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Often times you will hear about, or see in email messages, the terms: "J" drive, "Public Drive", "F" drive, "Work Drive", "Home Directory", "Department Drive", "Temp Drive" etc.
These are terms for storage space on a network server to which your computer, and other's computers are connected. Some of these drives may or may not be shared between individuals depending on whether you have been granted access to them. Additionally, depending on the "permissions" that are granted to the individual, you may or may not be able to save files to a particular drive. However you might be able to read files from, or even copy files to that same drive.
These drives can be accessed by clicking on the "My Computer" icon 
on your computer screen, also referred to as your computer "desktop".
You will see something similar to the following:
In the above example, the "drives" are arranged alphabetically by drive letter. Network drives have an icon that looks like the following graphic, signifying that it is connected between other computers:
The drives in this example are defined as follows:
- (A:) This is the drive for 3 1/2" Floppy Disks (Diskettes).
- (C:) The computer's local hard drive. (The "C" drive is NOT backed up by Computer Services. It is instead recommended that individuals use their "Work" or "F" drive to save their files.) See the Information Technology policies regarding the use of the C: drive.
- (D:) This is a CD-rom or DVD-rom drive.
- (E:) You may have an additional CD-ReWritable drive (CD burner) on your computer.
- (F:) This is commonly referred to as the "F" drive or "Work Drive" or "Home Directory". This is where users should save their work. The files in the home directory are backed up daily. See the Information Technology policies regarding the use of the F: drive.
- (G:) This is a drive for Zip Disks. This type of disk storage is not very common anymore with the advent of USB flash/pen/thumb drives. The drive name may also simply show up as "Removable Device".
- (H:) This is a USB flash drive that has been plugged into a USB port on the computer. The drive name may also simply show up as "Removable Device". The drive will be assigned a letter when plugged into a PC's USB port: "H" in this case. After you properly "eject" or unplug the USB flash drive from the computer, the drive letter will disappear. USB flash drives are small, convenient, removable storage devices that can be used to store and carry files. These devices have all but supplanted the need for 3.5" floppy and Zip disks.
- (J:) This is what is referred to as "The J Drive", or sometimes "The Project Drive" or "Public Drive" and contains college wide information in most cases, and is accessible to everyone on the network.
- (K:) In this example, this is a "Department" drive shared between a few select individuals in one specific area of the college. Often a department drive will be used to document processes and share that documentation with other individuals of that department.
- (L:) This is a public "Temp" or temporary drive (not to be confused with the "Temp" folder on the C: drive). This can be used to share small or large files, or folders of information between individuals on the network, instead of giving them a floppy, CD-rom, or emailing attachments. The contents of the "Temp" drive is deleted every night, thus the designation of "Temporary".
More information about computer, network, and email usage can be found on the Information Technology web site.
Contact Information:
Rochester Community and Technical College
851 30th Ave SE, Rochester, MN 55904-4999
Contact Info: (507) 285-7210 or 1-800-247-1296 / TTY Relay 1-800-627-3529
RCTC is a University Center Rochester partner and a member of the MnSCU system.
© 2007 Rochester Community and Technical College, All rights reserved.
RCTC is an affirmative action, equal opportunity educator and employer.
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