Big IDEA

using gmail as a hard drive

14 July 2005

I have read of a few attempts to use gmail as a hard drive, like gmail filesystem for linux (allows you to mount your gmail account as part of your filesystem) and gmail drive shell extension (for Windows; adds gmail as a drive under My Computer). The problem with these solutions is they are platform dependent.

XmailHardDrive, on the other hand, is a web-based interface to your gmail account. Just log in using your gmail account info, and you can upload files–even multiple files at a time!–to your account. The about page describes it better than I can.

XmailHardDrive.com directly connects with your Gmail account to then turn it into a portable virtual hard drive that you can access from anywhere in the world. You simply enter your Gmail username and password, just like the other third party software, and then using the username and password combination it authenticates with the Gmail servers and connects you to your personal account. Therefore allowing the user to be able to upload files to their Gmail account. Next when the user uploads a file, the file is uploaded as an e-mail attachment in their Gmail inbox, this file however is encrypted and compressed which enables the user to store more files since it is compressed. The file is then saved as an .xmhd file which can be decompressed and re-downloaded through XmailHardDrive.com. And now with the FlingIt feature the user can send the file they just uploaded to a friend that has a Gmail account.