8
Where did my files go?
A quick guide to careful saving.
There are several places where you can
save your work. By default a file is saved to
My Documents (but where exactly is that?)
If you click the Up icon
you can sometimes figure out where you
actually are. In this case it’s not helpful
because My Documents is just a shortcut on
the desktop.
After some exploring I discovered that this
instance of My Documents actually lives on the laptop’s hard drive. By opening the My
Computer icon on the desktop, I found a folder called Document and Settings, then MMinions,
and finally My Documents.When I opened that folder, the address bar told me exactly where
my files were: C:\Documents and Settings\MMinions\My Documents
When you’re connected to the OC network through an Ethernet cable, you will have another My
Documents folder that lives on a big network server. It’s usually the F: drive. Always take a
moment to figure out where your file is actually being saved – on the drive in your laptop, or on
a network drive.
Using the network to share files with others.
Drive K: is shortcut that points to the root of the users’ data drive on your home campus file
server. Through drive K: you can access any file/directory that you have been given rights to. You
cannot access, or even see, files and directories that you do not have rights to.
Every department has a shared folder that can be accessed through drive K: where shared files
can be saved. Everyone in your department has rights to see, read, write, modify, create and
erase files and directories in this shared area. Additionally there are shared folders for
students/instructors and shared folders for all staff and faculty. The paths to each of
these shared folders are as follows:
1. Shared Departmental: K:\adm\[department]\shared\, where [department] is replaced with your
actual department.
As an example IT Services (once upon a time known as Computer and Media Services) has a
shared folder at:
K:\adm\cms\shared
2. Shared with All Staff and Faculty: K:\adm\shared\
Remember that this folder is wide open to all staff and faculty at OC.
3. Shared Instructor/Student: K:\ins\shared\
All staff and faculty have full access rights to this shared folder, but students have rights to only
see and read files in this folder. Some of the directories below K:\ins\shared have been opened
up to students to be able to write into for saving test results and assignments.
