Guide to Home Directories
All school computers can access our file servers. All students and staff members can store their work in their own protected storage space (home directory), enabling them to:
- quickly access their files from any computer in the school
- rapidly, reliably, and securely store their work, even large files
- organize all their files in one place
In addition, all user documents are automatically backed up every night. If a user accidentally deletes or mistakenly alters a file, Mr. Tomlinson can retreive any earlier-saved version (e.g., "a copy of my term paper before I messed up the formatting on October 2") of that file.
Where is my Home Directory?
Your home directory is a folder with your username. All home directories are organized within the "docs" sharepoint (server) according to graduation year so that if you open the "docs" sharepoint you will see subfolders (right).
So, if you are in the class of 2011 and your username is johnsoal, your home directory is the folder "johnsoal," and you will find it inside the "2011" on the "docs" sharepoint: docs>2011>johnsoal. Staff home directories are, of course, in the "staff" folder.
What is inside my Home Directory?
A home directory itself contains a number of subdirectories or folders. One is called "Documents". This Documents folder is where users should save files they create, such as word-processing files. This is the default open and save location on school computers; when you save a new document, it will go here, unless you choose another location.
There are a number of other folders, besides the Documents folder, in a Home Directory. At present, you may wish to ignore these items, but they exist now and may prove useful to you now or in the future.
You should not save items here. On school Macintosh computers, items in the Desktop folder will appear on the desktop when you log in, but these items will slow things down. On school Windows computers, items in the Desktop folder of your home directory will not appear on your desktop.
Enter here to roam among the stacks, browsing through sometimes musty but fascinating works of literature and scholarship. Discover worlds of insight and knowledge. Lose yourself in the timeless wonder of . . . oh, sorry . . . this folder actually contains your user-specific settings, such as your Internet browser bookmarks/favorites. You should not do anything with this folder or its contents, which are maintained automatically by the software you use.
You may put things in here, but it is not recommended that you use this folder.
You may put things in here, but it is not recommended that you use this folder.
You may put things in here, but it is not recommended that you use this folder.
Everyone on the network has "read-access" to this folder. That means that they can copy things from it and open things in it. They cannot change things in it or put things into it. You can use this to make documents available to others. Inside of this folder is the "Drop Box" folder shown below.
The Drop Box is located inside the Public folder. Only you can put items into this folder, and only you can open this folder to see what is inside. Everyone else can put items into it. It's a "hand-in" folder.
This directory houses your personal web site. There is a stock template in there now, but you can build your own pages and put them into this folder. Your default page should be named "index.html." Users will access your site (only available within the BCPSS network) by entering the address "whs3/~yourusername". See Your Web Site for further information.
Why shouldn't I just save into the top level of my Home Directory?
The top level of your Home Directory is readable by everyone in the BCPSS system. That means that any student, at any school, can open and read its contents. They cannot open your Documents folder, but anything at the top level is completely public. So, save your work in your Documents folder unless you want to share it with everyone in BCPSS!