Information Technology Services

File Storage

Personal File Share

The Personal File Share is a private, network-based file storage area for each student, faculty and staff. Think of your file share as a hard drive on the Clark network. Each Clark Account, whether faculty, staff or student, gets 50 MB of space on the server - that's the equivalent of 40 floppy disks. The files you place in your personal file share can be accessed only by you. You can access your files in a variety of ways from a variety of locations.

Why would I want to use my personal file share?
Every year we get at least one call from a panicked student who's computer has crashed just after finishing their final paper or from faculty or staff who have lost some important documents. Data loss is a fact of life when you are relying on computers. You should ALWAYS have important files backed up in more than one place. Not doing this often leads to disaster.
Is the file server secure?
The file server is much more secure than storing your files on your computer's local hard drive. The file server's hard drives are set up in a configuration called RAID (an array of disks) which ensures that, even in the event of a hard disk failure, there is almost immediate recovery of your files. The disks are also backed up to tape every night and the tapes used for back-ups are kept in a fireproof safe.
What types of files can I put there?
Whatever you want: Word documents, images, spreadsheets. The only file type that is not allowed is .exe files. These are the types of files used to install software.
How do I connect to my personal file share?
This page outlines the different methods with help docouments provided accordingly.