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Forum Discussion
Dale McCullough
7 months agoNew member | Level 2
How to upload a large folder with entire PC subfolder/files onto Dropbox
I want to create a backup of all content from my PC on Dropbox and then allow syncing or automatic addition of new files added to my PC folders. I installed the Dropbox app on the PC to allow this. But when I try dropping a 2Tb folder with much of the contents on my PC onto the new Dropbox folder, it simply wants to duplicate this large folder on my PC hard drive. I don't have room to do this. Is Dropbox the right app then for backing up a computer?
- Hi jsdigital, welcome to the forums!Regarding your query, Dropbox doesn’t modify your files in any way. However, there are very rare circumstances when a file can be ‘changed’ in some manner, though this is unrelated to Dropbox.The first, and ‘most common’ is a third party app is affecting the file. This could be that a virus scanner is checking the file, and yet affects the original. Maybe on the originator’s end there was a similar issues, it’s hard to tell.Another, albeit rare possibility, is that downloading through the browser itself could be the issue. While Dropbox can preview WAV files, it is subject to the limitations of the browser, likewise with downloading them. Again, this is very rare, but can happen.Overall, in answer to your question, we’ve had many users sync high quality, uncompressed files, WAV, FLAC, APE etc, and none have experienced any issues. For those users that did experience some form of compression, corruption, or other matter, then it was usually due to an interrupted upload/download, poor encoding to begin with, or even not have the correct codec to play the file at the destination.Even WAV files have codecs on how it reads the uncompressed music!Hopefully this should clarify matters for you, however if you have any questions, feel free to let me know!
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- Mark
Super User II
Dale McCullough wrote:
Is Dropbox the right app then for backing up a computer?
Unfortunately simply put no.
Dropbox backup moves some folders and directories over in to its own directory and syncs them with the cloud, or, backs them up. However, it does set folders only - it doesnt do everything in a 'disaster recovery' type of set up.
I suggest looking at something like BackBlaze for that
- Dale McCulloughNew member | Level 2
Thanks for the response and suggestion, Mark. I guess I had a fundamental misunderstanding about some of the key features.
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