Saving files in a convenient location to access them again is important. The main options for where to save files are:

• on the cloud (using a cloud storage system such as Google Drive)
• on a University filestore
• locally on the device you are using

What is the cloud?

The "cloud" is file storage you can access remotely over the internet. When something is in the cloud (a photo, video, file), it is not stored on your computer's hard drive but one you are connecting to via the internet. When files are stored in the cloud such as Google Drive, you often get to them using a URL link that you click on or enter into your internet browser.

At York, Google Drive is our cloud service. We store and manage files at drive.google.com and via mobile apps. By setting the right permissions, Google Drive allows you to share files with others within and outside the university. We recommend that you use Drive over any other cloud providers such as Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive.

Filestore

You may also use a University Filestore to share and manage your personal documents. All members of the University have a limited amount of storage space on their personal filestore, and some departments/groups also use shared filestores. It should be possible to access University filestores from any University PC (and potentially from personal devices), but you need to connect to the University VPN to access them off-campus. When working collaboratively, we encourage all members of the University to think through the best option for saving files from an access and information security point of view.

Saving locally

If you save a file locally on a device that you're using, be aware that you won't be able to access that file from any other device, and it will take up space in your device's storage. However, this can occasionally be a useful option such as when you're needing to work on a file without having an internet connection.

Downloading means receiving data or a file from the internet on your computer. It will then be stored on your computer.

Uploading means sending data or a file from your computer to somewhere on the internet.

You might be used to receiving emails with attached documents and then needing to download those files. To send files to others, you might then attach files to emails by uploading them. However, to make sure you can access a file anywhere, upload it to Google Drive. Where possible, try to send people links to Google Drive files rather than attaching the files to an email as this reduces the number of copies of a file that exist and makes it easier to collaborate on files.

When you’re creating, deleting or moving files, it can all get a little confusing knowing where the file is actually stored. Sometimes icons and links that you click to access files stored in cloud storage are just a link to the file elsewhere, rather than the actual file itself. In these cases, there would generally be no need to download the file in order to work on it, as you can do this within the relevant application (such as Google Docs or Google Sheets) within a web browser.

Let's take an example with a PDF file, and various ways this could be accessed.

• The PDF might be saved locally on your computer. In this case, you can open it by navigating to the folder where it's saved. Your computer will open the file using whatever is set as the default application for that file type.
• The PDF might have been sent to you as an email attachment - in this case, you may be able to view a preview of the file from within your email application, but you would need to download the file in order to open it in specific software for viewing PDFs (e.g. Adobe Reader). If you download a file in this way, it then stays saved locally on your computer (generally in the Downloads folder), so there's no need to download it again from the email attachment if you want to access it again in future. In fact, if you download a file more than once, it will save a new copy of the file to your computer each time.
• The PDF might be stored on Google Drive. In this case, when you're accessing the file it would generally be in a web browser, using a link to the URL where the file is saved. As with email attachments, you may be able to view a preview of the file from within Google Drive, but you would need to download the file in order to open it in specific software for viewing PDFs.

Naming files

One way to make it easier to quickly find the file you need is to make sure you use sensible file names. This might follow a specific naming convention, but even if not it's important to name your files in a way which will allow you to easily find them and which identifies them as unique from your other files.

Let's say you wanted to find a particular file containing notes from a seminar on Metaphysics in March 2023.

• If you named the file Notes, then good luck finding it among all your other notes!
• Seminar notes is slightly better but still wouldn't distinguish it from the many other seminar notes you may have taken.
• Metaphysics seminar notes narrows down the subject, but there still might be several files that fit this description.
• Metaphysics seminar notes 16 March 2023 is much better - it includes plenty of descriptive information to help you understand the content of the file and to distinguish it from other similar files.

It is important on any device to make sure everything is regularly backed up in case your device is ever replaced, lost or damaged.

If you are using Google Drive, your files will be automatically backed up, including data on mobile devices. When using Google Drive, you can also revert to old versions of your documents to recover old versions.

If you are using a recently issued university managed Windows laptop, anything you save in your desktop, documents and pictures folders are automatically backed up in OneDrive. Find out more about OneDrive at the university.

If you are using a university filestore, copies are made of data saved here via the backup service on a regular basis. It is possible to recover recent files yourself.

'Zip' folders put files together in a way that takes up less space than before, so it is ideal for archiving PC files to free up space. If you need to email or send computer files, compressing them into a 'zip' folder first could help send them more quickly and easily. In addition, if you download multiple files at once, they might become a 'zip' folder to increase download speed.

If you're not sharing a file through Google Drive, sending files in a 'zip' folder is smart. It will save time it takes to send or receive the item as it will be much smaller.

You might get a zip folder when you download multiple files at the same time, for example via Google Drive.

To 'unzip' or decompress a 'zip' folder so that you can access the original files, just select the folder, right click and select Extract All.

To create a 'zip' folder, select the files you want to compress, right click and select Send to>Compressed (zipped) folder.