Connect SkyDrive Folder as Network Folder

December 5, 2010 8 Comments

SkyDrive is a FREE online storage offered by Microsoft which:

Provides 25 GB Storage
Sync 5 GB of data from your PC
Shares documents with people we choose
Integrates with Office 2010, e.g. anywhere, anytime access from the browser, edit documents together in real time, version history and lot more.

But I like to discuss another great feature; connect your SkyDrive online folder as a network drive in Windows Explorer.

Once we sign in to SkyDrive, we would be directed to an URL that is account specific, e.g. https://cid-1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h.office.live.com/browse.aspx/.Documents
1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h is the unique id for our SkyDrive account.
Click the Map network drive button in Windows Explorer, Map Network Drive dialogue would be displayed.

Enter \\docs.live.net@SSL\1a2b3c4d5e6f7g8h\^2Documents into Folder:. Please notice that we should enter ^2Documents instead of .Documents.

Enter Live Id and password.

Now, we have a network drive (N:) that connects to our SkyDrive online folder.

And we can use it just like any normal network drive.

Andrew Chan is the owner and founder of ALG Inc.

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Filed under SkyDrive

About Andrew Chan
Andrew Chan is an Business Consultant who gives you accurate, consistent and timely information so that you can make better and faster decisions. He is an Associate of Society of Actuaries with over 20 years of IT experience. Apart from strong analytical skills and proven technical background, he was also a former system director at Manulife who had extensive project management experience. If you are looking for someone to gather, consolidate, validate, visualize and analyze data, look no further! Andrew can provide the most cost effective business analytics solution so that you can explore, optimize, predict and visualize your business. Don’t guess on any decision, no matter it is finance, operation, marketing or sales! Always ask for evidence!

8 Responses to Connect SkyDrive Folder as Network Folder

GaryFPatton says:

December 5, 2010 at 5:06 pm

Thanks, Andrew!

You’ve given us a neat way to get around Microsoft programmer’s dumbness in not designing their Cloud for bulk uploads of data & files. Your approach is very creative, my Friend.

Your workaround allows us to access SkyDrive from all our computers to upload whole directories to first set up our personal cloud as a backup instead of having to do so one file at a time.

You’re a blessings!

Regards,
Gary in Toronto

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George S Gordon says:

December 8, 2010 at 6:55 am

Congratulations – I’m amazed that this works! I read in a Microsoft forum some months ago that this is impossible!!

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Greg says:

December 15, 2010 at 6:12 pm

It’s really good if you have a PC. Most regular users nowadays are using Macs.

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Moby says:

May 7, 2011 at 8:35 am

Tried this but I get an error message saying ” Network path xxxxxxxxxx could not be found.

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- Andrew Chan says:
  
  May 7, 2011 at 8:59 am
  
  What OS are you using?
  
  Reply
  - Ming says:
    
    June 14, 2012 at 7:50 pm
    
    I got the same error message. My OS is windows XP professional version 2002 service pack 3
Cloud Levi says:

October 5, 2011 at 6:35 pm

Actually, this is the noob version. If you want access to ALL your SkyDrive folders, ignore 90% of this screen: https://algconsultings.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/image2.png

Insteadl, focus on the blue text below all the options saying “Connect to a Web site that you can use to store your documents and pictures.”

Click that.

Once you enter -that- wizard, type in everything except the folder: \\docs.live.net@SSL\

Nothing more, nothing less. No 2^documents, no .documents, nothing. Oh, and then you don’t have to concern yourself with the irritatingly glitchy (or so I hear) capacity bar that pops up as if it’s a hard drive.

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