Can I delete old federal records to free up storage space when our shared drive gets full?

The short answer is no. Federal records cannot be deleted simply because a shared drive is full. Storage capacity is an operational problem; the destruction of federal records is a legal one. A full drive is never, on its own, a valid reason to dispose of records.

Records Are Disposed of by Schedule, Not by Convenience

In the federal government, records may only be destroyed under an authorized records retention schedule. These schedules are either agency-specific schedules approved by the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) or the government-wide General Records Schedules (GRS) that cover common administrative records. A schedule tells you how long a given series of records must be kept and what happens at the end of that period, whether the records are destroyed or transferred to NARA as permanent records.

Deleting records ahead of their authorized disposition date, or destroying records that have no approved schedule at all, is unauthorized disposition. That can carry serious consequences, and it applies regardless of where the records live, including network drives, email, and cloud storage.

Before You Delete Anything, Confirm Three Things

• The content is actually a record under your agency’s definition, and not a non-record convenience copy or personal material.
• A valid retention schedule covers it, and the retention period has fully elapsed.
• No legal hold, litigation, audit, FOIA request, or investigation requires the material to be preserved. A hold suspends all destruction even if the schedule otherwise permits it.

Free Space the Right Way

If a drive is full, work with your records officer rather than deleting on your own. Legitimate options usually include:

• Carrying out scheduled, authorized disposition of records that have reached the end of their retention period.
• Removing duplicates, drafts, and non-record materials that fall outside recordkeeping requirements.
• Migrating eligible records to approved long-term or archival storage.
• Requesting additional capacity for records still within their retention period.

When records are eligible for destruction, document what was destroyed and the authority for doing so. Your agency records officer and NARA guidance are the right starting points for any question about whether something can be deleted.

For more, see the federal records hub.