Shared Drives and Shortcuts
What are Share Drives?
Share drives are network resources that allow users to remotely access files stored on a file server from their local workstations. Common benefits and uses of shares are for collaboration, to prevent loss of data in the case of a catastrophic event on a local workstation (i.e. hard drive failure, theft, etc.), and to save hard drive storage space on local workstations.
A network share drive functions closely to the same way the file system on your computer works. You can save pictures, documents, videos, etc to it and create folders and sub-folders to place them in. If you want to get an idea of what the share structure looks like, you can open a Windows Explorer window on your computer and type "\\cui.edu\files" as the path in the address bar. This will populate and show you what files, if any, you have access to in this location. You have now connected to a network share drive
Creating a Shortcut
So that you do not have to open the start menu and specify the path, you can create a shortcut on your computer to a specified location:
In File Explorer, right click on "This PC" and select "Add a network location"
The "Add Network Location" wizard will appear. Click "Next"
Select "Choose a custom network location", then click "Next"
Enter the name of your share, generally "\\cui.edu\files\{Your_Share}", then click "Next"
Name the Location and Click "Next"
Click "Finish"
Your share will now appear under "Network Locations" in the "This PC" section.
How to Remove an Old Mapped Network Drive
Once you have verified your new Network Location works properly, you can remove your old mapped drives if you have any.
Right click on the drive you wish to remove and select "Delete"
