how to use an external drive with Dropbox

[SUSAN F.26]

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 there a dropbox file to download and put on my external drive?  I cannot lose any of these files. 

I've tried following directions which I've found online, but when I right click on the Dropbox icon in File Explorer, I see "request files", which is not what I expected to see.

[Mark · Accepted solution]

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. 

[SUSAN F.26]

Whoa!  Thank you SO MUCH for that advice!  I seriously cannot lose these files.  

I appreciate your help.

Susan

[JustInCaseHelpful]

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!

[BrianP]

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.

[Patricia15]

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]

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@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?

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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.

[Patricia15]

The advanced options don't appear for me.

[Rich]

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@Patricia15 wrote:

The advanced options don't appear for me.

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It's located after the screen where you select the folders that you want to sync.

[beyon]

Hi everyone

I was googling for a solution but didn't really found one, so here I am 🙂

I was wondering, how I could backup my dropbox account to an external harddrive.

I'm using dropbox for a business, so I accumulated massive amounts of data. This data does not fit on any computer anymore, so I can't download the data from dropbox and do the backup manually.
So I'm wondering, how i can backup my dropbox on an external harddrive? I think this is very important to have the data not just on cloud, but also on a harddrive, just to be safe, and to be in accordance with the law. (Some data, I have to store for 10 years and I'm accountable if it gets lost)

Cheers

Beyon