Network File Structure — The M and S Drives

In Granite School District, students and staff have a dedicated personal storage space for files using Microsoft’s OneDrive. On a district computer, any files that you create and save to the Documents folder and to the desktop of your district computer are automatically saved in this network storage space.  Teachers and staff members are allotted 15 GB of storage space in their M Drive, while students receive ?? GB of storage space. Files saved to a user’s OneDrive by a teacher or student cannot be accessed by anyone else (except network administrators in special cases for security purposes.) However, you can share files with others from your OneDrive. (See this TIP page for more information on how to do that.)

When you are on a district computer, you can access and view the contents of your OneDrive and other network drives you may have access to by opening the File Explorer. There is a simple keyboard shortcut to open the File Explorer window: Windows Key (the one that looks like a flag) + E.

OneDrive will appear toward the top of your list of file libraries. If you still have the M Drive, it will appear towards the bottom of the left window, and will be listed with your district username next to it.

You also have a second shared drive for storage that you and other teachers or you and your students can access and see.  It is called the S Drive. The storage in this drive can be configured so your students can save assignments to it for you to pick up, or so that you can share items saved there with other teachers.  If you, your department, or your grade level team would like to have storage configured for you in the S Drive, talk with your STS (School Technology Specialist) at elementary schools, or your LMETS (Library Media Educational Technology Specialist) in secondary schools. However, the S Drive has limited storage space, so we recommend that you share documents through OneDrive.

Items that you save to your OneDrive are safe from loss as they are backed up to the cloud. Items that you save to the S Drive are safe from loss, and are backed up by our network engineers.  If you save files elsewhere, even on the “teacher” classroom machine, please be aware that they are not safe, and can be lost in the event something goes wrong with the computer. Be aware that students should also have no expectation of being able to later retrieve files they have saved to the Desktop on a school lab computer.

Accessing Network Drives from Home

Your OneDrive and S Drive are only available to you on your computer while you are logged into our Granite School District network.

When you are at home, your OneDrive can be access by logging in to office.com with your graniteschools.org credentials and clicking on OneDrive in the Quick Launch menu or on the Office 365 homepage. Our TIP page on Office 365 has more information about accessing your OneDrive off campus.

Preparing for a New Computer or Re-Provisioning

At the end of the school year, or at other times if there is a major software update, the technology specialist or computer tech in your school will “re-provision” school computers, including teacher desktop computers. Re-provisioning is also sometimes necessary as a quick emergency measure to repair software problems or remove virus infections on an individual computer. In the provisioning process the computer’s hard drive is wiped clean and the computer is set up as if new, so any items saved on the Desktop or any other location not in a network drive (M or S Drive) or a cloud drive (+Google Drive+ or +Microsoft OneDrive+) will be lost.

In the event of re-provisioning or receiving a new computer, you will be asked to prepare by safely saving your files and exporting your browser favorites. This checklist provides detailed steps for preparing for a new or newly-provisioned computer. You can also contact your school’s technology specialist if you have questions or need help preparing for re-provisioning.

Checklist — Preparing for a New Computer or Re-Provisioning

Organizing Files

A well-organized system for filing all of your computer files can save you time and hassle when trying to locate files in the future.

Tips for organizing the files on your computer:

• Save all your files on the same drive (eg. your M Drive) so you can find them in one place.
• Choose your organization system carefully and stick to it.
• Organize files based on purpose, not file type.
• Use sub-folders.
• Name files and folders intelligently – short but precise.
• If you want a file on your Desktop or in two locations, create a shortcut to that file rather than have duplicate copies. Delete the shortcut when you don’t need it anymore.
• Save your file to the correct location when you initially save it.

To create a folder:

• Navigate to where you want to create the folder
• Right-click in a blank space and click on New then Folder.
• Name your folder appropriately.

Moving files and folders:

• Option 1: Select the file/folder you want to move. Drag it from one window to another while holding down the right mouse button.
• Option 2: Right-click on the file/folder you want to move. Select Cut or Copy from the menu. Navigate to the new location. Right click in a blank space. Click paste.

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Page content created by school and district technology specialists Cherie Anderson, Andy Misco, Samantha Mitchell, Jenny Peirce, and Josh Whiting.

+ Indicate future links to TIP content pages not yet completed.+