How to Open and Use iDisk

By Mark L. Chambers from MacBook All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

When your MacBook is connected to the Internet, you can open your iDisk in one of several ways. Your iDisk opens in a new Finder window. Use one of the following methods:

From the Finder menu, choose Go→iDisk and then choose My iDisk from the submenu or use the Command+Shift+I keyboard shortcut.
Click the iDisk icon in the Finder Sidebar.
Add an iDisk button to your Finder window toolbar by choosing View→Customize Toolbar.

After you add the button, you can click it to connect to your iDisk from anywhere in the Finder.

After you use one of these methods in a Mac OS X session, your iDisk icon appears on the Mac OS X Desktop and sidebar; you can control the locations where the iDisk icon shows up from the Finder menu bar (click Finder→Preferences and then click the General and Sidebar tabs).

The iDisk volume icon remains until you shut down or restart your MacBook. (Alternatively, you can dismiss the iDisk volume icon from your Desktop using the same method by which you eject an external drive: Click the iDisk icon and press Command+E or click the Eject button next to the iDisk icon in the Finder window Sidebar.)

If you’re using a remote PC with an Internet connection, you can log in to the MobileMe page and use your web browser to access the contents of your iDisk. (Hey, sometimes this is the only choice you have.)

However, you don’t actually need to open your iDisk in a Finder window to use it, because you can also load and save files directly to your iDisk from within any application. Simply choose your iDisk as you would any of the hard drives on your system when using the application’s Open, Save, or Save As commands.

You can also open an iDisk Public folder — either yours or the Public folder inside another person’s iDisk — as if it were an Internet file server. If that person has set a password, you need to enter that password to gain access to all of his or her iDisk folders.

From the Finder menu, choose Go→iDisk-->Other User’s iDisk (or, to jump directly to their Public folder, choose Go→iDisk→Other User’s Public Folder). If you choose the former, Lion prompts you for the other person’s member name and password; if you pick the latter, you need only enter the other MobileMe member’s account name.

After you enter a valid iDisk member name (and password, if required), you see the MobileMe member’s Public folder.

You can also use the server address

http://idisk.me.com/username-Public?

to connect to an iDisk from computers running Windows and Linux. Check the Help for your operating system to determine how to connect to a WebDAV server (usually called a Web folder in the Windows world).

When prompted for your access username and password, use your MobileMe account name and password. If you’re using Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7, Apple has provided an even easier way to manage your iDisk: Use MobileMe Control Panel for Windows, which you can download from MobileMe.