Tip: Using a SSH server as a storage drive in Windows
Wednesday, October 29th, 2008If you’ve ever dealt with accesing and managing files located on remote systems, you’re probably familiar with FTP. If so, you probably know that using a FTP client is not the easiest solution and does not enable a straightforward workflow. It’s also not very secure, unless you combine it with a VPN, or use FTP/SSL, complicating things even further.
SFTP uses SSH and eliminates the security problems posed by regular FTP, but it still feels and works like FTP when used with standard SFTP clients such as WinSCP.
If you use the right software, though, it can be as easy as accesing your files transparently through a mapped drive. Better yet, no additional software must be installed on the remote server, the standard SSH daemon is enough.
SftpDrive maps remote servers as virtual drives which can be accesed like a regular HDD via the assigned drive letter. You can browse using Windows Explorer or your favorite file manager. Any application can work directly with files located on the mounted server as if they were local files.
Unlike other similar programs, SftpDrive does not use .NET framework or Java, so it’s extremely fast and light on system resources.
On the downside, SftpDrive is not freeware. You can try it for 6 weeks though, so there’s plenty of time to decide if it’s worth the 39 bucks.
Red Drive is a good freeware alternative, but it’s no longer in development. It requires .NET framework 2.0, which makes it kinda slow on some systems.
WebDrive is another comercial product, but it’s extremely powerful. It supports many connection protocols beside SCP, such as WebDAV and Amazon S3. It’s quite pricey though, a good 20 bucks more expensive than SftpDrive.
