The Decommission Novell F: drive project was initiated in January 2020 after discovering that less UCT staff members are using their 1GB personal F: drive to save files and folders. A decision was therefore been made to decommission UCT staff members’ F: drives in a phased approach.

It was recommended that staff members move their F: drive content to OneDrive for Business, which is a personal online storage facility that is one terabyte in size. OneDrive for Business is included in the Microsoft 365 suite, which is available at no cost to all staff and students. 

Project phases

Phase one: testing and pilot phase (October 2020 to 28 February 2021)

  • Work completed: ICTS conducted intensive investigations to ensure that the decommissioning process was simplified, and all possible risks identified and mitigated. It is worthwhile noting that there is always an element of risk involved in any project. Upon completion of the investigation, a pilot phase was conducted within ICTS to move all staff data from their respective F: drives to OneDrive for Business. This phase was successfully completed. All new issues identified during the pilot were resolved and recommendations made on how best to manage your migration process.

Phase two: roll-out to campus

  • Work completed: ICTS extended the decommissioning project to the rest of UCT in a phased approach. The table below outlines by when departments and faculties had to migrate their data off the F: drive. It was recommended that staff start this process early, especially if their F: drive was big, to allow sufficient time to move their data and get set up in OneDrive for Business. These step-by-step by instructions were provided to move their F: drive data to OneDrive for Business.

Should you experience any issues, please log a call with the IT Helpdesk using one of the following methods: