OIT provides 5GB of personal server storage space on the Central File Server for each University computing account (students in Class of 2017 and beyond will be receiving 500MB of Central File Server space). If you often use computers from multiple locations, the Central File Server is a great way to share, move, and store files. You can use your personal space to store your important files so that they are accessible to you from any computer connected to the network.
OIT also provides folders for departmental file sharing, cross-departmental file sharing, and a software download folder on the Central File Server.
Most people find that mapping their H: drive is the easiest and most intuitive way to "see" their files on the Central File Server. Drag and drop methods of moving files from your computer to your H: drive becomes second nature. The bullets below link to instruction on how to map your H: drive on different computing platforms.
To connect to your departmental files and folders on the Central File Server (often called your M: drive), see Article 9511.
To information regarding usage and instruction on how to connect to the Shares folder, please see Article 5849.
Most users find that there is no longer the need to back up an entire hard drive. Operating systems and application software are extremely space intensive, and backing up a computer's contents can be time consuming. Should your computer malfunction, the re-installation of a clean operating system and application software is most often required, making full hard drive backups unnecessary. The files that you should back up and protect are the ones that are your intellectual property; the work that if lost would cause distress. Back up your intellectual property (including your papers, thesis, problem sets and class work) on the Central File Server so that disaster can be averted.
If you are off-campus and connecting to the Internet through your personal Internet Service Provider, you will need to make a VPN connection to the University before accessing the Central File Server. See Article 6023 for information about Virtual Private Networking (VPN).
The Central File Server provides a backup service using snapshot technology. Every 2 hours your files are imaged and retained on the server in the event that you accidentally delete, overwrite, lose, or corrupt a file. If you are saving your intellectual property to the Central File Server, you can restore files yourself. See the instructions within Article 9679.
Windows computer users can alter the permissions on their personal folder using Access Control Lists (ACLs) through a graphical user interface. See the instructions within Article 9680.
If you have mapped your Central File Server account to your H: Drive as documented above, Windows computer users can right-click on their H: drive, pull down to Properties... and see free versus used space within their account.