Brian has just finished a monthly report. Before he sends it to his boss, he asks a coworker, James, to review it:
B: “James, would you please take a look at my monthly report?”
B: “It’s in the Drafts folder on the G drive.”
J: “Are you sure it is on drive G? I don’t see the folder named Drafts. There are only budget related folders.”
The company Brian and James work for uses many file servers. Each of them publishes many pools with folders and files. To access the folders and files more easily, users map them with different drive letters.
Brian and James both used letter G to map a network drive, but they used it to map two different network drives. No wonder they each see a different picture when they open their own drive G!
Have you ever been in the situation like that? Some users who work on many projects make use of almost all letters in the alphabet! Can you imagine how difficult it is to collaborate in an environment like that?
A time comes when you have to start with folder reorganization on your file servers. This is also the right time to standardize how network drives get mapped. When all users use the same drive letter to access a shared drive it is much easier to refer others to a specific file.
Which Letters to use for Standard Network Drives
This largely depends on the level you managed to simplify your shared folders. In general it is better to use a letter you can associate to the purpose of the drive.
Most organizations offer users a private space on a file server, known as “home folder”. You can automatically map each user’s home folder as drive H (for home). Some organizations prefer letter P (for personal).
If you managed to consolidate all your shared folders to one folder pool, you can map it with letter G (for group) or S (for shared). Some companies use letter W (for work-group).
Organizations that utilize corporate identity formats can prepare a special folder share with templates and map it as drive T (for templates). It can contain standard templates for memos, fax, orders, presentations, etc. for company-wide use.
If you haven’t used the letter S to map a shared group drive, you can use it to map a drive with useful programs (S for software). You can also use letter U (U for utilities).
Standardize Drive Letter for CD and DVD Drives
It might be useful to standardize a drive letter for CD or DVD drives. All computers could be set up to have a CD or DVD drive available under letter X. This could simplify life for authors of installation scripts. It is also convenient for users because a DVD drive will be under the same letter on all computers, independently of the number of local hard drives and partitions.
e-mail
RSS reader
