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Information Technology

TCU Network Shares

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TCU Network Shares provide faculty, staff, and students with storage that is backed up on TCU's servers.

Learn about TCU Network Shares

Student Personal Storage

Current students do not have personal network shares, but they may be given access to them by an advisor or supervisor through research or work responsibilities.

Instead, students have two online options for storing and backing up data.

Group Storage

Students do not have departmental or group storage by default. To share files with peers or others, students should consider using Box storage from TCU, but be aware that if other users upload files, then those will count against their storage limit. We generally recommend that the supervisor share their Box folder with the student so that when the student leaves their position, the supervisor will still have the data they need.

If a student is working for a department, the supervisor may request for them to have a Student Worker account, which can be added to a department or group storage. 

Faculty & Staff Personal Storage

Most faculty and staff (excluding some associate/temp employees) have 20GB of personal storage on their HomeFile share (or M: Drive) for storing and backing up TCU business data.

Files containing Sensitive Personal Information (SPI) should be stored here, as homefile shares are backed daily up for data protection. 

Accessing Your HomeFile or M: Drive Share

On a TCU-Owned Computer (On-Campus)

  • Windows Users: Your HomeFile share should automatically connect when you log in. Contact the IT Help Desk if you are missing your HomeFile. 
  • Mac Users: Contact the IT Help Desk. 

Note: You cannot access TCU printers or network shares when connected to eduroam or TCU Guest.

From a Personal Device or Off-Campus

You have two options depending on what you want to access.

  • Establish a VPN connection and use the remote desktop program to connect to your TCU computer on campus or into the Windows server. Learn more at Working Remotely. (Personal HomeFile and Common Files)
  • Access your HomeFile share via a web browser at http://fsftp.tcu.edu. (Personal HomeFile only)

Departmental or Group Storage

Faculty and staff are automatically granted access to their department’s CommonFile share based on job code. These shares are named using the department’s two- or three-letter code followed by "_Common" (e.g., IT_Common for Information Technology).

Since all department members have access, be mindful that everyone can view and modify the files stored here.

And CommonFile shares can also be used by smaller groups. The share owner can request to add or remove users as needed. Access is granted at the share's root level, not for individual folders. If you need restricted access for certain files, a new CommonFile share must be requested. Share owners are responsible for managing access and approving changes.

Each CommonFile share starts with 20GB of space and is fully backed up weekly. Share owners will receive warnings at 90%, 95%, and 100% of the quota.

Accessing Your CommonFile

On a TCU-Owned Computer (On-Campus)

From a Personal Device or Off-Campus

Direct mapping is not available. Establish a VPN connection and use the remote desktop program to connect to your TCU computer on campus or into the Windows server. Learn more at Working Remotely. (Personal HomeFile and Common Files)

Warning: Maintenance Window

Our file share maintenance window is on Sunday morning from Midnight until Noon. We may have to bring the system down during this time with little or no warning to the TCU community. If you experience an outage during this window, please wait until maintenance is complete before reporting an issue.