Stop other users hogging shared disk space.

Byline: Nick Peers

Stop other users hogging

shared disk space

Discover how to allocate disk space fairly on a shared computer

If you use a shared PC at home, you may find that it's not enough simply to give everyone their own user account. If one person is hogging all the available disk space with their music, video and other files, you'll be glad to learn that it's possible to restrict the amount of disk space each user has access to using a Windows feature called Disk Quotas.

Disk Quotas allows you to set an equal limit that applies to all users, or you can set individual limits for some while excluding other users -- such as yourself -- completely. Disk Quotas only work on NTFS-formatted hard disks (which applies to most modern computers). If you have an older disk formatted with the Fat 32 file system, it can be converted to NTFS without data loss so that quotas can be applied.

First, verify that the disk to which you wish to apply a quota is formatted with the NTFS file system. Click Start and select My Computer (XP) or Computer (Vista). Right-click the disk in question and choose Properties, then look at the entry next to the 'File system:' heading. If it reads NTFS you can proceed; if it reads Fat 32 you'll have to convert the drive to NTFS. Back up the disk before doing so, and then read Microsoft Knowledge Base Article 307881 at www.support.microsoft.com/kb/307881 for full instructions on converting your disk without data loss. e