Access Mentor Home and Shared Folders on Windows

The Active Directory file server that hosts home and shared folders is called Mentor. This article offers instructions for accessing home and shared folders the Active Directory file server from a computer running Windows on the campus network.

Mentor is a shared network file server for storing deparmental or individual files related to College business. All faculty and staff, and some students as required through campus employment, have access to Mentor. This guide offers instructions for accessing Mentor "home" and "shared" folders from a Windows computer.

Audience

This article is intended for faculty, staff, and some students with campus employment.

Platform

Microsoft Windows

Requirements

Mentor must be accessed from:

• The wired campus network
• The IthacaCollege secure wireless network
• The Eduroam secure wireless network
• An Internet-connected computer running GlobalProtect VPN.

Mentor cannot be accessed over the IthacaCollege-Guest wireless network.

Accessing your Home and Shared Folders

Your Netpass username and password are used to access your Mentor home folder (work-related files that are for your personal use) and departmental shared folders. If you log into a College computer with your Netpass username and password, this automatically gives you access to your home folder and any shared departmental files that you have been granted access to.

Home Folder

Home folders are accessible only to you, the owner of the individual account. By default, you have 1 GB of disk space in your home folder. 

On a computer running Windows, letters can be assigned to drives or network folders through “mapping” to make it easier to locate and use those resources. Your home folder is defined to be mapped as your “H:” drive. Once you have logged into Active Directory, double-click on My Computer on your desktop to see your H: drive. It will appear with the name “[username] on „mentor\home‟ (H:).” 

If you have multiple peripheral devices connected to your computer, or your H: drive is mapped to another resource, your home folder may not map to your H: drive. You still have access to your home folder, even if it is not mapped as your H: drive. If this is the case, ITS recommends that you re-map your H: drive or create a shortcut to your home folder. See the Using Mapped Drives or the Creating Shortcuts to Home and Shared Folders section of this guide for more information.

College-owned Computers with a Direct Network Connection

If you are using a college-owned computer with a direct network connection on campus, your home folder will appear as your H: drive automatically. To find and use your home folder:

1. Start up your computer and log into Active Directory using your Netpass username and password
2. Double-click on My Computer on your desktop to see your H: drive. It will appear with the name “[username] on „mentor\home‟ (H:).” 

College-owned Computers with a Wireless Network Connection

If you are using a college-owned computer with an ICAirnet-Secure network connection on campus, you will need to make a connection to your home folder after you have started up, logged into, and established a network connection on the computer. To find and use your home folder, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Start menu, and click Run
2. In the Open field, type \\mentor.campus.ithaca.lan
3. Click OK
4. In the username field, type campus\username, where “username” is your Netpass username, and type your Netpass password
5. Click OK
6. Double-click on My Computer on your desktop to see your H: drive. It will appear with the name “[username] on „mentor\home‟ (H:).”

Personal Computers with a Direct or Wireless Network Connection

If you are using a personal computer with an ICAirnet-Secure wireless or a direct network connection on campus, you will need to make a connection to your home folder after you have started up, logged into, and established a network connection on the computer. To find and use your home folder, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Start menu, and click Run
2. In the Open field, type \\mentor.campus.ithaca.lan
3. Click OK
4. In the username field, type campus\username, where “username” is your Netpass username, and type your Netpass password
5. Type OK
6. Double-click on My Computer on your desktop to see your H: drive. It will appear with the name “[username] on „mentor\home‟ (H:).”

Shared Folder(s)

Your shared folder is accessible to the group of users with whom you need to collaborate and share files, e.g., members of your department. The amount of disk space provided for shared folders varies by each group‟s needs.

Shared folders are not mapped to network drive letters by default in Active Directory accounts, so your shared folder will not appear when you double-click on My Computer. 

To access your shared folder(s):

1. Go to the Start menu, and click Run
2. In the Open field, type \\mentor
3. Click OK

Creating Shortcuts to Home and Shared Folders

ITS recommends that you create shortcuts to your home and shared folders on your desktop to make it easy to access them, as follows:

1. Connect to the campus network directly or through ICAirnet-Secure wireless and log into Active Directory.
2. If you are using a direct network connection on campus, go to Start, open Run type \\mentor, and click OK. If you are using an ICAirnet-Secure wireless network connection on campus, go to Start, open Run, type \\mentor.campus.ithaca.lan and click OK.
3. Click Home, right-click on the folder with your username, and click Create Shortcut. Click Yes at the prompt that asks if you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop.
4. If you have access to the shared section of the file server called Shared, click on Shared, right-click on your shared folder, and click Create Shortcut. Click Yes at the prompt that asks if you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop
5. If you have access to the shared section called Academic, click on Academic, right-click on your shared folder, and click Create Shortcut. Click Yes at the prompt that asks if you want the shortcut to be placed on the desktop.You will now be able to double-click the shortcuts to your home and shared folders on the Mentor Active Directory file server whenever you want to open, upload, or download files.

Recovering Files in Your Home or Shared Folder(s)

You can use the Restore Previous Versions feature to recover missing files or folders in your home and shared folders, as follows:

1. Go to the Start menu, click Run, type \\mentor in the Open field, and click OK.
2. Click on Home, Shared, or Academic, right-click the containing folder of the missing file(s) or folder(s), then click Properties
3. Click the Previous Versions tab.
4. Versions of your files and folders on Mentor are archived by date and time. Select the folder with the best (most recent) date and time to use to attempt data recovery.
5. Click the View button. (Do not click the Restore or Copy buttons because you may accidentally overwrite current data in your home or shared folder.)
6. Navigate to your missing data. When you locate the files and/or folders you need, right-click and copy each file and/or folder to a new folder on your desktop.

Using Mapped Drives

On a computer running Windows, letters can be assigned to folders on a network file server through “mapping” to make it easier to locate and use those folders. Your home folder, for instance, is mapped to the letter “H:” by default. The “H:” drive is reserved for the home folder in all faculty, staff, and student Active Directory accounts.

Some applications require you to map a network folder with a certain letter in order to run properly. If you do use mapping, you are advised not to map a letter to your “H;” drive, My Network Places. Map a file server folder to a drive letter on your computer as follows:

1. Go to the Start menu, click Run, type \\mentor in the Open field, and click OK.
2. Navigate to the folder you wish to map, then right-click it.
3. From the Tools drop-down menu, click Map Network Drive
4. From the Drive drop-down list, click the letter to use to reference the network folder
5. In the Folder field, type the network path (e.g., \\server\share) or click Browse to navigate to the network folder you are mapping
6. Check Reconnect  at the logon checkbox
7. Click OK, then click Finish.

Logging Off

Once you have logged into Active Directory on a computer, anyone who uses it can access the data on the computer and the data in your home and shared folders on the file server. If you are on a computer that is in a public area or is shared by multiple users, it is important to log off when you have completed your work session to ensure the safety of your data.

1. Go to the Start Menu.
2. Select Log Off
3. Click Log Off from the menu.