Transfer files to/from session I'm logged in with PuTTY

This is probably not a direct answer to what you're asking, but when I need to transfer files over a SSH session I use WinSCP, which is an excellent file transfer program over SCP or SFTP. Of course this assumes you're on Windows.

• Click on start menu.
• Click run
• In the open box, type cmd then click ok
• At the command prompt, enter:

  c:>pscp source_file_name userid@server_name:/path/destination_file_name.

For example:

c:>pscp november2012 [email protected]:/mydata/november2012.

• When promted, enter your password for server.

Enjoy

PuTTY usually comes with a client called psftp which you can leverage for this purpose. I don't believe you can do it through the standard PuTTY client (although I may be proven wrong on that).

PuTTY only gives you access to manipulate the remote machine. It doesn't provide a direct link between the two file systems any more than sitting down at the remote machine does.