Google Drive is organized into three main sections. You can search across all three sections using the search box at the top of the screen, but your default permissions and available actions changes in each section. This video, and the text below, walks you through the different parts of Google Drive.
My Drive
This is where documents you create start by default unless you create them while you're in a shared drive. Within My Drive you can create folders and organize your files, share files and folders, and for files that live primarily in Shared Drives or in Shared With Me, you can create shortcuts in My Drive so that you can find those files easily. Files owned by you apply to your total storage.
Within My Drive, the person who creates a document is by default the document Owner and is the only person who can delete a file or transfer ownership of that file. Be aware that you can only transfer ownership to accounts ending with @carleton.edu. If you need to transfer ownership to an account outside of Carleton, you will have to download the file and have that other account upload the file to that account's My Drive.
When you leave the college, files that you've shared with others may become unavailable to them unless you transfer ownership of the file to them, or they have made a copy. Similarly, when those who have shared files with you leave the college, you may lose access to the files.
Shared Drives
Shared Drives are owned by a team rather than by an individual, and are therefore more stable when team membership changes. Files and folders don't become "orphaned" when their creator leaves the College, so other team members can manage sharing and delete files when needed. Google provides information on Shared Drives and how they compare with My Drive. Files stored here don't count against an individual's storage.
Anyone with a Carleton Google Account can set up and manage Shared Drives. Shared Drive members can the put files and folders into the Shared Drive so that the content will remain available to future group members even if current group members leave the college.
Quick Tip: You can add a Google Group as a member of a Shared Drive so that membership is managed by the membership of the Google Group.
Shared with Me
Files and folders that someone else created and shared with you are listed in the Shared With Me section of Google Drive. These may have been created in the other person's My Drive section, or they may have been shared with you from within another team's Shared Drive. You can manage items in Shared With Me by integrating them into your Drive via shortcut or by removing yourself from the shared item. Since you are not the owner of any files in this section, you cannot delete items or change item ownership. These files do not apply to your total storage.
When the owner leaves the college, these files will become unavailable to you unless the owner transfers ownership prior to leaving, or if you have made a copy.