Making regular backups is the most important thing you can do to protect your data. Some common locations for backup files include:
- your network share
- external hard drive
- online storage services (Mozy, Box.net, etc.)
- flash or jump drive
- CD or DVD
Back up your work and important files, including e-mail messages, contact information, serial numbers and license codes for personal software, and preference files for specific software.
Establishing Your Backup
Select the link for your operating system:
To speed up backup and save disk space, you can compress files before copying them. There are many compression utilities, including WinZip for Windows users.
Backing Up to Your Network Share
The University of Puget Sound has two share servers, Alexandria and Merlin2. A quota of
2 GB is available per person or office share (this is separate from your e-mail quota!).
- Alexandria is for academic use by faculty and students
- Merlin2 is for administrative use by departments and staff
How to Access Your Network Share
Windows (all versions)
- Right-click the My Computer or Computer icon on the desktop (or in the Start Menu).
- Select Map Network Drive. and a dialog box should appear.
- Select the desired drive letter from the Drive dropdown.
- In the Folder box, type the path to the network drive, in the format shown, replacing the words "server" with the desired server (alexandria or merlin2) and "share" with the share name (your username in the case of a personal share). For example: \\alexandria\myname
- If you want the share to be readily accessible every time you log in, make sure Reconnect at logon is checked.
- Click Finish. A new window should open showing the contents of your share.
-
If prompted to login, enter your PugetSound username (as PUGETSOUND\ username) and password, and click Okay.
MacOS X
- Open the Go menu and select Connect to server.. A dialog box should appear in a new window.
- In the Server Address box, enter the pattern "smb:/server/share", replacing "server" with the desired server (alexandria or merlin2) and "share" with the share name (your username in the case of a personal share). Example: smb://alexandria/myname
- You will be prompted to login. Enter your PugetSound username (as PUGETSOUND\ username) and password and click Connect. You may also check Remember this password in my keychain so you won't have to login when connecting to this server again (unless you change your password).
- A new window should open showing the contents of your share.