OneDrive is In, Shared Drive is Out

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Daniel Sanchez
  • Space Launch Delta 30 Public Affairs

To fulfill the Department of the Air Force priority of modernizing the air and space forces, the computer shared drives used by personnel on network systems are being discontinued and replaced with Microsoft OneDrive at the end of this month.

This December, the U.S. Air Force is modernizing how Airmen and Guardians can access their files and email from almost anywhere in the world.

Master Sgt. Jesus Cruz, 30th Space Communications Squadron operations flight chief said, “We have a very simple guide on how to set it up. All you have to do is use your network computer to create your profile and no matter where you go in the world, if you've selected a file to be uploaded to the OneDrive account, you can access it on the cloud.”

Here is a guide on how to set up your account.

By leveraging the services of Microsoft OneDrive, the Air Force is now saving maintenance costs, avoiding a single point of failure, and increasing mobility and effectiveness. 

In the past, military personnel could save personal files on a “shared drive” from their networked computers. Vandenberg Space Force Base calls it the “H” drive. This drive is helpful as it can be accessed from many workstations on the base. But if you were teleworking from home, working from a personal computer, or on an assignment out of the area, accessing these files would be difficult or impossible. Also, if you were to transfer bases, you would also have to manually transfer all those files on a personal device.

All personnel are encouraged to remove any files they have in their personal drive as soon as possible, and open their OneDrive account, where they can store up to a terabyte of data. 

 A OneDrive 101 Brief for users can be downloaded here.