- Determine Drive Location
- Create a File Hierarchy
- Establish Document-Naming Conventions
- Record Retention
- File System Maintenance
- Summary
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File System Maintenance
As with any system, shared drive file systems must be maintained and managed. Often the number one failure to a shared electronic document file system is the lack of maintenance and/or accountability to the system once guidelines and structures have been created. Ideally, someone should be appointed to manage the electronic file structure. Often this responsibility is assigned to the IT or legal departments. This person should be responsible for updating the file guidelines annually. They should also be consulted when new systems and software are introduced to ensure that file guidelines and structures are applicable to the new system and format.
The file structure should be purged and re-organized on an annual basis, based on the file guidelines and document retention. When purging electronic documents, often users will see files that can’t be identified to a recognized software or application. Users can refer to the online search tool File-Extensions to conduct a search on any file extension.