Backing up data and keeping it accessible for other users is important while working with a large amount of data.

In principle one is responsible oneself to take regular backups of one's own computer. In the case of macOS that can be easily done using Time machine and an external hard drive.

Depending on the computer cluster, areas which are backed up are provided, but not all of them. Thus it is always a good idea to rsync your data from time to time.

To back up the data of finished projects (published), a new storage area on the Chalmers Linux system was created. To login to the Linux system you can follow this Guide.

Use:

    cd /chalmers/groups/chemphys

to go to the common storage area.

To have a common way to store the data of the published project we agreed on the following guidelines:

• Folder name in the form of: First-author-name _ Journal _ Year
• Readme file with Keywords, short description of the data, calculation parameter
• Files related to the publication (structures, input files, scripts)
• Optional: Archive of interesting related calculations which weren't published

Please remember: Well backed up and documented project data allows other members of the group to base their work on already existing data and advances the comparability of results.