Managing hard disk storage space in shared systems!

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With so much stuff to download online, many computer users care less about how the hard drive is getting filled up. Without proper management of the hard disk, it can get filled up pretty faster than you realize. For a single user, managing their storage space might not be a big deal. But what happens if you are sharing your computer with a friend or family members. You do not want them to fill up the had disk space with rather unecessary stuffs. There is a way to set up you hard disk so it prevents users from using up your hard disk space.

I will be showing us a Windows 10 feature called quota. This feature is found under the properties window of your hard disk. It can be used to set up how much hard disk space is allowed for each user.

Before I explain how to set up the disk quota, I want to say here that this only work in disk drives formatted with the NTFS file system. So before you begin, you want to first of all confirm the file system your computer is running.

Confirming if my system uses NTFS or FAT32

NTFS and FAT32 are the two file systems designed by Microsoft. However, FAT32 are used in much older operating systems. The NTFS is used in latest operating systems designed by Microsoft. Below is how to confirm that your system is running NTFS file architecture:

Step 1: Press WIN + E to open My Computer/Computer.
Step 2: Right click on your hard disk and select Properties from the menu. Check Image below:

Step 3: You will see the file system type and you have to make sure it is NTFS. Check mine below:

Now that we have made sure it is the right file system type, we can continue with setting up the disk use quota for each user.

Note: Make sure you the system administrator so that you can have the privilege to make this setting. Additionally, try to be sure that each user on the system have their user profiles already created.

Setting up the disk quota for users

We will continue this activity from where we stopped above (Step 3)

Step 4: from the tabs on this window, click quota. Check the image below:

Step 5: If you have not ,made this setting before, you may have to reveal the smaller window to make it. So click on Show Quota Settings tab. Check image below:

The next window contains all the settings you need to make in order to limit Disk space usage. I have labelled it each activity to make it easier.

A: Click this button to activate other quota settings.
B: Click this button so that any user that exceeds their quota cannot use the drive.
C: Select this option to limit disk space use and enter the amount of disk space to be allowed.
D: Select KB for Kilobyte, MB for Megabyte, GB for Gigabyte as the case may be.
E: Enter the amount of disk space at which the user is warned that they are approaching limit.
F: If this box is checked, warning message is shown to the user to let them know they have exceeded their quota.
G: If this box is checked, warning message is shown to the user to let them know they are about to exceed their quota.
H: Click this button to apply the settings.

Conclusion

If you get it all right, each user will not be allowed to save data on the hard disk beyond the limit set for them. This is the best way to manage disk usage in shared systems.

Note: Pixabay owns the thumbnail. Otherwise, All images are my screenshots.

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