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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.
Mark
Super User II
Super User IIIt 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.
Whoa! Thank you SO MUCH for that advice! I seriously cannot lose these files.
I appreciate your help.
Susan
Hmm..
I'm looking for the same solution, and wonder if the above response is possibly a little scaremongering.
Firstly, Dropbox has functionality dedicated specifically to backing up one's external hard drive into the Dropbox cloud.
Second, contrary to the response above, Dropbox does not require one to "move the whole Dropbox directory to the external drive." Nothing of the sort.
Dropbox simply requires one to connect one's external drive to one's laptop, whereupon the Dropbox app will "see" the external hard drive, and, if one wants it to do so, the Dropbox app will sync the external drive to the Dropbox cloud.
Third, for redundancy, one can save one's data to two external hard drives. The additional cost is minimal relative to the redundancy and peace of mind.
So, for the Original Poster's use case, with the following work flow, one should be all set:
1. Save one's retirement files to an external hard drive.
2. For redundancy, save one's retirement files to a second external hard drive.
3. Wipe one's retirement files from one's laptop.
4. Connect one or other of the external hard drives to one's laptop and, using the Dropbox app, sync the contents of the external hard drive to the Dropbox cloud.
Result: retirement files are saved in three places: first external hard drive, second external hard drive, Dropbox cloud.
Hope that helps!
- This is exactly what I am planning to do with pics and videos from a recent holiday that would otherwise take up way too much space duplicating on my laptop's C: drive. The most important thing to do is to keep the second hard drive in a secure and safe place just in case there is any future issue and to protect it from overwrites, drops etc.
