity of copying files so that they will be preserved in case of equipment failure or other catastrophe.
Data can be restored on request.
Users are allocated 10GB data storage.
The backup process runs on a regular basis and only after hours. There are different backup cycles:
- Incremental backup is taken from Monday to Thursday and stored for 4 weeks.
- Full backup is taken weekly on Friday and Saturday and stored for 4 weeks.
- Every 5th week a Month backup occurs. The Month backup is stored for 12 months.
With the Incremental backup only new and changed data saved before the backup process can be restored. Thus any data that was created after the previous backup and lost before the next backup can’t be restored.
Data stored at other places (e.g. C-Drives, flash drives, external HDD, etc.) other than the centralized storage area is not part of the backup process and therefor can’t be restored.
Backups that have been overwritten can’t be recovered. This is the case when the full backup is overwritten every 5th week, or a month backup is overwritten every 12 months.
The Backup process doesn’t function as a document versioning or a document archiving system and should not be treated as such.
To restore data from backup: Log a ticket or contact your Campus IT Service Desk and provide the following information:
- Full path of where the data was located e.g. p:\minutes\2014
- The last date when the data was correct.
- Indicate if the current data may be overwritten or not (should you not specify, the data will be overwritten).
- Staff: Contact your IT Service Desk.
- Students: Contact your IT Service Desk.