P: Drive Migration
ITS is retiring the personal (P) drive and transitioning our community to Microsoft OneDrive. To facilitate this change, we are migrating the data stored on the P: drive to OneDrive.
Migration Schedule
ITS is moving P: drive data to OneDrive in batches based on NetIDs. View the batch for your NetID to see when your migration will start and end. ITS will also send you an email two weeks before your migration begins.
Note: Only faculty, staff, and students with data on the P: drive will be scheduled for a migration.
| Batch |
NetID Range (alphabetical order) | Migration Start | Migration End |
| 1 | aaa00000 - eyu99999 | July 11, 2022 | July 15, 2022 |
| 2 | faa00000 - lyt99999 | July 18, 2022 | July 22, 2022 |
| 3 | maa00000 - pyc99999 | July 25, 2022 | July 29, 2022 |
| 4 | qil00000 - zxz99999 | August 1, 2022 | August 5, 2022 |
For questions or assistance during migration, contact the Technology Support Center.
OneDrive Training
Watch a recording of the Microsoft-hosted training session, Get started with Microsoft OneDrive for Education. Sign in with your NetID and NetID password to view.
Reason for the Change
ITS currently offers two network solutions for personal storage. Faculty, staff, and students have storage space on a personal P: drive, which is hosted on a university-managed file share, and a OneDrive account, which comes with our enterprise Microsoft Office 365 agreement. Both offer secure storage, but OneDrive delivers more contemporary capabilities, such as file sharing, concurrent editing, and integration among Office 365 applications. Other benefits include:
- 5 terabytes of storage, which is dramatically larger than the standard 75 gigabytes allocated on the P: drive
- Access from any location with an internet-connected device, such as a computer, smartphone, or tablet.
- Ability to sync files across multiple devices
The underlying hardware for the P: drive is approaching the end of its useable life. Rather than invest in a service with limited capabilities, we are retiring the P: drive and fully transitioning to the more feature-rich and future-looking OneDrive solution.
Before the Migration
We are scheduling migrations in batches based on the alphabetical order of NetIDs . You will receive a message from ITS with instructions two weeks before the start of your migration window.
No action from you is required. If you want to prepare yourself for the transition, we have a few tips:
- Remove unnecessary files from your P: drive. All files in the P: drive will be moved to your OneDrive. If you do not want them there, move them or delete them in advance.
- Check that you have OneDrive installed on your computer.
- Familiarize yourself with OneDrive. You can learn how to open OneDrive in your browser, set up OneDrive on your computer, upload files, and share files.
For questions or assistance during migration, you can reach out to the Technology Support Center or check out the help articles.
During Migration
At a Glance
- During your migration period, your P: drive contents will be synced to a folder in OneDrive called “PDrive” every night.
- We recommend that you do not modify files within the PDrive folder on OneDrive.
- On the last night of your migration period, a final sync will occur and your P: drive will no longer be accessible.
Once your migration period begins, you will see a folder appear in your OneDrive account titled “PDrive." It is important to not modify the name of the folder during the migration period.
During the migration period, the entire contents of your P: drive will be synced to the “PDrive” folder in OneDrive every night. New files made in your P: drive or updates to existing files will be reflected in OneDrive after each nightly sync. During that time you can continue working on the files from your P: drive. We recommend that you do not modify files within the PDrive folder on OneDrive.
On the evening of the last day of your migration period, a final sync will occur in which all contents of the P: drive is copied to OneDrive. After your migration period ends your P: drive will be inaccessible.
After the Migration
After migration ends, you will receive an email from ITS notifying you that the migration completed. At that point all files and folders on your P: drive will have moved to your OneDrive account. You can create, edit, and modify the files within the “PDrive” folder in OneDrive, or rearrange them in your OneDrive as you see fit.
For assistance using OneDrive, take a look at the help articles or contact the Technology Support Center.
FAQs
Q: My P drive didn’t disappear. It is still showing in my file explorer.
A: If your P: drive still appears in file explorer after your migration ends it will likely show a red ‘x’ on the icon and be inaccessible. You will no longer have access to the P: drive, so it is best to disconnect from it.
Q: How long does my migration period last?
A: Your migration period will be two weeks long. You will be notified two weeks before your migration window opens and the first sync between P: drive and OneDrive begins to give you time to delete any unnecessary files from your P: drive. After the first sync occurs, you can continue using your P: drive as normal until the final sync on the last day of your migration window.
Q: When will my migration start?
A: ITS is migrating users in batches over the summer based on the alphabetical order of their NetID. You will receive an email from ITS notifying you of your migration and instructions two weeks before the start of your migration window.
Q: My migration is finished and I am missing files from my P: drive.
A: Contact the Technology Support Center.
Q: I cannot connect to my P: drive.
A: Once the final migration occurs at the end of your migration window, you will no longer be able to access the P: drive. At that point, you can find all files and folders from the P: drive in the “PDrive” folder in your OneDrive account.
Q: How long do I keep my OneDrive account?
A: Your OneDrive account is part of your Office 365 licensing. You will keep the account as long as you are part of the university. Students will keep their account until graduation or separation, while employees will keep their account until their employment ends.
Q: Can I use Google Drive instead?
A: Not necessarily. Students, Faculty, and Staff can all access Google Drive (included in UConn’s Google Workspace licensing). However, only OneDrive meets the university’s data storage policy standards. If students, faculty, or staff wish to move their P: drive contents to Google Drive they will need to do so manually.