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Forum Discussion
how to use an external drive with Dropbox
I have retired, and want to keep all of my business files on an external hard drive which will back up to Dropbox. Then I will remove all business files from my laptops. How do I do this? Is ...
It is a really really bad idea to sync Dropbox to an external drive - the risk of data loss is HUGE.
The only way to do this is to move the whole Dropbox directory to the external drive. But that then means if it disconnects at any time or is slow to re-connect on boot up Dropbox can see this as a total wipe of all data. Unfortunately there are loads of posts on here about that happening.
I want to install Dropbox on the external hard drive, but the installation goes directly to the PC, that is, it doesn't let me choose the destination. What to do?
- Rich
Super User II
Patricia15 wrote:
I want to install Dropbox on the external hard drive, but the installation goes directly to the PC, that is, it doesn't let me choose the destination. What to do?
If you're on Windows, there's an Advanced Options link during the install (usually after you sign in) that let's you specify the location of the Dropbox folder.
Note that placing the Dropbox folder on an external drive is NOT recommended. Under the right conditions, data loss can occur. If the Dropbox application were to start before the drive is connected or the drive becomes disconnected while Dropbox is running, it could be seen as a mass deletion which would sync to your account online, deleting your files.
The advanced options don't appear for me.
- Rich
Patricia15 wrote:
The advanced options don't appear for me.
It's located after the screen where you select the folders that you want to sync.
