What is a T Drive?
A T drive is a backup storage area usually found on a computer network or individual computer hard drive. It's typically added or partitioned and used as a back up to the main C drive. T drives are especially useful should a computer freeze, blue screen, or be rebooted before any file changes are saved.
In the event of a computer freeze or system crash, any changes that have been made to files stored on a machine’s C drive will often be lost. Computers available in public labs, such as those found at universities and in libraries, tend to erase all the information stored on the desktop C drives when the computers are rebooted. These computers are set up this way to protect the functioning of the machine and because long term storage of data is typically not the basis for these public computers. As a result, anyone using public computers should rely on USB memory sticks, CDs, CD-RWs or zip disks to store any information they wish to take with them.
Computer hard drives can be partitioned for a variety of reasons. Partitioning simply means that the data storage component of a computer is broken down into discrete areas. These storage areas, or drives, are often differentiated by letters — the C drive, D drive, E drive, etc. Should some data stored on a computer become corrupt, the other, partitioned data is generally protected. Partitions also help allow one machine have multiple operating systems, such as Windows and Linux.
When a computer does shut down unexpectedly, lost data can often be retrieved from a T drive because it is typically not erased when the computer shuts down. Since information stored on the T drive is often only there for a short time, quick retrieval is usually important. A T drive also tends to be unsecured, meaning later users can often see the information that’s been stored there.
Software companies offer a number of competing data backup applications. Popular examples of these applications include Microsoft’s SteadyState, Symantec’s Norton GoBack and Faronics’ Deep Freeze. These programs effectively “freeze” your computer at a specific moment in time, allowing all data and settings to be restored as they were before the machine was rebooted.
Businesses benefit from data backup applications because they often save IT personnel from having to spend valuable work time dealing with specific requests. The downside to these backup applications is that sometimes they will prevent automatic software updates. That is, they often have to be disabled to allow for software updates.
Written by James Franklin
