This page discusses how you should save and store your files when using the Student Desktop.
There are two main locations available for saving your files and documents:
- your H drive, which is your Desktop and My Documents
- your OneDrive, which is online storage and is linked to your Student Webmail
See below for a list of features for H Drive and OneDrive.
We recommend saving documents you are currently working on in your My Documents folder. When you are no longer using them on a regular basis, archive or back them up to OneDrive or to an external hard drive. For example, a pdf journal article you’ve already read, or an assignment you’ve handed in – in both cases you still want to keep the file, but don’t need to access it regularly.
H Drive (My Documents, Desktop, etc)
- Small – only 3-5GB storage
- Accessible only through the Student Desktop
- Fast – good for documents you are currently working on
- Size can only be increased in special circumstances
- Hosted by the University
OneDrive (Online storage)
- Very large – one Terabyte (1000 times bigger than your H drive)
- Accessible through Student Desktop and your Student Webmail
- Able to be synced to your own computer
- Slower – it is better to download files to your own computer to work on them. However Office 365 provides a service similar to Google Docs in that:
- Documents can be worked on in Office Online
- Documents can be shared and collaborated on online
- Hosted by Microsoft
- This may be relevant in some cases for legal reasons involving confidential or sensitive files
See Using Your OneDrive for more information.
