As a faculty or staff member, you have a folder on a network drive that can be used for back-up or storage. In addition to having "another copy" stored in a safe place, network back-ups are performed daily providing yet another layer of security for your important data. This document will cover mapping your network folder to your Mac's desktop, creating aliases, mount at login, and touching lightly on using that folder for protecting your data.
Mapping
a Network Drive
Making an Alias for Your Network Share Drive
Automatically Mounting Your Network Share at Login
Using your Network Folder for Backing Up Your Data
Mapping
a Network Drive
If your computer is turned on and connected to the network, you can begin.
Click somewhere on the desktop to bring the Finder to the menu bar. Click on GO and pull down to Connect to Server...
Choose the Office zone, and Hurricane. Click Connect.
An authentication dialog box will appear, requiring you to enter your network login user name and password. Important: your network login may be different from your Mac's login. Be sure to enter the correct username and password.
You will see a list of available directories on Hurricane. The gray listings are not available to you, only the dark listings. Choose the letter that corresponds with the first letter of your last name. My name is "Schneider," so I chose "S."
If you would like the chosen directory to appear on your desktop automatically every time you boot your computer, you can do so by placing an alias in your login group.
A new icon will appear on your desktop, with the initial of your last name:
That's it! You have mapped a network drive to your desktop.
Double click on the network drive icon to access the directory as you would your local hard drive. Mine is called "schneidr" which is the same as my network login. Only you (and network administrators) have access to your folder. It will be locked to all others
Use this folder to store data that needs to be backed-up, or as additional storage space.
Making an Alias for Your Network Share Drive
If you would like easier access to your network share, you can make an alias for your desktop. When you have connected to the drive (in my example, "s"), click on the icon once to highlight, click on File and pull down to Make Alias.
An alias ("shortcut" in Windows) will have a little arrow in the lower left hand corner of the icon. These can be moved or deleted at any time without affecting the original drive, document or application.
This alias can be placed anywhere on your harddrive, desktop or dock. When you click on the alias to access your network share, you will immediately get an authentication box (username and password), skipping all the other steps.
Automatically Mounting your Network Share at Login
Do you access your network share every day? Would you like it to mount every time you log in? No problem! First you need to mount the network share.
In your Dock, click on the System Preferences icon (gray square with a lightswitch and Apple logo). Click on the Login Items icon (blue circle with a black house) in the upper right region. Near the bottom, click Add...
A directory window will
appear. Scroll all the way to the left, the same level as your hard drive, there
you hould see your network share icon (a globe on a little box). Highlight that
icon and click Add. Close the Login Items box.
Nest time you log in, the authentication box (user name and password) will appear
immediately so you can mount the network share.
Using your Network Folder for Backing Up Your Data
If you have not read the document, "Macintosh File Management and Back-Up Strategies for OS X", I recommend you do so as this document assumes you have stored all your personal documents in the Documents folder.
First, create a folder in your network folder with the date you backed up the data. This will make it easy for you to find the most recent back-up. Then simply drag your Documents folder into the dated folder:
That's it, you're done! Really! It's that simple.
How often should you back up your data?
That's really up to you, and how much you are willing to lose. I would recommend nothing less than once a week. Go into Outlook/Exchange and create a recurring appointment for yourself on Friday afternoon. Every week your computer will pop a reminder to back up your data.
If you are working on an important project, you may want to back up your data ever day. A few years ago when I was writing a book, I did a back-up every time I stopped for a break, lunch or quit for the day.
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