What kind of storage do I have access to?

Local Share Storage:

TCU provides it’s faculty and staff with multiple file storage options. We have shares on the network that are designed for only you to use (HomeFile shares) and other shares that are designed for multiple people to have access to (CommonFile shares). You get 20GB of storage space and that limit can be increased if you present a business case to IT but anything beyond 1TB or store space will not be provided.

Cloud Based Storage:

• A new cloud-based storage service called Box is also available for Faculty/Staff and students.
• Faculty/Staff and Students using O365 also get 1TB of storage on OneDrive.

Faculty/Staff Storage

HomeFile Personal Shares for Faculty and Staff – M: Drive

All of our faculty or staff (with the exception of a few associate/temp employee types) have their own personal share to store and backup data.  You are encouraged to store your TCU business data here,  especially files containing files with SPI (Sensative personal information)  The network shares are automatically backed up in order to protect your data.  You get 20GB of space on the share and you will be warned when you reach 90, 95, and 100 percent of your quota.  This limit can be increased if you present a business case to IT but anything beyond 1TB or store space will not be provided. Here are a few other important pieces of information about your HomeFile share:

1. Connecting to faculty and staff HomeFile share from a TCU-owned computer on campus. 
   • Mac Users – See the knowledge article for instructions on how to connect to your HomeFile share using a Mac.
   • Windows Users – Your HomeFile share should automatically mount when you log into a TCU-owned windows computer.
   • Warning – You will not be able to connect to TCU resources like printers or shares from the TCU Personal or TCU Guest wireless networks.
2. Accessing your HomeFile share from a personal device or from off campus.
   • You can access your HomeFile space by using a browser to go to http://fsftp.tcu.edu which will give you access to an easy to use web interface.
   • You can also use an FTP application to upload and download files to your HomeFile share. See FTP instructions for Macintosh and Windows.
3. Personal Webpages
   Your HomeFile or StuFile space grants you access to create your own personal website. By default you start with a folder called WWWPUB which is where you will store your website pages and files. Once you have built all of your pages you will be able to see your site by visiting your home page.  For faculty and staff, use the address:  http://personal.tcu.edu/yourusername (put your TCU username where it says “yourusername”). For students, use the address:  http://wwwstu.tcu.edu/yourusername (put your TCU username where it says “yourusername”). Most individuals use a simple HTML editor to create pages and connect to the WWWPUB folder using the FTP settings mentioned in the knowledge articles.

CommonFile – Departmental or Group Shares for Faculty/Staff

By default, faculty and staff will be granted access to a departmental CommonFile share based on job code. The CommonFile share name is usually the department’s two or three letter code plus an underscore and the word Common (Information Technology would be IT_Common). Everyone in the department will have access to this share so be careful what you do since everyone can see and modify the data.
CommonFile shares can also be used to just share data between a specific group of people. The owner of the share can request that you be added or removed from a share that they own. The share owner is responsible for managing and maintaning access to these shares and must approve all changes. Access to CommonFile shares is granted at the root level so we cannot just give access to specific folders. If you need to limit access to certain files, then you will need to request the creation of a new CommonFile share just for that group of people.

You will start out with 20GB of space on the share and the owner will be warned when you reach 90, 95, and 100 percent of your quota. This limit can be increased if you present a business case to IT but anything beyond 1TB or store space will not be provided.  Here are a few other important pieces of information about your CommonFile share:

1. Connecting to your Commonfile share from a TCU-owned computer on campus.
   • Mac Users – See the knowledge article for instructions on how to connect to a CommonFile share on a Mac.
   • Windows Users – See the knowledge article for instructions on how to connect to a CommonFile share on windows since these do not automatically map by default.
   • Warning – You will not be able to connect to TCU resources like printers or shares from the TCU Personal or TCU Guest wireless networks.
2. Access your CommonFile Share from a personal device or from off campus.
   • You cannot directly map a CommonFile share from off campus or from personal devices. You will have to connect to the TCU VPN and remote into a computer on campus or to Windows.tcu.edu to get access to your CommonFile shares.
   • Warning – Using FTP to connect to a CommonFile share is not allowed.

Box.com for Employees

TCU’s Box application is a cloud-based storage and collaboration service for current employees and students. Using Box, files can be securely stored and accessed easily from any device and is similar to Dropbox. Share large files securely with anyone – even if they are not TCU employees or students. View and comment on any kind of document, and connect with coworkers – no matter what device they use. You will start out with 25GB of space on the share.  This limit can be increased if you present a business case to IT but anything beyond 1TB or store space will not be provided. Learn more at https://it.tcu.edu/box.

OneDrive Access for Employees

Faculty/Staff and Students using O365 get 1TB of storage space in OneDrive.  To access OneDrive, login to https://it.tcu.edu/onedrive using your TCU email address and password.  For details, see the Onedrive webpage for the numerous options available using your Office 365 account.

File Storage Security Policies

The University provides access to its administrative and academic data in order to facilitate the business of the University. This access however must be accomplished in a manner that ensures the security, confidentiality, integrity and availability of the data. All users share in this responsibility. To help facilitate this purpose this policy describes several classifications or categories of data and then goes on to describe how each may be used and protected.

TCU data must be protected to prevent loss, theft, or unauthorized access.  Employees and students are responsible for the data housed intheir TCU Box account and must not store institutional data classified as Confidential. Please review the appropriate policies found at the TCU Information Security Services website:

• Data Classification Policy
• TCU Approved Electronic Data Storage Locations Matrix

Student Storage Options

StuFile – Personal Shares for Students – U: Drive

Students in specific classes or who put in a request witht he IT Support helpDesk (with a academic class related business case) willbe granted access to have their own personal share for class related activities.  The professors in these classes will be your contact point if this access is required for your class.

Requesting space for a web page:

• Students who register for a class that requires access to the student web server will have an account created 7 days before class begins.  The account will remain active until 90 days after the course has ended.  The professor will be given instructions on how to access the account. Also, instructions will be published in the IT web site Knowledge Base.
• Others may request web site space by contacting the IT Support HelpDesk or creating a self-service ticket with the IT Support HelpDesk.  You must include an academic class related business case in order for this to be approved.  Your professor may be asked to help validate and request this need on your behalf.

Accessing the Tool:

You will start out with 1GB of space on the share and you will be warned when you reach 90, 95, and 100 percent of your quota.  Here are a few other important pieces of information about your HomeFile share:

• Accessing your StuFile Share from a personal device or from off campus.
  • You can access your StuFile space by using a browser to go to http://stuftp.tcu.edu which will give you access to an easy to use web interface.
  • You can also FTP to your StuFile share.  See the instructions in the knowledge articles below.
• Personal Webpages – Your StuFile space grants you access to create your own personal website.  By default you start with a folder called WWWPUB which is where you will store your website pages and files.  Once your have built out all of your pages you will be able to see your site by visiting http://student.tcu.edu/yourusername (put your TCU username where it says “yourusername”).  Most individuals use a simple HTML editor to create their pages and connect to this folder using the FTP settings mentioned in our knowledge article.

Box.com for Students

TCU’s Box application is a cloud-based storage and collaboration service for current employees and students. Using Box, files can be securely stored and accessed easily from any device and is similar to Dropbox. Share large files securely with anyone – even if they are not TCU employees or students. View and comment on any kind of document, and connect with coworkers – no matter what device they use. You will start out with 25GB of space on the share.  This limit can be increased if you present a business case to IT but anything beyond 1TB or store space will not be provided. Learn more at https://it.tcu.edu/box.

OneDrive Access for Students

Faculty/Staff and Students using O365 get 1TB of storage space in OneDrive.  To access OneDrive, login to https://it.tcu.edu/onedrive using your TCU email address and password.  For details, see the Onedrive webpage for the numerous options available using your Office 365 account.

Access to CommonFile shares for students?

Students will not be granted access to CommonFile shares from their regular TCU accounts. The student’s supervisor must request the creation of a new student worker account and then have the CommonFile share access added to that account.

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. Please, hold off on reporting major outages to the campus network if it occurs during the maintenance window.