Network drives
Network drives (also called file shares or departmental file storage) provide departments and research labs with shared storage space. Network drives are securely hosted and backed up in UVic's enterprise data centre.
Details
- For
- Employees[1]
- Cost
- Free (up to 5 GB per full-time employee in a department)
- Employees are typically given access to the network drives they need during onboarding, based on their department and role. Department admins can give students, contractors, researchers and other affiliates access as needed. Only employees can request new network drives. ↩
Alternatives
- Document libraries in SharePoint and Teams are more versatile and easier to manage than network drives.
- There are more storage options for research data.
Self-help resources
Before you start:
- If you’re off campus, connect to the UVic VPN.
- Make sure you know the name of the network drive you want to access. In these instructions, substitute it for yourDriveName.
- It might be your department code or another short name.
- If you’re using a UVic-managed computer, your department’s network drive should be connected automatically when you sign in.
- If it’s not, try restarting your computer. If that doesn’t work, contact us for help.
- Substitute yourNetLinkID for your own NetLink ID.
Once you’re ready to connect to your network drive:
- Find This PC on your desktop or in the File Explorer sidebar.
- Right-click on it and select Map network drive.
- In the Drive drop-down menu, choose any drive letter.
- In the Folder box, enter “\\yourDriveName.storage.uvic.ca\yourDriveName”.
- If you’re not using a UVic-managed computer, select the Connect using different credentials checkbox.
- Select the Finish button.
- If you’re not using a UVic-managed computer, you’ll be prompted to Enter network credentials.
- In the first box, enter “uvic\yourNetLinkID”.
- In the second box, enter your NetLink ID passphrase.
- Select the OK button.
Your network drive will be mapped to the letter you chose.
Before you start:
- If you’re off campus, connect to the UVic VPN.
- Make sure you know the name of the network drive you want to access. In these instructions, substitute it for yourDriveName.
- It might be your department code or another short name.
- Substitute yourNetLinkID for your own NetLink ID.
Once you’re ready to connect to your network drive:
- In Finder, go to the Go menu and select Connect to server.
- In the Server Address box, enter “smb://yourDriveName.storage.uvic.ca/yourDriveName”, then select the Connect button.
- You’ll be prompted to enter a name and password.
- Select Registered User.
- In the Name box, enter “uvic\yourNetLinkID”.
- In the password box, enter your NetLink ID passphrase.
- Select the Connect button.
The network drive will be opened and added to your Finder sidebar under Shared.
Privacy & information security
Storage in UVic's data centre is generally considered safe for UVic research, admin and personal data, as long as you use it responsibly.
If you're working with private, confidential or highly confidential business data and aren’t sure of the best way to store it:
- review the Annual Staff Training course
- ask your supervisor about your department’s policies and best practices
- contact the Privacy and Access to Information Office for more help
If you’re working with research data, Research Computing Services offers free consultations on security.
Get help now
Contact the Computer Help Desk to:
- get help accessing network drives
- report an outage or issue