Computer, network and server access

You will need to have an account that gives you access to the microscope computer and possibly the relevant server on which to store your images. You may already have the account you need. If not, we will arrange an account when you apply for training.

Moving Data

If you are using a microscope that is in your department you can just connect directly to your server and save the images there. In Biology you will connect to \\filer\netid and in PCB the server is called Smithers.

If you are using a scope outside your department connecting to your server might not be straightforward. The Medical Center firewall essentially blocks transfer between the University and Medical Center networks. The easiest way of moving data is USB memory/external hard-drives. Images tend to be about 500 KB to 3 MB each so you can fit a lot on a normal flash drive. Webfiles are also a convenient way of moving data.

If you do need to use a local server for file transfer . . .

The \confocal and \bioscope server spaces are not intentend for storage of your data. You should move the files to your own server space or storage media soon after acquiring the data.

If you are doing timelapse etc and generating very large volumes of data it is important to work out how to transfer and store your data. External hard-drives are very useful. Different connection speeds are available - eSATA>FireWire>USB2>USB1 - and typically the faster systems will beat network transfer. External hard-drives and even DVDs are not 100% reliable, it is best to store data long-term on a backed-up file server.

You must take your data with you. Any files left on LMCF computers are unsafe and may be deleted without warning.

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