How to turn your AWS S3 Bucket into a network drive! (Free)
Published: 2021-10-14 21:40:46

Did you know you can add your S3 bucket to your network drive **WITHOUT** using your local drive storage?? Ditch Onedrive, Dropbox or Mega! I will show you the process on how to set it up 100% for free!

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# Process
To begin you must have an AWS account. 

 1. Go to your AWS Control Panel
 2. Search up `IAM` and press the first icon
 3. At the right side there should a button called `Users`
![s3.png](https://i.gyazo.com/77aad347ff3ffebeadb809ef1f09b662.png)
 4. Once clicked there will be a button in front of you saying, `Add Users`. It should a blue button:
![add.users.png](https://i.gyazo.com/2a58ccb096650572c1b5b0d0d0e91610.png)
 5. Once clicked name your user anything, I will name mine `sammy`. For access type click `Access key - Programmatic access`. Once both done click `Next: Permission`
 6. Now look at the top of the three options and find `Attact existing policies directly`. In the search text box type in `S3`. Find the permission called `AmazonS3FullAccess`. Click the gray box and we will continue by pressing `Next: Tags` in the bottom corner.
 7. Once at the Tag section just skip it since it is not needed for the process. Just press `Next: Review`.
 8. Look over and see you added the permission `AmazonS3FullAccess`. If you did then press `Create User`
 9. Now you will receive the `Access key ID` and the `Secret access key` Copy both of them into notepad or download the `.csv` file if you want. Make sure you have them copied or else you will never be able to get access to them AGAIN!
 10. Once back at the homepage you to install an application called `Netdrive`. This will be the tool to help us connect. To install just [click here if you are on windows](https://files.bdrive.com/netdrive/builds/54f7a47a6a3c48d38bf7cdf47dac9e10/NetDrive3_Setup-3.14.309.exe) and [click here if you are on MacOS but it has a free trial :(](https://files.bdrive.com/netdrive/builds/5ba2a6f445d84d1e99ad796072210124/NetDriveInstaller-3.14.342.dmg)
 11. Once installed open up the app you should see something like this. I already am using this so I have some drives on it. 

![Screenshot 2021-10-14 171548.png](https://cdn.devdojo.com/images/october2021/Screenshot%202021-10-14%20171548.png)
(I blurred information because of privacy)
 12. If you noticed there is a green plus button in the bottom corner. Press it and the best part will happen!
 13. [plus.png](https://i.gyazo.com/874fea4de89252ad8f9c9130807463f9.png) If you look under the header `Storage Type`, press the blank box and scroll down click `S3`
 14. Now once clicked `S3` press `Connect`. You would see that the `Access ID` and `Secret Key` appears and thats why we needed them. Paste in the information and keep the server the same. Press `Ok`
 15. Now change the path to your S3 bucket you made. Change the label to whatever you want. Under `Auto Connect Options`. Make sure `Mount on boot` is on or your have to connect every single time.
 16. Once all configuation is done press `Ok`. Now you should see a new box appear showing the label. Press `Connect` and you are done! Soon a folder pop-up will show you in the folder. If you already had files in there you could see them!

Also here are some cool things you also get with Netdrive for FREE!
 - SSL/TLS connection 24/7
 - You can read/write all files in your bucket
 - For me I have over 2 ExaBytes! I didn't select how much storage I want in my bucket 😆.

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