Turn your webspace into virtual hard drive for your PC!

[firecubes]

NOTE - This tutorial was written for windows XP. I don't know if it works in vista, but I think it does.

1. Right click your desktop and select 'New' and choose 'Shortcut'.
2. Enter 'ftp://user : pass @ server/' as the location for it to shortcut to, replacing user with your FTP username, pass with your FTP password and server with your domain or IP (also delete the spaces).
3. Name the shortcut 'Virtual Disk' or something similar.
4. Right click your new shortcut, and select properties.
5. On the general tab, hit advanced and uncheck every option that pops up.
6. On the web document tab, hit change icon and find one that looks like a hard drive (look in C:\WINDOWS\System32\shell32.dll for some good ones)
7. Hit OK and OK again till your out of the properties dialog.
8. Double click the shortcut and enjoy your 'virtual hard drive'.

To add to the 'virtual hard drive' simply drag files to it from your PC folders or desktop and to open (or download) files from your 'virtual hard drive' simply double click them.

Note if you want to let your friends and family access the files on the drive, and your webspace is running on a linux server running apache, simply add 'public_html/' to the end of the shortcut's location and then going to 'http://yoururl/thefile' will download it. If you want to keep the files private, keep the location as the one in step 2.

It's basically similar to .mac's idisk, only that uses webdav, this uses ftp which is more widely used.

If you enjoyed the tutorial, feel free to donate a few $NPs.

- firecubes

P.S. - Before I get people commenting that you can do it better with samba, I know, but I *think* samba is for home networks rather than servers, though I don't use it so I don't know. And before someone says you can do it with webdav in cpanel 11, not everyone has cpanel 11 and even if they do, alot of hosts disable it (2 of mine have).

Oh and before someone says it would be slow, it won't if you have a fast internet connection and a fast server connection, at least it doesn't for me.

Oh and don't do this will illegal files such as downloaded music and movies as your host/server provider will kick you lol.

 

[cancer10]

Thanx for the tips

 

[JimmyW]

Yeah thanks, might come in handy sometime!

 

[italiandragon]

Hello, thanks for the guide but I don`t get it. Is not just easier upload the files with any FTP software?

Cheers

 

[maximum]

Hello, thanks for the guide but I don`t get it. Is not just easier upload the files with any FTP software?

Cheers

Maybe true. But, maybe, just maybe, the point was that it was a nifty trick most had not thought about or didn't know would work :tu:

 

[anantshri]

well i agree that its good but then you can't get the exact speed that you assume to get from harddisk unless you have a super fast connection at both ends.

 

[Barrucadu]

I can't believe I didn't notice this topic! Anyway, I have edited the above method to work with Linux (tested on Ubuntu Linux 7.10, other distributions may need a slightly different method)

1) Right click on desktop (or wherever you want the shortcut)
2) Click "Create Launcher"
3) When the create launcher window appears, type in these values;

• Type: Location
• Name: Virtual Hard Drive
• Location: ftp://servername

4) Click OK.

You will need to enter your username and password the first time you use it, but you can make it save them. It seems to be quite slow on my laptop, but that could just be because I am using a fairly old laptop with a 512kb/s connection.

 

[rocks]

Very nice trick.. Thanks for sharing..

 

[sunken]

Cool tip, but before doing it, might want to check on your webhost's TOS, as some don't allow files to be stored that aren't part of the website.

 

[PAUL-B]

Good stuff. Thanks for sharing.

 

[articles2u]

Thanks for sharing. very good post.

 

[wasiflaeeq]

Thanks for sharing..

 

[hborg]

I have to read it two times before I actually understand it. Anyway, thanks for the tutorial.

 

[Cicero]

Thanks.. I used to use this to store my copies of my birth certificate and passport, visa whe going abroad

 

[user-7256]

Thanks.. I used to use this to store my copies of my birth certificate and passport, visa whe going abroad

Not a good idea!

OP: Thanks for posting this. It is indeed helpful and useful in several trivial cases!

Just so everybody is aware, your FTP info is stored in plain text, unless you happen to use TrueCrypt whole disk encryption, or some similar utility. Even if you do, when you get up to visit the water cooler, a sneaky coworker might just happen to peek at your desktop and see this.

Once you click that shortcut or use it, your password is in browser history.

Also, chances are you aren't using sftp and chances are that your server disk is NOT encrypted. I would advise strongly against using this to store copies of your birth certificate... passport... visa... especially while traveling.

If you use this, while helpful, keep the data trivial!

Just my $0.02.

 

[jakeruston]

Awesome tips!

Never knew that.

 

[andielektronik]

Great Guide Indeed

 

[Imran Khalid]

i first time know this trick.
Thanks

 

[DN BROKER]

cool tip

 

[popopo]

i m using vista at office, i will try for that.

 

[rafaelrls]

I can't believe I didn't notice this topic! Anyway, I have edited the above method to work with Linux (tested on Ubuntu Linux 7.10, other distributions may need a slightly different method)

1) Right click on desktop (or wherever you want the shortcut)
2) Click "Create Launcher"
3) When the create launcher window appears, type in these values;

• Type: Location
• Name: Virtual Hard Drive
• Location: ftp://servername

4) Click OK.

You will need to enter your username and password the first time you use it, but you can make it save them. It seems to be quite slow on my laptop, but that could just be because I am using a fairly old laptop with a 512kb/s connection.

Did you know how to make this in debian or opensuse/

 

[user-7256]

Did you know how to make this in debian or opensuse/

CPanel 11 has a guide for using "Web Disk" with other distros of Linux.