Is there an open source tool to map SFTP connections as a Windows mapped drive?

Question

I know there are many commercial products that accomplish this task, but I'm looking for something like SSHFS but for Windows systems, which is open source.

WinSCP FAQ points to the the KeepUpTODate feature, which can be used as a workaround, but it's not exactly like a mapped drive, although it's close.

Product and service recommendations are off topic per the updated [FAQ}(http://serverfault.com/faq). — sysadmin1138, Oct 23 '12 at 11:59

score 9 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 11:30

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Have you tried Swish?

With Swish you can access the files and folders you have stored on another computer securely via SFTP. Swish is a Windows Explorer extension but it clearly states on this page that it can't map drives. It is under GPL open source license.

edited Feb 20 '14 at 11:30

Dan Dascalescu

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answered Aug 12 '10 at 10:25

Lee Chee Kiam

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can anyone comment on how swish worked for them? – Bozojoe Mar 08 '11 at 18:27
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Swish is about 70% of the way to being an incredibly useful tool, and I'm very hopeful about its future. Unfortunately, it's not there yet. For starters, I haven't yet found a way to map a network drive, so there's no way to access mounted locations from regular windows apps. Also, there is no way (that I can see) to use key-based authentication. Documentation is basically non-existent, so even if these features *are* currently possible, there's no way to discover them. – Brian Lacy Nov 07 '11 at 22:01
[Swish states clearly that you can't map a drive](http://www.swish-sftp.org/wiki/FAQ) with it. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 19 '14 at 11:28

Eugene Mayevski 'Callback · Answer 2 · 2012-08-15T16:23:56.540

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If anyone is interested, we offer free SFTP Net Drive application for exactly this purpose. It's not open-source (as it uses commercial components), but completely free.

Update: source code of SFTP Net Drive is included as one of sample projects with our Callback File System product.

edited Aug 15 '12 at 16:23

answered May 02 '11 at 06:03

Eugene Mayevski 'Callback

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[Completely free, you say?](https://www.eldos.com/sftp-net-drive/calc.php#product) – VisioN Jul 08 '14 at 09:26
@VisioN Yes, Lite version is free. – Eugene Mayevski 'Callback Jul 08 '14 at 09:27

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered May 11 '09 at 08:39

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The standard choice is ExpanDrive (formerly SftpDrive), which is neither OSS, nor free ($39 for full version).

I haven't yet found mature OSS alternative.

answered May 11 '09 at 08:39

vartec

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score 3 · Answer 4 · edited Feb 12 '13 at 15:01

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I had this question today as well, and came across this good article, telling about 2 programs mentioned, SftpDrive and Webdrive:

http://systembash.com/content/map-drive-letter-sftp-ssh-review/

edited Feb 12 '13 at 15:01

Community

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answered Jun 25 '09 at 10:03

Igor B.

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score 3 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

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Using SSH port forwarding, an FTP server running on the remote end accepting only local connections, and native Windows FTP mapping,

You could try what I suggested here. This is FTP over SSH, mind you. It may not be what you asked for specifically by name, but it might meet your use case.

edited Apr 13 '17 at 12:14

Community

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answered Aug 13 '09 at 19:47

mpbloch

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score 3 · Answer 6 · answered May 11 '09 at 08:40

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The only opensource project I know of that does this Dokan SSHFS, whichs is basically FUSE for windows. My experiences with it aren't very positive, though (very unstable).

I now use ExpanDrive, which, unfortunately, isn't free or open source. It does work though ;)

answered May 11 '09 at 08:40

Sietse

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I'd like to echo the experience - Dokan was unstable for me as well, and hasn't been updated since January 2011. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 19 '14 at 11:31

score 2 · Answer 7 · edited Jun 28 '12 at 06:18

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Best solution nowadays is to use free tool SFTP Net Drive provided by Eldos. We are successfully using it within our supercomputing clusters and it work fine. We wanted to get rid of Samba.

edited Jun 28 '12 at 06:18

mgorven

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answered Jun 21 '12 at 09:00

David Hrbáč

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[Same answer as the one from the Eldos representative](http://serverfault.com/a/265368/69936). Might want to comment on that one instead? – Dan Dascalescu Feb 19 '14 at 11:32

score 1 · Answer 8 · edited Feb 20 '14 at 11:30

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Win-SSHFS Based on Dokan, but with a few improvements and easier installation. Performance is very good, and the code is easy to understand for a C# developer.

A reboot is officially required after installing, but Win-SSHFS worked without rebooting. Beware of data loss on writes - see this Google Code issue.

edited Feb 20 '14 at 11:30

Dan Dascalescu

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answered Oct 23 '12 at 11:47

Olav Grønås Gjerde

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Note that [win-sshfs may cause data loss](https://code.google.com/p/win-sshfs/issues/detail?id=93&thanks=93&ts=1392810059) with certain applications. The link points to an issue with files being truncated to zero bytes. On the plus side, it supports key pair authentication and installation is simple. – Dan Dascalescu Feb 19 '14 at 11:56

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Jul 21 '10 at 00:57

The only freeware tool I found that can map files accessed via SFTP to a Windows drive is Red Drive.

It's no longer developed, and the "replacement", AnyClient, doesn't do drive mapping. There is also a bogus error when you create a connection - Recovery policy configured for this system contains invalid recovery certificate. Other than that, it worked with one SFTP server and failed authenticating me to another one.

score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Feb 08 '11 at 14:53

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Found a valid installer download link for RedDrive:

http://www.brothersoft.com/red-drive-file-transfer-extension-download-164269.html

In Win7 x64, I had to run the MSI in "Older Windows Compatibility" mode to get it to install (it is not an EXE so you can not pick an OS or Run as Admin).

Hope this helps!

answered Feb 08 '11 at 14:53

Troy

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Thanks! However, already the 1st file I tried to read showed up empty. For me, no grounds to continue. And others have reported problems, too :-( – xebeche Feb 09 '11 at 13:12

score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Jun 25 '09 at 10:17

As a perhaps overly complicated solution, if you have a Linux box on the local network (or a Linux VM running on the machine you want to connect to the SFTP resource with) you could try mount the resource using SSHFS on that machine and share the resulting filesystem to the Windows box via Samba...

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Jun 26 '09 at 16:16

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I got here from another recent question.

Take a look at freeSSHd (it also supports FTP and, of course lets you SCP too).
Unfortunately it is not open-source. However, its quite good.

answered Jun 26 '09 at 16:16

nik

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This is a server. OP asked for client that can mount remote directories in Windows. – Tarnay Kálmán Jun 22 '14 at 14:00

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 29 '09 at 23:51

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Try RedDrive. It's not actively developed anymore (since '08), but it's (apparently) free.

answered Aug 29 '09 at 23:51

Seth

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score -1 · Answer 14 · answered May 16 '09 at 12:17

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Ftpdrive.
Not an open source, but a free tool, so you may want to check it out.

Works perfectly for plain FTP. I have not used it for SFTP but on the homepage the developer claims "Both unsecured and secured by SSL/TLS FTP connections supported".

answered May 16 '09 at 12:17

axk

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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

Is there an open source tool to map SFTP connections as a Windows mapped drive?

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