Accessing Network Storage from Windows

Printer Friendly Version

Last Revised:04/05/2007

The SSCC network has over two terabytes of disk storage, and this space has several advantages. It is available from any PC that can connect to our network (including our Terminal Servers, which are accessible from anywhere in the world), it is secure, and it is backed up on tape every night. Thus we strongly recommend that SSCC users store their files somewhere on the network, rather than on the local hard drive (c: drive) of their PC. This document will discuss how to access network disk space from any PC or Windows Terminal Server.

Network Shares

Windows servers give access to certain directories on their hard drives known as "shares" because they are shared with users. Normally each share has a specific purpose; for example the server sscwinnt2 has a share called users containing users' home directories, and one called project containing shared files related to particular projects. In addition, special software called Samba allows Linux directories to be accessed as shares (see Accessing Linux Files Using Windows). A PC in a Windows network accesses network storage by using one or more of these shares.

The Universal Naming Convention

One method of referring to shares is known as the Universal Naming Convention (UNC). It is simply:

\\servername\sharename

Thus two backslashes (\\) precede the name of a server, while one backslash (\) separates the server name from the share name. For example, the project share on sscwinnt2 is \\sscwinnt2\project. Note that this is just an extension of the usual way directories are used on PC's, so share names can easily be combined with subdirectory names, e.g. \\sscwinnt2\project\Soc Dept , meaning the Soc Dept folder inside \\sscwinnt2\project, or even \\sscwinnt2\project\Soc Dept\file.doc to access a particular file.

Drive Mappings

A drive mapping allows a PC to access a network share just as if it were a local hard drive. A drive letter is "mapped" to a server share, and then as far as your PC is concerned that letter represents just another drive. Normally several drives are mapped automatically when you log in. For example, your home directoy on \\sscwinnt2\users is automatically mapped to the u: drive. You can also map your own, either for that session or persistently. However a drive mapping is just a new name for the share, there is no actual hard drive called u:. You could choose to map \\sscwinnt2\users to v: instead, or even to u: and v: at the same time. In that case any changes you made to u: would also apply to v: because u: and v: are just different names for the same share.

Drive mappings are more familiar to most users, and have the advantage of showing up in My Computer and more readily in Windows Explorer. On the other hand users logging in to the SSCC network from home may have difficulty getting drives to be mapped automatically, and with a standard modem the process is quite slow anyway. In those cases you might consider learning the UNC names of those parts of the network you access frequently and using them instead of drive mappings. Note that in some cases Windows will insist on using UNC names (or something based on them). For example, under My Computer, the x: drive is displayed as Project on 'Sscwinnt2' (X:) but it's not unusual for the (X:) to be invisible:

You can use a UNC name anywhere you can use a mapped drive. For example if you click Start, Run and type \\sscwinnt2\project you will get the exact same window as if you typed x:\. You can also give a UNC name in a dialog box to open or save a file within most (but not all) programs.

For instructions on setting up a drive mapping, please see Mapping a Drive to a Network Share.

Useful Shares

The following table lists the shares you are most likely to need, including their UNC names, the drive they are mapped to automatically (if any), and a description of their purpose.