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How To Install And Use Our Virtual Disk Drive
Click here if your Virtual Disk Drive is already installed and you are looking for information on using the Virtual Disk Drive.
Click here if you are looking for information regarding the Virtual Disk Drive "System Tray" icon.
Installing Our Virtual Disk Drive
When you click on a "Download" link to download our Virtual Disk Drive, you will see a window appear that looks like:
This (for Windows XP running Internet Explorer):
Or this (for Windows XP running Firefox):
Left-click on "Open" and when the download completes you will see this
(assuming you have Winzip installed):
Left-click on "the Virtual Disk Drive Installer.exe" and the installation process will begin.
Notes For Users With Firewalls and Anti-Virus Programs
The Virtual Disk Drive acts as both a "client" and as a "server", so if you receive a prompt from an anti-virus program or from your firewall, you must allow the Virtual Disk Drive to act as both a "server" (sending data to GlobalDrive) and a "client" (receiving data from GlobalDrive). The Virtual Disk Drive only sends data to and from globaldrive.com.
The Virtual Disk Drive does not transmit any of your browsing information, personal information (other than your GlobalDrive username and password), nor any of your computer's configuration data to GlobalDrive. If you are concerned about the manner in which we use "cookies", please click here.
The Virtual Disk Drive uses https port 443 (the standard SSL port) for communications.
All data sent to/from Globaldrive by the Virtual Disk Drive is encrypted during transmission.
Enabling ftp is not necessary.
Once you have installed the Virtual Disk Drive you're ready to try it!. Click here for usage help or scroll down to continue with this Help FAQ.
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Using Our Virtual Disk Drive
When you launch the Virtual Disk Drive you will be presented with its "Control Panel":
Click on one of the "tab" fields in the image above to learn more about that area (e.g., "Share"). Or, page down to scroll through the many different functions of our Virtual Disk Drive.
Click here for information on the Virtual Disk Drive "System Tray" icon.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Connect" Tab
The Virtual Disk Drive "Connect" tab is presented when you launch the Virtual Disk Drive. Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
Connect Tab - Username Field
The value that you must place into the "Username" field is the user name you chose when you subscribed to GlobalDrive.
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Connect Tab - Password Field
The value that you must place into the "Password" field is the password you chose when you subscribed to GlobalDrive.
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Connect Tab - Remember Settings Checkbox
If you check this box by left-clicking it, the Virtual Disk Drive will remember your current choices for username, password, and drive letter.
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Connect Tab - Drive Letter Field
The choice of drive letter must be any unused drive letter in your computer. Typically this will be the next letter in collating sequence after your last hard drive, CD/DVD drive, and USB drive but cannot be the same letter as any network drive you may have already connected.
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Connect Tab - Connect Button
When you have entered a Username and Password and when you have selected a drive letter left-click the "Connect" button. The Virtual Disk Drive application will connect your computer to GlobalDrive and create a "virtual disk drive" whose drive letter is the value you specified. You can then access your GlobalDrive account using that drive letter as if your GlobalDrive-stored data was on a local hard disk!
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Connect Tab - Clear Cache Button
When you left-click the Clear Cache button, the Virtual Disk Drive cache will be cleared before you connect. You should only use this button when instructed by GlobalDrive support.
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Connect Tab - "Don't Have An Account? Click here!" Link
If you have downloaded our Virtual Disk Drive software from a download site, such as download.com, and have not yet subscribed to GlobalDrive, click on this link. Your default browser will open, you will be presented with our "Sign Up" page, and you can sign up for a FREE, 30-day no-obligation, no-credit-card required evaluation of GlobalDrive.
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After you are connected, your Virtual Disk Drive "Control Panel" will look like this (note the area highlighted in green, below):
This indicates that your Virtual Disk Drive has successfully connected to GlobalDrive.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Account" Tab
When you left-click the "Account" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive you will see this:
Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
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Account Tab - Total Account Information Area
This is a combination numeric and graphic display showing the subscribed account size as the value of the "Size = " field, the total amount of space used by all sub-accounts (including the primary user) as the value of the "Used = " field, and the total remaining space available for use as the value of the "Available" field. The horizontal bar (i.e., the graphic) underneath the text "Size / Used / Available" displays how much space is used (the colored-in portion of the graphic), how much space is available (the greyed-out portion of the graphic) based on the total subscribed size (the width of the graphic).
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Account Tab - User Account Information Area
This is a combination numeric and graphic display showing the total space the user can access in the account as the value of the "Size = " field, the total amount of space used by the user as the value of the "Used = " field, and the total remaining space available for use by the user as the value of the "Available" field. Note that if the user is the primary user for the account, the "User Account Information:" line will be identical to the "Total Account Information:" line; however, if the user is accessing the account via a sub-account (i.e., if the user is not the primary user), then the "User Account Information:" line will contain values pertinent to this sub-account user only. The horizontal bar (i.e., the graphic) underneath the text "Size / Used / Available" displays how much space is used (the colored-in portion of the graphic), how much space is available (the greyed-out portion of the graphic), and the total subscribed size (the width of the graphic). The proportions of Size, Used and Available will vary in the horizontal bar in a manner consistent with their numeric values shown above; i.e., if the user is the primary user for the account, the graphic will be identical to the graphic shown in "Total Account Information:", above; however, if the user is a sub-account user, then the values portrayed in the graphic will be proportioned based on that sub-account user's access.
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Account Tab - Refresh Button
Simply left-click the "Refresh" button to recalculate and redisplay the numeric values and the space graphs. This is very handy when loading-/freeing-up accounts with large amounts of data.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Backup" Tab
The Virtual Disk Drive "Backup" tab schedules backup jobs using the Virtual Disk Drive.
Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
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Backup Tab - Backup Job Display Area
All of the backup jobs that have been created will be displayed here.
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Edit An Existing Backup Job
To edit an existing backup job, move the mouse over the backup job that you wish to edit, right-click to display the Backup Job Context Menu, and then left-click on "Edit".
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Delete An Existing Backup Job
To delete an existing backup job, move the mouse over the backup job that you wish to edit, right-click to display the Backup Job Context Menu, and then left-click on "Delete".
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Backup Tab - Create A Backup Job Button
To create a new backup job, click on the "Create a backup job" button.
A window similar to the one shown below will appear:
Left-click on either the "Folders", "Files", or "Registry" tab and then left-click on "Add Folder" (when backing up folder(s)), "Add Files" (when backing up file(s)), or "Add Registry Key" (when backing up registry key(s)). Follow the prompts to make your backup selections and schedule your backup job.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Settings" Tab
When you left-click the "Settings" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive you will see this:
Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
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Settings Tab - "Proxy Server Enable" Checkbox
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to use a proxy server, then check this box.
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Settings Tab - "Proxy Server Address And Port" Fields
If you have enabled the Virtual Disk Drive to use a proxy server, enter the address and port of the proxy server in these two fields.
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Settings Tab - "Proxy Server Authentication Enable" Checkbox
If your proxy server requires authentication, check this box.
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Settings Tab - "Proxy Server Authentication Username" Field
If your proxy server requires authentication, enter the username that your proxy server requires for authentication in this field.
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Settings Tab - "Proxy Server Authentication Password" Field
If your proxy server requires authentication, enter the password that your proxy server requires for the username entered in this field.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Help" Tab
When you left-click the "Help" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive you will be presented with a Windows Help file containing information on how to use the Virtual Disk Drive. For more information on how to use Windows Help files, please refer to the Windows "Help" facility.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Log" Tab
When you left-click the "Log" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive you will see this:
Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
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Log Tab - "Enable / Disable" Option Toggle
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to log all activity, click "Enable"; otherwise, click "Disable". Note: logging activity will not record any data transmitted to or received from the Virtual Disk Drive, but filenames sent/received will be recorded in the log file (stored on your PC only) and displayed in the "Transaction Area" (see below).
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Log Tab - "Transaction Area" display
This is where the Virtual Disk Drive will display all log entries accumulated since logging was enabled.
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Log Tab - "Clear Log" button
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to clear all accumulated log entries, left-click the "Clear Log" button.
Note: this operation cannot be undone.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Browser" Tab
When you left-click the "Browser" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive you will see this:
Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
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Browser Tab - "Default browser" dropdown menu
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to use a specific browser when you click the "View Browser" button , then select it here from this pulldown menu. The pulldown menu will have one entry for each browser that registered itself as a browser when you installed it on your machine.
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Browser Tab - "View Browser" button
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to launch your choice of "Default Browser" then click this button.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Share" Tab
When you left-click the "Share" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive you will see this:
Click on an area in the image above to learn more about that area.
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Share Tab - "File Display" Area
A list of all of the files and folders you are currently sharing can be seen in this area. If you do not see any shares displayed, please click the "Refresh" button (more on this below) to refresh the list of all of the files you are currently sharing.
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Share Tab - "Create Share" button
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to share a file or folder with someone else, simply click on this button. You will be presented with a window that looks like this:
Enter the path and name of the file you want to share, the email address(es) of the user(s) with whom you want to share that file, and an optional password that they will be required to use (if you enter something in the "Password" field) in order to access the file.
Note: the people with whom you are sharing files do not need to have a GlobalDrive account, nor do they need to be "sub-account" users within your GlobalDrive account.
Note: the path and name of the file must be within your GlobalDrive account. You cannot share a file on your computer with someone using the Share feature of the Virtual Disk Drive.
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Share Tab - "Delete Share" button
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to stop sharing a file or folder that you have previously shared, highlight the share you wish to delete and left-click this button.
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Share Tab - "Refresh Shares" button
If you want the Virtual Disk Drive to refresh the displayed list of files and folders you are sharing, left-click this button.
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The Virtual Disk Drive "Exit" Tab
When you left-click the "Exit" tab of the Virtual Disk Drive Control Panel, the window will disappear and the Virtual Desktop Drive interface will be minimized to the system tray.
You can redisplay the Virtual Disk Drive Control Panel anytime by right-clicking the GlobalDrive icon
in the system tray and then left-clicking "Show". For more information on the Virtual Disk Drive System Tray Icon, see below.
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The Virtual Disk Drive Icon In Your "System Tray"
Once you have minimized your Virtual Disk Drive's Control Panel, the Virtual Disk Drive will remain active and you will remain connected to GlobalDrive until you minimize it to the system tray by pressing the "Exit" button (more on this here).
When you Exit the Virtual Disk Drive the first time after you connect to GlobalDrive, you will see a message pop-up from the system tray that looks like this:
This reminds you that even though you have "exited" the Virtual Disk Drive, you remain connected to GlobalDrive. The message will disappear after a few seconds, or when you left-click anywhere in the pop-up "balloon".
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The Virtual Disk Drive System Tray "Context Menu"
If you right-click the Virtual Disk Drive icon in the system tray, you will see this "context menu" appear:
Left-click on any of the three fields in the Virtual Disk Drive System Tray Context Menu image shown below for more information.
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The Virtual Disk Drive System Tray Context Menu "Show" Selection
If you left-click the "Show" selection of the Virtual Disk Drive Context Menu, the Virtual Disk Drive "Control Panel" will reappear.
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The Virtual Disk Drive System Tray Context Menu "Hide" Selection
If you left-click the "Hide" selection of the Virtual Disk Drive Context Menu, the Virtual Disk Drive "Control Panel" will disappear.
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The Virtual Disk Drive System Tray Context Menu "Close" Selection
If you left-click the "Close" selection of the Virtual Disk Drive Context Menu, the Virtual Disk Drive will terminate. If the Virtual Disk Drive is still transmitting data to/from GlobalDrive when the "Close" selection is chosen, the data transmission will continue until finished (to avoid file integrity issues). Once all data transmission has been completed and the Virtual Disk Drive has terminated, the two the Virtual Disk Drive services running on your computer will be stopped.
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