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How to Access your Home Drive

Every JCU user has a 10mb personal Home Drive space on the central storage server which they can use to save files or maintain a personal web space on. Your Home Drive can be accessed from any GATCF computer or by using an FTP client or web browser from off campus.

Note on Backup and Restores: Please be aware that your 'Home' drive is a temporary storage area and should only be used for short term file storage or file transfer. As such, file restoration for lost, damaged or deleted files is not available.

How to save to your Home (I:\) Drive

To save or access files stored on your Home Drive from a GATCF computer follow the steps below:

On a Dell PC go to File and select Save As...

  • Under the “Favorite Links” section on the left select “My Computer” then choose the Homes Drive option under “Network Location” represented as your: Login ID (\\samba-gatcf.jcu.edu.au)

  • Give the file a name

  • Then click on the Save button

On an iMac:

  • Start by clicking on the AD Homes icon on the desktop and authenticating with your JCU Login ID and password to map a connection to your Homes Drive.

  • Go to File and select Save As...

  • From the "Where:" pull-down box select 'Desktop’'.

  • Give the file a name

  • Then click on the Save button

  • Now drag and drop the file from your Desktop onto your Homes Drive icon (identified by your Login ID).

The file has now been saved to your 'home' (I:\) drive - it's that easy!

You can then retrieve it from any computer, in any GAT lab on campus, by doing the following.

On a Dell PC go to File and select Open...

  • Under the “Favorite Links” section on the left select “My Computer” then choose the Homes Drive option under “Network Location” represented as your: Login ID (\\samba-gatcf.jcu.edu.au)

  • Change the files of type: to all files, that way you can see all the files on your 'home' I:\ drive.

  • Locate the file you wish to open and double click on it with the left mouse button.

On an iMac click on the Home Drive button on the Launcher.

  • Start by clicking on the AD Homes icon on the desktop and authenticating with your JCU Login ID and password to map a connection to your Homes Drive.

  • Go to the desktop and double click the Home Drive Icon to open your I:/ Drive.

  • Find the file and double click to open.

You can also access your 'Home' (I:) drive from a computer off campus by using a process known as FTP.

Remote Access to your Home Drive

File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a simple and efficient method of exchanging files over the Internet. FTP allows you to put files on and get files off another computer. You can use FTP to put your web page files onto your server, so that the world can see them on the Internet. You can also use FTP to download programs and other files to your computer from other servers.

Incoming FTP traffic to JCU from external servers incurs Internet charging, for more information on this please refer to the NetAccess Guide web page.

You can FTP files from your home computer to your I:\ drive, using either a web browser or a dedicated ftp software.

Using a Web Browser

Access to your 'Home' drive using your web browser is limited. You can upload files from your computer to your 'home' drive and open files in your 'home' drive. You cannot save files to your 'home' drive; you must save them to your computer (or a USB stick) first, and then upload them to your Home drive. For instructions on how to do this read on.

To access your 'home' drive from your web browser, put the following URL in the location (address) bar:

  • On campus - ftp://accountcode@homes.jcu.edu.au/

  • Off campus - ftp://accountcode@ftp.jcu.edu.au/

(Account code is also known as login id or username and takes the form of jc000000 or fac-aaa)

You will then be asked to enter your password. This is the password that you use to access your JCU email.

You will see a list of the files and directories in your home directory.

Files beginning with a "." are system and environment files needed for your account - don't delete them!!!

To open a file from your Home Drive first locate the file and double click on it. You will be asked if you want to open or save the file - select one of these options.

To open one of your directories (folders) e.g. public_html.

  • Double click on that icon

  • A list of all files that are contained within that directory will appear

  • To download a file from your Homes Drive simply drag and drop it from the browser window onto your desktop

  • To upload a file to your Homes Drive simply drag and drop it from it’s location on your PC into your browser window (uploading files using a browser only works in Internet Explorer 6)

This method can be used for putting your web pages into your public_html folder. You will need to change your permissions for the file in UNIX though (chmod 644 filename), so that the rest of the world can see your web pages. For more information on how to do this see the Creating Web Pages on the JCU Server guide.

FTP Software

Graphical FTP programs such as CuteFTP (Windows) or Cyberduck (OSX) and Filezilla (for Windows and OSX) allow you to type the address and file details and save the setup for future use.

You will be prompted for the ftp host address: ftp.jcu.edu.au as well as your JCU Login ID and Password and your local directory (the folder on your computer where the ftp program will open).

Graphical FTP programs display two panels. One is your local hard drive and the other being the remote computer.

To transfer a file, using your mouse you can drag and drop files in either direction. You can change directories by double clicking on the directory you wish to change to. If you want to go up a directory (folder), choose the up one level icon.