Use Gmail as external hard drive

// Use Gmail for backup? Yes, it is possible using this small extension, Get ready to start:

Step 1: Download this Windows drive shell extension for windows users. I used it on windows XP pro and it works fine.

Step 2: Install the extension by running the setup application.

Step 3: A Gmail space appears in My Computers/Windows Explorer as an external drive as shown in the picture below.

Step 4: Now double click on the external drive (GMail Drive) and a login screen will pop up, enter your user name and password.

The extension is loading and enumerating the folder.

Step 5: And now you can drag and drop your file to the drive, you can use it as a normal external drive. It sends an email to your GMail account with the file as an attachment. Enjoy ; )

The downside:

These GMail storage solutions are very useful and until the much-rumored but slow-to-surface GDrive comes along and makes solutions trivial, the provide a nice way to access the same batch of files anywhere you are. However, there is a potential and significant downside. In the midst of my research with these tools, I ended up receiving the following dreaded “Unusual Usage” screen.

I know that a lot of people use these tools regularly and have never seen any major problems, I used both GMail Drive and GMailFS(Linux) extensively in a very short period of time so chances are the same thing won’t happen to you. Hope one day, Google will remove the Unusual Usage Lock. Use wisely and at your own risk.

Share your tips and experiences in the comments.

Note: Linux users can check out GmailFS and Mac users can try gDisk.