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Forum Discussion
Deleted files due to external drive getting disconnected
1. It looks like the external drive where I keep the local copies of my Dropbox files got disconnected. 2. This caused a number of files to get deleted from the Dropbox server and from all local cop...
Hi dragomirradev, unfortunately when working with your Dropbox folder on an external drive that's always a possibility.
We can’t guarantee perfect functionality of the Dropbox app if you’re running it on an external drive. For the Dropbox application to work properly, I’d recommend that you install it on the hard drive of your Operating System.
This is because Dropbox can’t always work correctly if the Dropbox folder becomes inaccessible, and this can happen if it's located on an external drive.
I'll forward your feedback to the appropriate areas so we can continue to improve.
It's ridiculous to think we'd want our dropbox folder on the same drive as our OS. Too many performance and storage size issues.
billgdbx
Dropbox Engineer
Dropbox EngineerUpdating this thread: we recently released some fixes for issues found in the external drive disconnection case (version v200 of Desktop client and above). We'd be interested in hearing whether issues are still persisting for anyone who had been affected previously.
- Can you be a bit more specific about the changes ? (Or point to the release notes for the client)
- billgdbx
The fixes were to a fairly arcane internal issue which would have affected a few, but not all external drive users. We had a difficult time reproducing the issue until we inserted some artificial failures to mimic certain possible end user scenarios I (things along the lines of "operation X happens to be in flight when the drive is disconnected"). Release notes are here, but you won't find a ton of detail in them.
- Will have to set up some tests - given the downside of removal and possible nearly instant complete deletion of a dropbox account’s contents - not something I can try with a live team account to see what happens……
