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Author Topic: Bits - ExpanDrive - mapping a drive to USB  (Read 7398 times)

Steven Avery

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Bits - ExpanDrive - mapping a drive to USB
« on: January 10, 2012, 11:12 PM »
Hi Folks,

ExpanDrive
http://www.bitsdujou...software/expandrive/
Company  (nice web-site)
http://www.expandrive.com/

They say it works better than WebDav, which is the normal attempt to map the cloud as a drive,
as I understand. I know I hit a glitch on my one WebDav attempt, so it might well be accurate.

As an example, here is the DriveHQ section about WebDav

Map DriveHQ Cloud Storage as an Online Drive without Installing Any Software
http://www.drivehq.c...features/WebDAV.aspx

Apparently a number of people agree that the ExpanDrive SFTP connection is similar, but more robust.

Once a drive is mapped, that should mean you can run Backup4All, Cobian, Total Commander, etc.
on the data.  A big plus.

Notice the poster concerns, Richard Blake, about loading up a whole Python interpreter, lots of directories and files.

Your thoughts, even in this late hour ?

ExpanDrive comes over from the Mac world, the Windows earlier similar product is

WebDrive
http://www.webdrive..../webdrive/index.html

However it is a bit pricier.

Here is a bit of "alternative to"
http://alternativeto...t/software/webdrive/
http://www.alternati.../search?q=expandrive

Is there an open source tool to map SFTP connections as a Windows mapped drive?
http://serverfault.c...windows-mapped-drive

Worthy of special note, freeware city:

Access remote disk over net using SFTP protocol and map it to local drive letter - SFTP Net Drive
http://www.eldos.com/sftp-net-drive/
Forum
http://www.eldos.com...orum/list.php?FID=21

Note the critique:
Thanks for the answer, but unfortunately, FTP + SSL/TLS is not the same as SFTP, this will not work against an SSH/SFTP server, and ,as you said is not open source - so there's no way to know what's in the binary. – Tom Feiner May 16 '09 at 17:59

I have no idea if that is correct, still the case, or important for most use.

=======================

The second program - PowerFolder Pro Silver - or Gold - is also of some interest.
Much harder to evaluate, has to do with creating a synch situation among multi-computers.
The idea of having a controlling app for that may make sense.

=======================

Personally, I tend to "hand-sync". With an automated save.  So I see WebDav, or ExpanDrive, or something,
as the way to leave a puter, press a button, and know the current versions of certain files are going to the
cloud. Then if I go to puter B (say at work) and want to use those files I have a similar automated download.
The idea is to set up the saves and restores in a program like Backup4All.

I'm always a little nervous about sync that is not under my direct control, much as the idea of not having
to think about it has its pluses. e,g. I looked at the PowerFolder forum, and immediately saw a thread about
a long-standing file locking issue.

Steven

« Last Edit: January 11, 2012, 01:33 AM by Steven Avery »

Steven Avery

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Re: Bits - ExpanDrive - mapping a drive to USB
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2012, 06:27 AM »
Hi,

Here is a little followup.

I followed the directions more carefully -- WebDav set up fine.

Used Backup4All and made a quick backup set - the real goal, one touch backup - of my mostly small volatile files,
Notes, Lists, ToDo .. also Linkman which is larger, that I will try later.
Backup went fine .. one touch.

I did not buy ExpanDrive .. since I want to see if WebDav is sufficient for my needs,
or if the freewawre SFTP Net Drive can accomplish the same end.

SFTP Net Drivesays it will not take an automatic FTP format like:
ftp://USERNAME:[email protected]/

because of the : (colon) even the one after ftp

Maybe it wants a different address, but this is the only one I saw at DriveHQ that might match.

So next I check DriveHQ and see if they have another url
And post on the SFTP Net Drive forum !

However, with WebDav working fine, and most of my files being small, I basically have the main need

Integrating Backup4All or Cobian or another Backup Set program using a local drive to the Cloud
(DriveHQ being my fav because they specialize on easy transfer, however their free account only does 50 mg a day,
 I definitely would go for some small plan with them.
In fact at $3 month and $30/year for their basic plan, I probably should simply sign up.)

Steven

Li-An

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Re: Bits - ExpanDrive - mapping a drive to USB
« Reply #2 on: April 16, 2012, 10:42 AM »
As I need such a software to complete xplorer2 ftp management, I took a look at FTP NetDrive. The forum is full of spam and the software seems buggy (impossible for me to send a php file without getting errors when opening it in browser). Webdrive is a little expensive and I hope Expandrive will be OK for me.