Storing Data on Computer Room PCs
On Computer Room PCs, there are three main areas for data storage: network servers (Personal or Shared Areas), your Personal Profile and/or the public DATA folder on the local hard disk:
Your personal area is identified as Home drive or G: drive which is a network drive pointing to your (home) server and should always be used to store work-related data.
It is important to store your data on the G: drive because it is backup regularly and can be accessed remotely as well (e.g. from outside the Institute, via VPN).
The purpose of shared areas is to store data which is to be shared with other users across the network (for example, working on the same project).
The drive letter varies depending on which Department/Programme/Project you are in, that is, which is your (home) server. For example, ECO Department has assigned the I: drive as the shared area [1].
Please Note: the total amount of space available on your Personal (G: drive) and Shared Areas (I:, T:, etc.) sums up to your personal (Disk) Quota. Refer to the Disk Quota for Your Personal (G:) and Shared (H:, T:, etc.) Areas documentation for further details.
It is important to store shared data on shared areas because they are backup regularly and can be accessed remotely as well (e.g. from outside the Institute, via VPN).
This is your personal area on (the local hard disk of) Windows-based EUI desktop PCs and is accessible ONLY to its owner.
This is the place to TEMPORARILY store large amount of data (with a hint on privacy) such as pictures, downloads or datasets too large to fit on the G: drive and/or Shared Area for as long as the current working session ONLY!
It can be rapidly accessed by clicking the icon with one's own username on Windows' desktop.
The path to the user's profile area is C:\Users\username.
Contrary to all previous (server) storgare areas, the local personal profile area can NOT be accessed remotely.
Please Note: the user's personal profile is NOT backup and, in order to protect privacy, it is furthermore DELETED at the end of the working session (that is, at logoff).
As per policy, it is the user's sole responsibility to regularly backup data stored in this folder (if need be), for example, by transferring to removable media such as a USB pendrive, external hard disk or a CD/DVD.
Please Note: the user's personal profile is NOT backup and, in order to protect privacy, it is furthermore DELETED at the end of the working session (that is, at logoff).
As per policy, it is the user's sole responsibility to regularly backup data stored in this folder (if need be), for example, by transferring to removable media such as a USB pendrive, external hard disk or a CD/DVD.
= For a full outline of available drive letters, please check the Logical Drives on EUI PCs documentation.
Page last updated on 18 February 2019