MyOtherDrive.com

Create a folder for each computer in your MyOtherDrive account at the root level. For example, "Laptop" and "Desktop."
From the first computer, log into your MyOtherDrive account using either the Desktop Client or log in directly from our Website.
Click on the 'Settings' button on the main toolbar.
Set the days of the week, the time when the backup should run, and select the source folders to backup. For example, you might choose a subset of top-level folders from your C: drive.
Note: We do not recommend backing up the operating system folder (e.g. Windows) nor applications. Usually, it is best to backup all important data files (documents, video, audio, etc.) If you replace the computer, it is these files that are most important. The new computer will likely come with an Operating System (usually newer), and the applications can be re-installed.
Click the folder in the MyOtherDrive folder tree on the left to set the destination folder for this computer. You will see the path to that folder update in the Settings box when you select the folder.
When you 'apply' the changes, you will be prompted for your Windows username / password. Enter that so that our software can create the Windows Scheduled Task to perform the backup. If this is a Mac or Linux computer, the command line to run the backup is shown. Create a scheduled task to run this command line.
Repeat this process for each computer you wish to backup. Each time you will logon to MyOtherDrive using the same account username / password (typically your Pro 100 or Pro 500 account).
Each computer keeps its own separate settings for time, date, source files, and destination folder.
If there are privacy concerns you can mark the root folder for each computer (or just one of them) as encrypted. Make sure to do this before backing up any data. The encryption setting must be applied from each computer separately, as the encryption password is stored on each computer, not on our servers. Any files or folders uploaded will be encrypted (when the folder is marked with a lock / encryption icon).
You can privately share encrypted folders, however, the person you are sharing with will need to be given the encryption password so that they can enter it when prompted on download.

Small business / IT Manager

Create a folder in the MyOtherDrive account at the root level. We recommend using the computer name and we recommend doing this from each physical computer (or remotely logged into each computer) because the backup and encryption settings are stored per computer, per user of that computer.
When logging onto each computer to backup, think about whether this user will also be using MyOtherDrive. In general it is best for the IT manager to log onto the computer with the Window's Administrator account so that the backup settings for the computer will be associated to that account. If the main user of this computer is also going to interact with MyOtherDrive (from a different personal or free MyOtherDrive account), they should be logging into their computer with a different Operating System username. Each computer user will have their own settings for MyOtherDrive, as these are stored per computer, per user.
If you want the entire backup to be encrypted, while logged into each computer (likely the Administrator account), log into your MyOtherDrive account. Mark the folder you created for the computer in step 1 with encryption (click the Encryption button on the main toolbar).
The encryption password you set is stored locally (encrypted). It is never transmitted from that computer. Also, it is best to set encryption first, as files are only encrypted when they are uploaded into an encrypted folder. If you encrypt the folder later after files are uploaded, you would need to re-upload the files in order to encrypt them.
To begin configuring the backup for the computer, click on the 'Settings' button on the main toolbar.
Set the days of the week, the time when the backup should run, and select the source folders to backup. For example, you might choose a subset of top-level folders from your C: drive.
Note: We do not recommend backing up the operating system folder (e.g. Windows) nor applications. Usually, it is best to backup all important data files (documents, video, audio, etc.) If you replace the computer, it is these files that are most important. The new computer will likely come with an Operating System (usually newer), and the applications can be re-installed.
To set the destination for a computer, click the folder in the MyOtherDrive folder tree on the left. The one you named with the same name as the computer. You will see the path in the Settings box update when you select the folder.
When you 'apply' the changes, you will be prompted for your Windows username / password. Enter that so that our software can create the Windows Scheduled Task to perform the backup. If this is a Mac or Linux computer, the command line to run is shown. Create a scheduled task to run this command line.
Repeat this process for each computer you wish to backup. Each time you will logon to MyOtherDrive using the same account username / password (your Pro 1000, 2000, etc. account).
Each computer keeps its own separate settings for time, date, source files, and destination folder, per user.
If you choose to use encryption, each computer will have its own encryption password, per user. This password will be required to download any files from an encrypted folder.

Note: All backup settings are stored on each computer, per user account.

Note: Encryption password is stored on each computer, per user account.

Note: Encrypted folders can be shared, however, the encryption password must be given to the person you are sharing with as they will be prompted for it on download. It is not stored on the downloading computer, only the computer where it was created.

Note: Click here for a detailed write up on unattended backup.

Question: My multiple computer backup is great and a real money saver! How to I enable users to collaborate?

Answer: Let's use a product team for this example. Have each product team member create a MyOtherDrive free or paid account. Once these are all created, add all of these accounts to your main paid account (Pro 1000) as friends. Then share out folders and files as necessary. Also, the product team members can invite other team members to their accounts for sharing as well. This gives you both a centralized and distributed approach to collaboration.

How do I upload files?

There are two ways to upload (send) files to MyOtherDrive. If you are uploading a single file or folder, use the Upload option. If you want to upload many of files and folders at once, use the Backup option.

Upload - A single file or folder (with subfolders). To upload files, follow these steps:

Click the Upload button on the main tool bar at the top.
In the box that pops up the first step is asking you to select a file or folder from your computer. Click the "Select File or Folder..." button.
That will bring up a window that displays all the files and folders on your computer. From that list, chose the file or folder you would like to upload to the site. If you choose a folder, that folder, and any file or folder below it will also be uploaded as well.
Click OK once you have select the item you wish to upload.
The Upload window will display the file or folder from your computer that is to be uploaded.
In the second step, choose the folder on MyOtherDrive where the uploaded file should go. To do that, click the destination folder in the left side of the screen. As you click a folder, the name of the folder will be updated in Step 2 indicating which folder the uploaded file will go.
Click "Start" and the file or folder will begin to upload.

Note: Your last uploaded file and destination folder are "remembered" so that you do not need to reselect them next time.

Backup - Multiple files or folders. To backup files, follow these steps:

Click the Backup button on the main tool bar at the top.
In the box that pops up the first step is asking you to select files or folders from your computer. Click the "Select Folders..." button.
That will bring up a window that displays all the files and folders on your computer. From that list, chose the files and folders you would like to upload to the site.
To select a file or folder, make sure to double-click it which will mark it with an [ x ]. That indicates the file or folder to be uploaded.
If you want to de-select a file or folder, double-click it again which will clear it [ ]. Double clicking on a folder chooses (or clears) all the files and folders below it. If you wish to get a subset, you can always expand the folder and deselect items you do not wish to backup.
Click OK once you have select the items selected that you wish to backup.
When you return to the Backup box, you will see all the files and folders that were selected. If you wish, you can click Clear to empty the list and reselect them.
Next, choose the folder on MyOtherDrive where the uploaded file should go. To do that, click the destination folder in the left side of the screen. As you click a folder, the name of the folder will be updated in Step 2 indicating which folder the uploaded file will go.
Click "Start" and backup will start. All selected files and folders will be backed up.
Your last backup settings are "remembered" so that you do not need to reselect them next time. If you are a Pro 100 member, you can use our Unattended Backup feature. It will use your last Backup settings as a starting point.

Note: Automated backup requires a Windows program named schtasks.exe to be on your computer. This is a command line utility to create scheduled tasks. Windows XP Home does not ship with this program. We recommend upgrading to Windows XP Professional. Alternatively, you could search for that program on the web, and then install it into your c:Windows\system32 folder. Make sure you read the license agreement to see if this is permitted.

How do I download files?

If you would like to download only the currently selected files, make sure to select the files you want first. Do that by clicking the files and then shift-clicking or ctrl-clicking to extend what files are selected. This shift-click / ctrl-click operates the same in the Thumbnail and Detail view, similar to how it works on Windows or a Mac.
Now that you have a set of files selected, click the Download Files button on the main toolbar.
In the box that pops up, it displays all the folders on your computer.
Choose the folder in which the selected files should be placed, and then press OK.
The files will be downloaded from MyOtherDrive to the folder on your computer that you selected.

Note: If you are running a protection program like BitDefender, it may not be allowing our web-based application to write to your computer's hard disk. If this happens (Save appears to work but no files are saved), then make sure you add our program to a safe list or disable this program when downloading your files.

How do I download a folder?

If you would like to download the currently selected folder, make sure to select that folder in the "tree" of folders on the left side of the screen. Do that by clicking on the folder you wish to download.
Now that you have a folder selected, click the Download Folder button on the main toolbar.
In the box that pops up, it displays all the folders on your computer.
Choose the folder in which the selected folder should be placed into, and then press OK.
All files in the folder (and any subfolders of it) on MyOtherDrive will be copied to the folder you selected.

Note: If you are running a protection program like BitDefender, it may not be allowing our web-based application to write to your computer's hard disk. If this happens (Save appears to work but no files are saved), then make sure you add our program to a safe list or disable this program when downloading your files.

How do I view a friend's folders and files?

If you would like to view the folders and files of one of your friends, select the friend in your friends list.
Next, click the 'View now' button.
The folder tree will change to display all the folders that you have at least view access to in their account.
If you have the proper permissions, you can copy files and folders from their account to your account.
If you would like to get back to looking at your account, click on 'Me' in the friends list and then click the 'View Now' button. Double-clicking on a friend has the same effect as clicking the 'View Now' button.

How do I collaborate (share privately), where I control who sees my files?

The basic steps to collaboration are as follows:

Invite friends - Click the '+Add' button below the friends list to invite friends (by email address).
Share

Click the 'Share' button on the main toolbar.
The Sharing window will come up. You can switch folders while this window is up.

Add groups - Use the 'Add', 'Delete', and 'Rename' button to add groups as necessary.
Assign permissions

Select a group that should have access to the folder that is currently listed.
Check the appropriate boxes for the type of permission the select group should have to the selected folder: view, download, add, modify, delete.

Add your friends to groups - Click the 'Membership' button to add or remove friends from the currently selected group.

Note: Click here for a discussion on collaboration.

How do I share a folder to anyone on the Internet (public sharing)?

This can be done two different ways

Publicize

First select the folder that you wish to share to Everyone on the Internet.
Click the "Publicize" button on the main toolbar. It will prompt you to "OK" this. If you OK it, the selected folder and all of its subfolders will be accessible to anyone on the Internet, for view and download access.

Sharing...

First select the folder that you wish to share to Everyone on the Internet.
Next click the "Sharing" button on the main toolbar.
In the Sharing window, the first entry in the list of groups is "Everyone on the Internet". Any permissions you give to this group will be granted to anyone on the Internet. This means search engines like Google may index this folder.
The most common permission to give is "Download and view." Check the appropriate sharing options.
If you want these same permissions applied to subfolders, then check that option too.

With Public Sharing set up above, now send out links to friends...

You can use the 'Show' buttons to see a Web (HTML) view of folders or files. Clicking 'Show' opens a new browser tab with an HTML view of either the folder or the first selected file. The first time you use this feature, a 'pop-up' blocker might pop up. Choose the option to allow pop-up windows from MyOtherDrive. We never open separate popup windows, just the extra tab so you can see the HTML view and keep the content management applet open. You may need to activate the option a second time if you got the pop-up blocker warning. From then on out, if you OK'd our website, you should not get the pop-up blocker warning anymore. Next, in the Browser window, you can highlight the Address: line and copy that link to the clipboard. Quickest way - click the address line, hit Ctrl-A to select all and then Ctrl-C to copy to clipboard.
Go into your favorite email editor and email out the link to your friends. You can paste it into your email editor by hitting Ctrl-V for paste. You can also paste the link into a chat window, make it a link a blog or website.
Alternately, you can click the "Email File" or "Email Folder" button on the main toolbar, and email the currently selected folder or file from within the application.

How do I create a link to a file? (eBay auction for example)

First select the file you wish to link to.
Click the "Copy Link" button on the menu above the files. That will place a copy of the link on the clipboard.
Where you need to place the link, like an eBay auction, just hit Ctrl-V to paste it from the clipboard.

Note: MyOtherDrive links are Bullet Proof Links / Change Proof Links in that you can rename the file, move the file to another folder and the link will still work. You can rename the folder(s) containing the file, the link is still good. This is not possible with "Drive Letter Mapping" type online sharing sites.

How do I add friends?

Click the '+Add' button below the Friend's list. This will bring up the invite friends window.
Enter the email addresses of the friends you would like to add. They will receive an email invitation inviting them to join your friends list.
You will know they have accepted the invite when the '(invited)' text next to their name disappears in the Friend's list.

Note: Adding friends is the first step to sharing. After adding friends you will want to create one or more groups, and add the friends to those groups. Finally, to share files to these friends, you will want to use the 'Sharing...' button to allow groups to access folders. A friend can 'see' all of the folders for all of the groups to which they belong.

How do I add Groups?

Click the 'Share' button below on the main toolbar. This will bring up the 'Share' window.
In this window, you can click the Add Group button to add a new group.
You will be prompted to enter a new group name. Enter the name and press 'Enter.'
While in this window, you can press the Delete Group button to remove a group or press the Rename Group button to rename a group. If you would like to change the members of a group, click the Membership button.

How do I make folders private - no sharing at all?

First, select the folder you would like to make private. You can select the top (root) folder if you would like to make all folders private.
Click the 'Privatize' button on the main toolbar.
You will be asked if you wish to proceed and make all subfolders private. If you click OK, the selected folder and all subfolders will be made private (no content will be shared).

How do I encrypt my files?

Before encrypting any folders, set your encryption password first. Click the 'Settings' button on the Main toolbar.
Click the Encryption tab in the Settings window.
Enter your encryption password. This password will be required (you will be prompted) when you download files from an encrypted folder. Also, this password is involved in the encryption of the files, so changing the password is not a good idea, as the existing encrypted files will still be encrypted with the earlier password.
Next, select the folder to encrypt by clicking a folder in the tree on the left side of the screen.
Click the Encryption button on the main toolbar. This will bring up the encryption window.
In this window, check the box to encrypt the folder. If you want to include sub-folders, then check that option too.

Note: This does not encrypt the files that may already exist in the folder. This just marks the folder as encrypted so that any new files uploaded to it will be encrypted during upload.

Note: See encryption details for a write up how MyOtherDrive encryption works.

How do I download encrypted files?

To decrypt files, download them as you normally would.
You will be prompted for your encryption password before downloading the files.
Enter the password used to encrypt the files.
Our program will compare that to the encryption password that is stored. If it differs, you can either re-enter it correctly, or use a different password. We allow this, because you may have encrypted files, and then changed your password. To download the files encrypted with the old password, we have to let you enter your previous password.

Note: If you have a folder with both encrypted and unencrypted files in it, and you download all of the files in that folder, only the encrypted files will be decrypted - the non encrypted files will download fine. The way this can happen is if you have files already in a folder before you set encryption on that folder, and then upload files after setting it.

Note: Getting the password correct is vital. If you enter the wrong encryption password and download with that, the files that are decrypted will contain worthless data. As we recommend, it is best to have set one encryption password and leave it.

Note: Encrypted folders can be shared privately with groups, but cannot be publicly shared. In order for the sharee's to decrypt those files, you will need to give them your encryption password. Remember, though, that they can only get to the folders that you share, so having your encryption password only benefits them for the folders that they have access to.

How do I move/copy folders (between accounts)?

Move/Copy Folders is a feature that allows you to move or copy folders from one MyOtherDrive account to another MyOtherDrive account, without having to download them, and then re-upload them! The person doing the moving or copying must have download access to the source folder, and add access to the destination folder. That means that person A can move or copy folders from person B's account to person C's account, if they have download permission to a folder in person B's account, and add permission in person C's account. This is a very powerful feature which eliminates uploading and download while moving and copying folders around. In technical lingo, all the 'work' is performed on the 'backend.'

First, select the folder you wish to move or copy. The source folder can be from your account or you may want to change to a friend's account and then select a source folder from their account.
Once you have selected a folder, click the 'Move' or 'Copy' folder button on the main toolbar.
A window will pop-up that permits you to select the destination. Select the account you wish to copy the folder to. You must have add access to at least one folder in the destination user's account.
After you select an account ('Me' is your account, which is the default), select a folder within the account. This is the 'parent' folder - the moved or copied folders will reside below this folder.
Click OK. The folders and files will copy VERY FAST as they are not downloaded to your computer and then re-uploaded.

How do I move/copy files (between accounts)?

Move/Copy Files is a feature that allows you to move or copy files from one MyOtherDrive account to another MyOtherDrive account, without having to download them, and then re-upload them! The person doing the moving or copying must have download access to the source folder containing the files, and add access to the destination folder. That means that person A can move or copy files from person B's account to person C's account, if they have download permission to a folder in person B's account, and add permission in person C's account. This is a very powerful feature which eliminates uploading and download while moving and copying files around. In technical lingo, all the 'work' is performed on the 'backend.'

First, select the files you wish to move or copy. The source files can be from your account or you may want to change to a friend's account and then select a source folder from their account. Select the files in either the 'Thumbnail' view or 'Detail' view, using the traditional selection methods - click to select a file, shift-click to select a contiguous list of files, and control-click to additively select more non-contiguous files.
Once you have the source files selected, click the 'Move' or 'Copy' files button in the mini-toolbar above the thumbnail or details view.
A window will pop-up that permits you to select the destination. Select the account you wish to copy the selected files to. You must have add access to at least one folder in the destination user's account.
After you select an account ('Me' is your account, which is the default), select a folder within the account. This is the 'parent' folder - the moved or copied files will reside in this folder.
Click OK. The files will move / copy VERY FAST as they are not downloaded to your computer and then re-uploaded.

Note: If you already have a file in the destination folder with the same name as one of the files being copied in, you will be prompted to overwrite or skip.

What is Grab File?

Grab File is a feature that allows you to copy a file stored at a web address (URL) directly to your MyOtherDrive account, with no upload-download to your computer.

First, copy the web address URL to the clipboard. This could be a link to a video someone sent you, a link to a file on another storage service account, etc. Highlight the exact link, and then hit Ctrl-C (for copy to clipboard).
Click the 'Grab File' button. It will bring up a window where you can paste that link.
Paste the link into the line that says 'Address (URL)'. Use the Ctrl-V keystroke to paste.
Enter a file name for the file. It is strongly recommended that you keep the file extension. For example, if you copy a link to a windows media file (.wmv) file, make sure the file name ends with .wmv
Look at the destination MyOtherDrive (MOD) folder. If it needs to be changed, select the proper destination folder in the folder tree on the left side of the window.
Click Copy and the file will begin copying from the supplied address to your folder using the filename you entered
You can continue to copy more than one link. When finished, click Close.

How do I Import from other online storage services?

Import is a feature that allows you to import your files from another online storage service directly to your MyOtherDrive account, without separate upload-download steps.

First, select the online storage service.
Enter your username and password of the online storage service. This is not stored.
Choose the folder (in the tree on the left) where the imported files and folders should be loaded.
Click Start and the files will begin importing.

Note: Click here for a more thorough explanation of how import works.