Mount a Unix Directory to a Mac or PC

This article provides instructions on mounting Unix directories to a Mac or PC. Common directories include your Home directory when signed into a Unix lab machine, the grades directory, or class website directory.

Before you start

  • Make sure you have an active CSE Labs account. An account is required to mount Unix directories.
  • Make sure you are using the eduroam network or are connected to Split Tunnel VPN. Important: you will not be able to mount a directory if you are not connected with one of these methods.

Mounting Your Unix Home Directory

You Unix home directory is the default directory you have access to when logging into CSE Unix/Linux machine. When this directory is mounted to a Mac or PC it is often referred to as the Y drive or Samba drive.

Mount to a Windows Computer

  1. Open the File Explorer.
  2. Right-click This PC in the Location bar on the left side of the explorer. An options menu will appear.
  3. Select Map network drive...
  4. Choose Y: in the Drive dropdown menu.
  5. Type \\samba.cselabs.umn.edu\<InternetID> in the Folder field.
    1. Where <InternetID> is your UMN InternetID
  6. Select Connect using different credentials if using a computer that is not University-owned.
  7. Enter your username as AD\<InternetID> and your UMN password when prompted.
  8. Click OK.
  9. Click Finish at the bottom of the window.
  10. Find the drive located in the Network locations section of This PC.

Mount to a Mac

  1. Open Finder.
  2. Select Connect to Server in the Go menu. A new window will open.
  3. Type smb://samba.cselabs.umn.edu/<InternetID> in the Server Address field.
    1. Where <InternetID> is your UMN InternetID.
  4. Click connect. A new window will open.
  5. Enter your Name as AD\<InternetID> and your UMN password when prompted.
  6. Click Connect. A new window will open with your files.

Finding your Files

If you close the window and want to find your folder again:

  • From the CSE Labs Linux side, your files will show up in ~/username/windows.
  • From the CSE Labs Windows side, the files will show up in your Y:drive
  • From your Mac, the files will show up in a finder window under the shared drive section as
    samba.cselabs.umn.edu → <username>
  • From your Mac xterminal, the files will show up in /Volume/<username> and you can see this if you do a "df" command.

Mounting the Grades Directory

Professors and TAs must store grade information in a secure location. The place to do this is the "grades" directory on samba.cselabs. Contact the CSE-IT Systems staff to have a grades directory set up for your class. 

To access a class grades directory remotely from a Windows host, follow the steps outlined above for mounting a Unix Home directory, with the following exceptions:

  • Select a different drive letter in step 4.
  • In step 5, use \\samba.cselabs.umn.edu\grades as the folder name.