Personal Network Filestore

What is my personal disk space?

All users of the computer system within the university who have a computer account, are allocated a portion of disk space on the network. If you use a PC, it is known as your 'M' drive. This portion of disk space is held on a large computer called a server, which is situated either in the main computer room or a secure room within your department's building.

How do I access my Home and Group Drive from Home?

You can access your M: and N: drives remotely using Secure FTP (SFTP).

Windows Instructions: Web page or PDF Document
Mac Instructions: Web page or PDF Document

Can you archive my filestore?

Yes we can archive it onto a CD for you. For more information please read the following page CD Writing Service

How do I access a different group drive?

Click on: Start, IS Application, Utilities, and select 'Change Group Drive'
Enter the required group when prompted eg. ab for sbard.
(contact the helpdesk on ext 8111, or email: helpdesk@bangor.ac.uk for the correct group code)
The new group drive will now appear as N:\
To switch back to your usual n:\ drive while still logged in, follow the steps above entering the first two letters of your userid as the group.

Note: The group drive it is only set for the current login session, when you next login it will switch back to your default goup drive.

Your M Drive

M is one of the drives listed on My Computer when you log i to any networked computer within BU.
It is your personal space where you can store your files.
M can be accessed from any networked computer and will look the same wherever you log in.
Your M drive is the best place to save any important documents as it is backed up every night - therefore even if something does happen your documents can be recovered.

Where are my files stored when I save them to My Documents?

My Documents is a folder on your M drive.
This folder is by default where most peoples files will be stored.
Your My Documents folder will be created automatically when you log into the Bangor University network

Where can I access my files from?

You can access your files on your M drive from any computer linked to the Bangor University network.
You can also access your M drive fom home using FTP, see Accessing M from home .
Your M drive is visable as one of the drives listed in My Computer

How long will my files stay there for?

Your files will remain on your M drive for the duration of your account or until you delete them.
Once your account expires your files will remain backed up on tape for 12 months.

Advantage of saving to a network drive

Your files are backed up every evening and cn be recover if you loose them or they become damaged.
You will be able to access your files from any computer on the University Network

How can I delete files from the M drive?

Your M drive work the same as all other drives, to deletee files you should use either Windows Explorer or My Computer. Highlight the file that you wish to delete and press the delete button.
There are some folders on you M drive that cannot be deleted as they affect the way your account works - these include Mail, .netscape7, XP_profile, Windows_data and a few others. As a general rule if you did not create the file yourself DO NOT delete it, we will have put it there for a reason.

I have deleted a file by mistake from my M drive

So long as the file was on your M drive overnight we can recover it from backup in the state it was when the backup was taken.

Backing up my M drive when I finish at University

IT Support provide a CD writing service to copy the entire contents of your M drive to CD when you have finished your degree, or at any point during your course.

How can I access my M Drive from home?

Information on working from home.

What is my N: drive?

Your N drive, also know as your Group Drive, is where file can be stored for sharing among a number of people within BU.
Commonly this area is used by lecturers for storing lecture note for use by a number of students or by staff to share research papers.
Access to N drive folders can be resticted to specified people. If you would like a restricted folder on the N drive contact the IT Support Centre.
Files stored on the N drive still take up your disk quota if you are the file owner.

How do I access a different group drive?

Click on: Start, IS Application, Utilities, and select 'Change Group Drive'
Enter the required group when prompted eg. ab for sbard.
(contact the helpdesk on ext 8111, or email: helpdesk@bangor.ac.uk for the correct group code)
The new group drive will now appear as N:\
To switch back to your usual n:\ drive while still logged in, follow the steps above entering the first two letters of your userid as the group.

Note: The group drive it is only set for the current login session, when you next login it will switch back to your default goup drive.

Connecting to Other Drives

Staff who require access to data on other servers can connect to them by 'mapping to the drives' in Windows.

Examples of drives available for all users:

w:\ \\www\www Web

v:\ \\vwww\vwww Virtual Host

Please note: Access to some drives/folders are restricted! Mapping to a restricted drive will result in a Permission Denied error message (or similar). To gain access to these areas, please ask the person responsible for the drive/folder to email: operator@bangor.ac.uk stating the full path, who needs access, and also whether they require read only or read/write priviledges.

How to Map to a Drive:

Windows XP:

right click on the My Computer icon on the desktop

select Map Network Drive...

select a Drive letter not currently in use

enter the required Folder path

place a tick in the Reconnect at logon box, for Windows to automatically connect to the drive when you login.

and finally click on Finish.

Windows 98:

right click on the My Computer icon on the desktop

select Map Network Drive...

select a Drive letter not currently in use

enter the required Path

place a tick in the Reconnect at logon box, for Windows to automatically connect to the drive when you login.

and finally click on OK.

Mac OS X :

right click on the Go and select Connect to Server... from the drop down menu

enter the server address required e.g. smb://www/www

click on Connect and enter your username and password when prompted.

Saving files to share among a group of people

Every department has a group N drive.

This can be accessed by all staff and students of this department

By default staff can write to the N drive, however it can be set up so that any specified group of people can access the folder with specified permissions.

The N drive is available to Bangor University staff and students both within and outside BU.