CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
Copying Files Between Computers
There are three common ways to get a file from one computer to another:
1. On a removable disk/ memory key/CD/DVD, (floppy disks are being phased out)
2. Over Ryerson's network via FTP (typically between a lab workstation and a server), and
3. For Unix XFTP.
Using USB Keys
The USB key, also known as a memory stick, is one of the newer and more
efficient ways of storing information or copying it from one computer to another.
They are affordable and come with different memory capacities. You can add
and remove information from the device as you work. There is no burning or
formatting required.
Where to plug it?
Computers at Ryerson have USB ports (where the USB key is to be plugged in). These ports are located on
the front of the computer tower, and may be behind a grey door (if applicable). You will find two USB ports
there.
It is usually easier to connect the USB key to the front port, the one closest to you. Once plugged in, the USB
key will prompt a popup window that will show various options; choose the Open Folder option. Now you are
ready to simply drag the files from your computer into the drive and vice versa.
Using a CD-RW/DVD-RW
There are two types of compact discs you can record (burn) data onto:
•
•
CD Recordable (CD-R)
CD Rewritable (CD-RW).
As for digital video discs, there are many types available for recording data; here are some of the most
commonly used types:
•
•
•
•
DVD Recordable (DVD-R)
DVD plus Recordable (DVD+R)
DVD Rewriteable (DVD-RW)
DVD plus Rewriteable (DVD+RW)
The chemical composition of the Recordable discs gives the disc a “write once, read many” format. This means
that you can only burn data once, however, you may add files later (provided you do NOT close the disc) but
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
you can never remove data. A formatted Rewriteable disc can be repeatedly written on. You can erase,
add and rewrite any data. The CD/DVD acts like a floppy disk with a vast amount of storage space, but if you
do not format the Rewriteable disc, it simply acts like a Recordable disc. It is important to understand that
formatting a Rewriteable disc allows it to be read by any operating system.
The Roxio Creator DETM software is available at Ryerson for formatting your CDs and DVDs.
Formatting a CD/DVD Rewriteable
Please be aware that in order for a CD or DVD to be formatted and have data written to it, a CD recorder or a
DVD recorder is needed. The recorders, otherwise known as burners, are drives that are capable of both
reading the information on the disc and writing information to it; a regular CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive can
only read the information.
A DVD-ROM and DVD burner are generally more useful than a CD-ROM and a CD burner as the DVD-ROM
can read information from CDs and the DVD burner can write to CDs, but the CD devices cannot read or write
to DVDs.
Make sure that the computer you are using has the appropriate burner before proceeding to formatting your
CD or DVD discs.
Follow these simple steps to format your CD/DVD discs:
1. Take a new CD-RW or DVD-RW/DVD+RW disc and place it in the disc drive of the computer.
2. Click Start (Bottom Left Corner) > All Programs > Roxio Creator DE > Home.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
3. The Home page of the Roxio Creator DE will open. Click Tools in the left menu panel.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
4. After clicking Tools, a submenu will appear below the heading and the Tools page will load. Click
Erase Disk in the submenu or in the Tools page, as circled in the image below.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
5. The page will now display the available Erase Disc options. Click Full Erase (slower but more
thorough), then click the orange, circular button at the bottom right corner to continue.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
6. When Roxio indicates that it has finished erasing your disc, Click Done and you will be brought
back to the Tools page. You have now successfully formatted your rewriteable disc.
Once the CD/DVD rewriteable has been formatted, you may begin adding, removing and saving work onto the
disc. You do not need to use special software; simply treat the disk like a floppy diskette. You may also cut and
paste data, or save work directly onto the disk.
Warning! Removable Disks are NOT Safe!
The failure of any disk system can result in data loss.
**Note: A higher failure rate occurs with removable disk systems, like the 3.5" diskettes, than with the sealed
hard drives in the Ryerson lab systems. Since many students work directly from these removable disk drives
without making copies of their files, on occasion, students lose an entire term's worth of work.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
The following guidelines minimize the possibility of losing data:
•
Avoid working directly from disks whenever possible! On all the Windows systems at Ryerson you
should:
o Copy your files to D:\user_name, where user_name is a folder in the D:\ drive named after your
my.ryerson user name
o Remove your disk from the computer and return it to its storage case
o Work on your files from the D:\ drive, saving them there as you work
o Copy the modified files to a removable disk when you are finished or after major changes
o Ensure your files are copied correctly; return the disk to its storage case
o Delete your files on the D:\ drive before you leave so no one else can read or use them
•
Make backup copies of your files. Do this by:
o Copying your files onto an extra disk
o Keeping copies of your files on your home computer
o Keeping copies of your files on a server like Malthus, Turing, or Snapper
•
Handle your disks correctly:
o NEVER open the disk to look inside it
o Always store the disk in its protective sleeve or case
o Avoid dropping or jarring the disk
o Do not store disks loosely in bags or other containers
Please follow the guidelines above. Ryerson's computer labs are busy and many things can happen to
damage a disk, which can then damage a computer's disk drive. In turn, the drive may damage your
removable disk! Before using a lab, make sure you have a copy of any file you are about to use. Academic
Computing regularly tests and replaces damaged disk drives, but they cannot guarantee that every drive is in
good working order. It is your responsibility to protect your data.
Copying Files Over the Network and Internet
File Transfer Protocol (FTP) is a standard procedure for moving files between computers both on the Internet
and within Ryerson's computer network. FTP allows file transfer between dissimilar systems with different file
structures. Anonymous FTP on some systems allows public access to certain directories and files.
Convenient programs on computers running Windows, such as SSH Secure File Transfer and IE (Internet
Explorer), use a graphical interface to send and receive files.
Copying Files To and From Home
Use an FTP program such as IE when transferring or copying files from home. Connect to the Internet using an
Internet Service Provider (ISP) or over Ryerson's modem pool. FTP can also be used to copy files between
computers on campus.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
SSH Secure File Transfer
Introduction
The SSH Secure terminal emulator and File Transfer client allows access to remote host that supports SSH.
You can upload or download files with a graphical interface similar to Windows Explorer. Use SSH instead of
Telnet for terminal access to Ryerson servers. Use SSH FTP instead of WS-FTP for FTP access to Ryerson
servers.
**Note: CCS has discovered a security vulnerability with the ssh software version that was available for
download. Therefore, it was necessary to remove this tool from the CCS web site. CCS is in the process of
evaluating other tools that provide better security and enhanced functionality. We expect to have some
alternative recommendation to be available soon.
Internet Explorer File Transfer (IE FTP)
Introduction
IE offers Microsoft Windows users a fast and easy system to the FTP protocol.
Steps to using IE:
1. Open up Internet Explorer.
2. In the address bar, type ftp://[email protected] for Ryerson’s Student Web Server (STW),
or ftp://user_name@server_name.acs.ryerson.ca for Malthus or Turing. In both cases, replace the
user_name field with your my.ryerson/Malthus/Turing user name, and replace server_name with
the Malthus or Turing server, and press Enter.
3. You will be prompted with the Log on window shown below. Enter your user name and password, and
then click Log on.
4. A screen will open with the folders on the server of your choice. Now you may proceed to open these
folders and look for the desired files. If you find a file you want to copy to your computer, open the
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
folder you want to save to on your local computer and drag the file from the server’s folder to
yours. You can do the same to copy a file from your computer to the server.
**Note: You can also click on a folder, select Copy to folder... and select the local folder to place the file in.
Command Line FTP
**Note: This is not available in the Academic Computing Labs.
You can use command line FTP on all of Ryerson's UNIX servers (STW, Malthus, Turing, Jupiter, and
Snapper) and any computer or terminal with shell access. Access the command line by logging into a server or
by using your login to remotely access the server.
To access the command line, click Start > Run, then in the run window, type cmd and press Enter. If you are
using Windows Vista, click
> click the textbox located directly above with text Start Search > type cmd
and press Enter. From the command line, follow these steps to move a file:
1. Type ftp host.domain to initiate an FTP session. host.domain represents the remote site's Internet
address you want to transfer files to, or from. For example, typing ftp snapper.dcn.ryerson.ca
connects you to Ryerson's Sun server. FTP prompts you to enter your login name and password.
2. After connecting to the remote computer system, use standard directory commands such as cd and dir
or ls to help navigate through the remote file system.
3. Using the cd command (change directory) at the command prompt moves you to the directory where
your file is (or where you would like it to be).
4. If your file is a binary file (for example an executable program, a compressed archive, a word-processor
document, or any sound or image file) type binary. FTP assumes files to be text files unless told
otherwise. Attempting to move a binary file in ASCII (text) mode corrupts the file. Transfer any files with
the extension .txt or .text, and any HTML files with the extension .htm or .html, as text file.
5. To move a file from the local computer to a remote computer, type put filename.ext, where filename is
the name of the file on your local computer and ext is the 3-character extension of the file. For
example, if you wish to move a file from a floppy diskette, type put a:\filename.ext.
6. If you wish to move a file from a remote computer to the local computer, you can do so by typing get
filename.ext. For example, to get a file to a floppy disk you can type get filename.ext a:\filename.ext.
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
7. Use the commands mput, or mget in conjunction with the wildcard placeholder * to move multiple
files. For example, typing mget docu*.txt retrieves all files that begin with docu and have extension
.txt.
8. After transferring files, type quit or bye. FTP will return you to the command prompt.
Sample FTP Session
The following is an example of an FTP session showing the transfer of a binary file and a text file from one
UNIX server to another:
[/home/h11/sample]> ftp snapper.dcn.ryerson.ca
Connected to snapper.dcn.ryerson.ca
220 snapper FTP server (UNIX(r) System V Release 4.0) ready.
Name (snapper.dcn.ryerson.ca:sample): sample
331 Password required for sample.
Password:
230 User sample logged in.
ftp> cd public_html
250 CWD command successful.
ftp> binary
200 Type set to I.
ftp> put sample.jpg
200 PORT command successful.
150 Binary data connection for sample.jpg (141.117.101.8, 3006).
226 Transfer complete.
67680 bytes sent in 0.2446 seconds (270.2 Kbytes/s)
local: sample.jpg remote: sample.jpg
ftp> ascii
200 Type set to A
ftp> put sample.txt
200 PORT command successful.
150 ASCII data connection for sample.txt (141.117.101.8, 3308).
226 Transfer complete.
5 bytes sent in 0.01654 seconds (0.2952 Kbytes/s)
local: sample.txt remote: sample.txt
> ftp> bye
221 Goodbye.
[/home/h11/sample]>
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CCS
CCS Help Desk
COMPUTING AND COMMUNICATIONS SERVICES
416-979-5000 ext. 6806
[email protected]
CCS Reception
LIB-B99
350 Victoria Street, Toronto
FTP Line Commands
Use the following list of FTP line commands at the FTP prompt. ( FTP>) Type man ftp for a more detailed list.
FTP Commands
ASCII
For transfer of plain text files.
binary
For transfer of non-text files.
cd
Changes Directory.
dir
Directory listing.
get filename
Transfers a file from the FTP site to your computer.
help
Shows list of commands available.
mget *
Transfer multiple files to your computer; * is a wild card.
mput *
Transfers multiple files from your computer to the FTP site;
* is a wild card
put filename
Transfers a file from our computer to an FTP site (if
allowed).
quit or bye
Ends the FTP session.
! (exclamation mark)
Aborts the FTP Session
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