How to Map Your m-drive

Carrying around flash drives and other portable data storage devices can be quite a hassle, especially if you happen to forget it in your dorm room or (gasp!) lose your device!  There's lots of cloud storage solutions out there, but most of the time you have to download software for it, and when you're using so many different computers on campus, it's just not practical to use!

"So, what can be done?" you might ask.  Well, the best option for when you're on Harding's network is your m-drive.  It's already mapped on all the on-campus computers, so it is very easy to use, but what happens when you want to go back to your dorm to work on the paper you started on a lab computer?  That's right - you pull out the trusty thumb drive.  But (oh, no!), you forgot to save it to your thumb drive when you were back in the lab now all the labs are closed! Your paper is due at midnight and you have no idea what to do!

Do not despair.  There is a way to remedy the situation!  Yes, dear reader, you, too, can map your m-drive to your own personal computer!

"But how?" you inquire.  By following the step-by-step guide below!

The first thing you need to do is to go to your "Computer" directory on your file explorer.  You can get to this by typing "Computer" into the Start Menu on both Windows 8 and Windows 7, or by opening the "Libraries" icon that is generally pinned to the Task Bar at the bottom of the screen.

Second, find the icon that says "Map Network Drive."  It can be tricky to find sometimes, so if you're having trouble, press the "Alt" key to show more options or look for the downward carat/arrow to display the bar that says "File, Computer, View" across the top.  Look for the link that says "Map Network Drive" under the "Computer" tab.

Once you have selected to map a network drive, this dialog box shows up.  Enter the following into the "Folder" box, using your Harding Account username (the part of your HU email address before the @harding.edu): "\\m-drives.harding.edu\username" (without the quotes).  Also be sure to check both options below the "Folder" box in order to re-connect when you sign back into your PC and to log in using your Harding credentials instead of your Windows credentials.  Click "Finish" when you're done with this step.

When you click "Finish," a sign-in popup will appear where you need to enter "HARDING\username" (again, no quotes and your username) for the "username" box and the password associated with your Harding Account into the "password" box (this is the same password as you use to log on to Pipeline).  Once again, if you want your computer to remember your username and password information to access your m-drive, check the box that says "Remember my Credentials," then press "OK" to finish the setup.

You may be prompted at some point in the process to specify which of your computer's drives you would like to map your m-drive to.  You may choose any drive and in fact, the reason that they are called m-drives is that when Harding first implemented the m-drive system, it was decided that they would map all student drives to the \M: drive on the lab computers.  So there's your bit of HU trivia for the day!

If you happen to be off-campus (not on Harding's network) and need to access your m-drive, you can go to hushares.harding.edu and log in using your Harding Account credentials.

Happy mapping and happy remote-accessing!