FTP Home Directory that points to multiple hard drives.

[c1utch]

I have a Windows XP box that has 3, 80GB drives that will be used for data storage. I wanted one drive to contain an assortment of files, one drive that will contain only MP3s and the third drive will contain only videos. I then wanted all three of these drives to be accessible via my FTP site. But I didn't quite no how since Windows XP will only let you point your FTP server’s home directory to a folder and certainly not the root of a physical drive.

What I did to achieve this was to mount each drive to a folder. But before I explain how, you first need two things. You need to make sure your system drive (usually C or some other drive that is not going to be used for your FTP site is formatted using NTFS. Second, you need to create a mounting folder, so create a folder on this other NTFS drive and call it “FTP Site”.

Now, open "Computer Management" within "Administrative Tools" in the control panel. Click on "Disk Management", which will bring up a display of all your drives. I’m going to use my F: drive, which is the drive that contains my assorted files. I right click on my F: drive and select "Change Drive Letter and Path" from the menu.

Now you are presented with a "Change Drive Letter and Path for (F" box. Within the main pane, you will see your drive listed. In my case it simply says "F:". This is simply showing me that this physical drive already has a drive letter...which is F.

But now we want to add a second mounting point and mount that drive to a folder. Click the “Add” button, then select “Mount in this NTFS folder”. Click the “Browse” button and navigate to where you created that “FTP Site” folder. Select the “FTP Site” folder and then click on the “New Folder” button. This new folder will be your mounting point for this drive. In my case, I am going to name this folder “Files”. Click “Ok” and now you should see both your drive letter and this new mounting point for “Files” within the main pane. Click “Ok” to close the “Change Drive Letter and Path for (F” window.

If you now navigate to the “FTP Site” folder you created earlier, you will see a new icon within this folder (which looks like a hard drive icon) that should say “Files”. You will notice that this drive also retained it’s drive letter. In my case, I still have an F: drive, and additionally I have the “Files” drive within my “FTP Site” folder. I guess you could think of this as a shortcut to your drive. Repeat this process for any other drives you want to access via your FTP site.

Now configure IIS and point your FTP site to the root of your “FTP Site” folder. Now if you connect to your FTP site, you will see folders representing each of the physical drives you mounted to this “FTP Site” folder. In my case I see “Files”, “MP3” and “Videos”. Each of these folders represent each of the 80GB drives that I wanted to mount.


Chris

 

[edi4me]

I only read half of your post as it is not to "friendly" to read. Probably because you are making it harder than it has to be.

You might want to try GuildFTPd at

http://www.guildftpd.com

for their freeware. Most important is that it contains NO Adware !!! (But they do ask for a donation in which I do suggest you do because it is very powerful program. I have been using it for almost 2 years now.)

It is an FTP server app that WILL allow you to point to different drives/folders for a particular FTP login. Therefore, when a person logs in, that person can see different share drive/folder. The program has a lot of configuration possibilities so it may not be intuitive to novices.

One last note, I personally promote technology and its greatness. But, I hope that you are not distributing movies and MP3, etc. It is unethical and demotes the advancement of technology. Example are P2P and Bitorrent. They are really good but people are using it for all the wrong reason. Sad I think, because it will slow down advancement.

 

[c1utch]

This was an informational post or "Helpful Tip", not a question.

Do you really think I'm distributing MP3s and Movies via an FTP server? Come on, there are much easier methods of doing this, like P2P and Bitorrent like you stated.

Advancement of what exactly?

Chris

 

[bcastner]

You might enjoy this excellent freeware, Junction Link Magic:

http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm

 

[c1utch]

I guess I shouldn't have posted this as a tip. Or at least not in the Windows XP Pro forum. Apparently no one uses the built in FTP server that Windows has.

I know there are several 3rd party FTP server apps. available on the web. This post was simply a tip for those who want to use the Windows FTP server and have run into the problem that I cam accross.

Chris