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Saving your work: Other devices

The safest place to store your files is on our Central Filestore, accessible from our Windows and Unix services including WTS (which you can run on your own machine). Files are backup up daily and stored in a secure environment.

All the other storage devices listed below should NOT be used as the single place a file is stored if it contains data that is essential or valuable to you.

For more information about the central filestore, please see one of the following web addresses:

students: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/students/filestore

staff: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/staff/filestore

Local drives on your own computer (e.g C:)

Hard disks on personal computers are reasonably reliable and are a common place for people to store their data. However, they can become corrupted or damaged, so taking backups is essential if the data held cannot easily be recreated.

If you run WTS (Remote Cluster or Standalone Staff WTS) on your own machine, you will be able to access the UCL Central Filestore as well as your local hard disk.

Please note that we do not provide facilities to enable you to backup your local hard disk to the Central Filestore as this would take up too much space. However, you can copy all your essential data files to the Central Filestore from your local machine.

IS-Managed Windows computers

IS-Managed Windows computers are machines that are run in student computer workrooms and are available for staff to use in their offices also.

On these computers, you will see the Central Filestore drives N: and R: (the correct place to save your work), but you will also notice other drives  - C:, D:, E:, Z: and possibly others. Do not save your data to these drives, you should save your data on the Central Filestore only because:

  • The D: drive is allocated for use with the CD writer ONLY. It should only be used as a temporary space to copy your files to before they are burned to CD.
  • The C:, D: and other drives are NOT secure locations for saving your files. These areas can be accessed by any user of the machine and, in student computer workrooms, are wiped clean on a daily basis. The most secure place to save your files is in your Central Filestore area.
  • Files lost from the C: D: and other local drive drives CANNOT be restored. ISD will accept no responsibility for files lost from these drives.
  • Any other user who logs in to the PC can see the C: and D: drive. It is YOUR responsibility to clear your data from the D: drive after you have finished writing your CD - do this through Windows Explorer.


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USB key (memory stick)

USB (universal serial bus) drives are compact and easy-to-use flash memory data storage devices integrated with a USB interface. The term "USB flash drive" is a generic term used to describe these products.

There are two types of USB (universal serial bus) keys, USB 1.0 (the old type) and USB 2.0 (the new type). Some USB 1.0 ports may not be able read USB 2.0 data stick.

If you wish access files from your USB key in WTS, you must ensure that you plug in your key BEFORE logging in to WTS and remove it AFTER logging out. [This can usually be accessed as drive F: from Cluster WTS.]


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CDs and CD writers

The CD ROM drives in student computer workrooms are normally drive E:, for Staff IS-Managed computers (not all have CD writing facilities), the drive is normally D:.

CD ROM drives can be used to access CD ROMs for academic use only. You cannot use them to try and install your own software, games etc.

Note that CDs you create yourself, using your own CD writing software must be closed properly before they can be read on WTS PCs. Contact the ISD Service Desk if you need more information.

To write to a CD, please see one of the following web addresses:

students: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/students/windows/wts/guide/cd-writers

staff: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/isd/staff/windows/wts/guide/cd-writers


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