Information Technology

Shared Drives

What are Shared Drives?

Shared drives are shared spaces where collaborators can easily store, search, and access files anywhere, from any device. LC refers to our managed Shared Drives as Institutional Shared Drives (ISD). See the Institutional Shared Drives page for detailed information about the request and approval process.

Unlike files in My Drive, files in a shared drive are owned by Lewis & Clark College. 

Resources:

Request a Shared Drive (LC Form)

Adding files and folders to Shared Drives (Google Help)

Managing files and folders in Shared Drives (Google Help)

Sharing and collaborating in Shared Drives (Google Help)

Understanding Access Levels (Google Help)

Shared Drive FAQ

Shared Drive or My Drive?

To help decide between using Shared Drive or My Drive, here is some information about the differences:

Consider using a shared drive in these situations:

• You’re working on a project or event with a group of people who all need access to the same files.
• Most of your files are shared with the same group of people.
• Your files share a consistent theme or topic.
• The content you want to store isn’t personal and is of interest to a specific team or group.

Common uses for shared drives include:

• Projects—For people involved in the same project.
• Events—For people working for a defined period of time on a specific event or deliverable.
• Templates—For files that people can copy and reuse.
• Company-wide files—For files everyone needs access to, such as training files.
• Sensitive files—For highly sensitive files, where you can add extra security to limit access.

When would you not want to use shared drives?

• For files you want to retain ownership/control over
• For files that contain private/personal information
• For forms that need a place to upload a file
• For documents that add-ons or other external applications need access to
• For files owned by other domains

	Shared drives	My Drive
What types of files can you add?	All file types except files from Google Maps	All file types
Who owns files and folders?	Lewis & Clark College	The individual who created the file or folder
Can I move files and folders onto a drive?	Users can only move files. Users can upload folders. IT can move up to five folders upon request.	Yes
Can I move files and folders within a drive?	Yes, if you have Manager or Content Manager access. Note: Only Managers can move files and folders between shared drives.	Yes
Can I sync files to my computer?	With Drive File Stream: Yes With Backup and Sync: No	Yes
How does sharing work?	All team members see the same file set.	Different users might see different files in a folder, depending on their access to individual files.
How long do deleted files stay in Trash?	Each shared drive has its own trash. After 30 days, files and folders in Trash are deleted forever. Members can delete specific files sooner.	After 30 days, files and folders in Trash are deleted forever.
Can I restore files from the trash?	Yes, if you have Manager, Content manager, or Contributor access.	Yes, if you created it.
Can I restore files?	Yes, if you’re an owner of the file.	Yes, if you have at least Contributor access.