If you are a webmaster or have an FTP server, you might have used FTP clients such as Filezilla to upload and download files. Juggling between the FTP client and browser can quickly become tedious. But what if you could just use Windows Explorer for this? That’s what I am going to show you here.
Mount SFTP as a Drive in Windows Explorer
To mount a SFTP (Secured FTP) server as a drive, we are going to use a software called SFTP NET Drive. It’s a free software that allows users to map an SFTP server as a local drive on their Windows PCs.
First download the software and install it on your computer.
When you launch the app, you will get an interface as seen in the above image. Fill in your server’s IP address or URL, enter the port (default is 22), enter the login credentials, and finally assign a drive letter.
Click on the “Connect” button to mount server as drive.
That’s it. Once connected, you should see the newly created drive in My Computer under Network Location.
One downside of SFTP NET Drive is the lack of support for FTP protocol. Sure SFTP provides better security, but if your server doesn’t support SFTP this will not work. (For FTP continue reading)
Net SFTP Drive works with all Windows versions.
Download: Net SFTP Drive
Mount FTP as a Drive in Windows Explorer
Windows Explorer has a nice drive mapping feature. Using it you can mount FTP servers on your computer and access file without using any FTP client. Here’s how to do it:
1. Open My Computer and click on “Map Network Drive” seen in the toolbar.
2. In the Map Network Drive wizard, choose the option that reads “Connect to a website that you can use to store your documents and pictures.”
3. Click “Choose a custom network location”
4. Next enter in the FTP address of your website. (e.g ftp://yoursite.com/). Click “Next” when you are done.
5. Then enter your login ID of the FTP server (you will be prompted for the password when you connect) and choose any name for the FTP network drive.
Finish up the wizard, and you will see a new drive in Windows explorer.
The first time when you try to connect you are prompted for the password, but you can have the password saved after that if you wish.
You won’t get a drive letter for servers mounted this way, but there’s no limitation in functionalities. If can’t do without drive letter, check out a freeware called NetDrive. It will give you drive letter for mapped drives, plus it has support for WebDav servers in addition to FTP.