ExpanDrive 2.0 Now Available

By drewmccormack at Thu, Apr 23 2009 1:22am

ExpanDrive is a product that has been mentioned on MacResearch more than once, and for very good reason. It allows you to mount remote systems via SSH, rather than FTP, making it ideal for scientists wanting to access secure computing resources. With ExpanDrive, working with files on a supercomputer or cluster is almost the same as working with an external USB drive: ExpanDrive mounts the remote file system right in Finder.

The good news is that ExpanDrive 2.0 has just been released. It is claimed to be twice as fast as the original for transferring large files, has a reworked UI, and now supports Amazon S3. It'll cost you $19.95 for an upgrade, or $39.95 for a first purchase. ExpanDrive is one of those products I couldn't live without these days, and well worth the purchase price if you need to access remote UNIX systems.

Comments

Thu, 2009-04-23 04:44 — nuin

Why not ...

just use the free MacFusion?

Thu, 2009-04-23 05:34 — drewmccormack

ExpanDrive

I used the free MacFusion for a while, before switching. You get what you pay for, in my view. ExpanDrive is much more stable and faster. For something that I use everyday, it's worth the expense.

Drew

---------------------------
Drew McCormack
http://www.maccoremac.com
http://www.macanics.net
http://www.macresearch.org

Thu, 2009-04-23 07:19 — edvinfuglebakk

sshfs

I use sshfs which is free and works like a charm.

Fri, 2009-04-24 01:22 — drewmccormack

Re: sshfs

ExpanDrive is based on MacFuse, so it is related to sshfs. ExpanDrive does a bunch of stuff to improve on it though, such as caching for better performance. In my experience, ExpanDrive is simply more robust and easier to use. I'm happy to pay for something that makes my life easier on a daily basis.

Drew

---------------------------
Drew McCormack
http://www.maccoremac.com
http://www.macanics.net
http://www.macresearch.org

Mon, 2009-04-27 08:29 — cej38

Expand Drive is great!

I used the Macfussion and the other free programs similar to Expand Drive. I completely agree with Drew that this is the better product and is well worth the price. I will be upgrading today.

Sat, 2010-02-20 05:37 — Edward Norton