Content

• What is S3 Drive?
• What is the difference between S3 Drive, SFTP Drive and AES Drive?
• Is the Starter License really free forever, and what can it be used for?
• What is the difference between "configured drives" and "connected drives"?
• What is "Isolated Drive Management"?
• Can I use versioning and other S3 features?
• What operating systems does S3 Drive work on?

What is S3 Drive?

S3 Drive is an application which enables you to use any S3 compatible service as if it were a local disk drive. S3 Drive works with Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Akamai (Linode), etc. and there is a custom option as well. When S3 Drive is started, you access your buckets through Windows Explorer or an aplication's File menu, just like a regular drive. You work with files and folders as normal. S3 Drive is not a sync service, you read and write directly to or from the drive without needing a local copy of the file. This is different than how some other cloud storage applications work.

What is the difference between S3 Drive, SFTP Drive and AES Drive?

S3 Drive turns an S3 compatible service into a local disk drive. SFTP Drive does the same, but for an SFTP server, and AES Drive encrypts files on your local drive.

Is the Starter License really free forever, and what can it be used for?

Yes! The Starter License is a free single-user license, and allows for both Personal and Commercial Use of a set of basic features. The Starter License is for a single user, and can be intalled on all the machines that user works on, for as long as you need it. We have other licenses with more advanced features, detailed in S3 Drive Feature Comparison.

What is the difference between "configured drives" and "connected drives"?

A "configured drive" is the connection details for a storage location, while a "connected drive" is running and usable. S3 Drive can store multiple configurations, but with the Starter License only one drive at a time can be connected. The Standard and Professional licenses allow you to have multiple drives running at the same time.

What is "Isolated Drive Management"?

Windows computers allow more than one user to log on, and some settings can be shared across all user profiles. Sharing configuration settings across all users is the default behavior for the Starter and Standard Licenses. The Professional License allows you to isolate drive configurations on a per-user basis for additional convenience and security. Additional technical details are available in the documentation at Isolated Mode.

Can I use versioning and other S3 features with S3 Drive?

Yes, but with caveats. All S3-compatible services support a basic set of login, folder and object management commands, which S3 Drive utilizes. Different S3 storage providers (especially AWS) may support additional features which S3 Drive does not utilize. For example, AWS can transparently encrypt objects at rest using KMS. Enabling this is a best practice, and does not affect S3 Drive's operations, but must be managed via the AWS console or via IaC.

What operating systems does S3 Drive work on?

S3 Drive is cross-platform and runs on Windows (7 and up) in addition to Linux and macOS. The Professional license adds support for Windows Server editions as well (2008 R2 and up).