mass-storage/mass-storage-quota.md

+**Table of contents**
+
+[[_TOC_]]
+
 # Quotas 
 
-Storage space is finite and expensive. For this reason, space allocated to each laboratory is limited by a quota. 
+Storage space is finite and expensive. For this reason, space allocated to each laboratory and to each user are limited by a quota. 
+
+**WARNING**: Once the quota of a folder is reached, users stop being able to write in it. If this happen while saving files, it may lead to data corruption and lost of data. Some tools will give a warning or an error message but other won't. **It's the user's responsibility to make sure there is enough space to write in the folder.**
+
+## Which folders are these quota applied to?
+
+The space of the **user personal home** is limited to **100 GB**. This quota apply only to files you have in your personal space, and not to the files you can reach through the Research, Platforms, Administration or Resources links in the \_SHARE\_ folder. Once this limit is reached, the user won't be able to create/save any file in their home. 
+
+For the Research Units, quotas are set at the level of **research laboratories** (see "Laboratories" column in the [URT tree structure](mass-storage/mass-storage-URT)). Once a laboratory's quota is reached, it won't be possible to write anything in any of the group and project folders attached to that laboratory. Folders where groups share data with GIGA platforms are included in this quota.
 
-There are two types of quotas:
+For the **Platforms**, quotas are set at the level of the laboratories too (see "Laboratories" column in the [PTF tree structure](mass-storage/mass-storage-PTF)). Files transferred by the platforms to the folder shared with each research group are not included in the platform's quota.
 
-- **Soft quotas**: these quotas can be exceeded for a short period of time. As soon as the limit is reached, an alert is given by the system and the UDI GIGA-MED IT managers are 
-  informed. Users can still write in the group folder, but action should be taken to avoid reaching the hard quota.  
-- **Hard quotas**: As soon as the hard quota of a project is reached, it is impossible to write anything more in the project folder. Similarly, users who would reach their personal 
-  hard quota in their home folder will immediately stop being able to write in it. In both cases, the only solution is erasing some data in order to free up space. 
+## How can users know how much space is left in a folder?
 
-To reduce disk space usage, users should follow the recommendations from the [“Data maintenance” section](mass-storage/mass-storage-management-practices) . If needed, the UDI GIGA-MED IT specialists or the bioinformatics team can help to find ways to further reduce disk space usage.
+We are currently developing a tool that will allow each user to check the quota allocated to a given laboratory/platform/home folder, and the percentage of this quota currently used. 
+
+In the meantime, for your home folder, you can check the space you use and therefore calculate how much space you have left. For the laboratory and platform quotas, you can contact the [Bioinformatics team](contacts).
+
+## What to do if a folder is about to reach its quota?
+
+The first thing to do is to go through the data to delete all files and folders that are not needed anymore and compress everything that can be compressed. Several recommendations to reduce disk space usage, are detailed in the [“Data maintenance”](mass-storage/mass-storage-management-practices) section. If needed, the UDI GIGA-MED IT specialists or the bioinformatics team can help to find ways to further reduce disk space usage.
 
 If required for a specific project, the PI can contact the UDI GIGA-MED IT specialists to ask for an expansion of the storage space hard quota. This request of more storage space will have to be reasonable and justified. 
 
-Contact details can be found [here](contacts)
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+
+
+# [Contacts](mass-storage/mass-storage-contacts)
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