The user share concept is a unique unRAID Server feature which allows you to view the folders and files on individual data disks as if your server were one large file system.

The idea of user shares is to automatically export the top-level folders found on all the data disks. For example, suppose you have this:

disk1/Movies
disk1/Videos
disk2/Photos
disk3/Backup
disk4/Music

The following shares will be automatically generated:

Movies
Videos
Photos
Backup
Music

When you click on the Music share in My Network Places, you will see all the files and folders on disk4/Music.

What if the same top-level folder exists on multiple disks?

In this case unRAID Server will create a composite view of the folder. For example, suppose you have:

disk1/Videos/Hawaii
disk1/Videos/Camping
disk5/Videos/School Play
disk6/Videos/Work Seminar

The resulting Videos share will look like this:

Videos/Hawaii
Videos/Camping
Videos/School Play
Videos/Work Seminar

Resolving name conflicts

Suppose in above example you also have:

disk6/Videos/Camping

Now there are two potential references to Camping; in this case, unRAID Server keeps the first reference and drops subsequent ones. The name Camping in the Videos share will thus refer to Camping on disk1.

Note that the file/folder is not deleted, it’s simply not visible. unRAID Server scans the disks in numeric order; the reference kept of a conflicting set of names is the one in the lowest numbered disk.

Guidelines

1. Organize your files into a few well chosen top-level folder names. Each top-level folder will be an individual share visible in My Network Places.

2. Security is at the share level. That is, permissions, passwords, etc. apply to a share and all files/folders beneath that share.