Google Drive to back up on external hard drive

[atomichybrid]

Hi all,

A friend of mine suggested if he can have the Google Drive (GDrive) backed up on his external hard drive? To me it seems like backwards thinking here. But he mentions that there are some people using the GDrive as well and he wants to make a back up of everything to an external drive. I know a simple copy and paste files is probably the simplest idea, but he wants an automated backup, so what software should he be looking into?

Cheers

 

[Draygoes]

Nothing wrong with that, though I am not aware of any automated backup software for the GD to HD solution.

Perhaps he could copy all of the files to the HD, and then let GD backup from there?

Again, its not a bad idea really. The more backup copies of your important files the better I say.

 

[BikerEcho]

I actually do this myself.
My D:\ drive and Google drive are synchronized via the Google drive client software. (it could just as well be an external drive as my D:\ drive)
So i have the files online and on my computer. So if something goes wrong with Google drive, i still have the files locally, and if someone breaks in and steals my computer, i still have the files online.

Anything i put in my Google drive folder is automatically synchronized to the drive and everything i upload to my drive online is downloaded to my Google drive folder. Like if i upload a file from work, it will be downloaded at home as soon as i turn on my computer. It works brilliantly.

 

[atomichybrid]

Thanks for the response guys. BikerEcho, so what you're saying is that I can designate the GDrive files to the external, through their software?

If that's the case, if the external were to be unplugged and some files got uploaded to the cloud by another user, that would mean the computer with the external plugged will have sync issues (since external is unplugged). But if I were to plug it back then it could sync back to the external hard drive, since the file was first uploaded to the cloud. Does this logic make sense?

 

[BK_123]

How to use Google Drive as a backup tool - CNET

---------- Post added at 04:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:24 PM ----------

I use Google Drive to backup important documents otherwise everything else apart from my music is stored on my external hard drive..

 

[Draygoes]

Thanks for the response guys. BikerEcho, so what you're saying is that I can designate the GDrive files to the external, through their software?

If that's the case, if the external were to be unplugged and some files got uploaded to the cloud by another user, that would mean the computer with the external plugged will have sync issues (since external is unplugged). But if I were to plug it back then it could sync back to the external hard drive, since the file was first uploaded to the cloud. Does this logic make sense?

That actually has me curious enough to test it. I will run some of the worst case seniros that I can think of and get back with the results.

 

[Draygoes]

Well, that didnt work. I will have to wait until tommrow when I can break out the flash drive, because that thing refuses to sync with an SD card.

EDIT
I was able to emulate the experience in VMware, but I am not sure how accurately that will reflect this being done with an actual external device. Heres the thing, it appears that Google Drive is pretty resilient when it comes to dealing with that kind of confusion. And if any files are accidentally deleted, you can go to the google drive account using your browser, and remove said files from the trash, so that offers a pretty good layer of protection. And I really put it through fire, so a lot of what I did was not only worst case scenario, but actually pretty unrealistic. Powered through my tests like a champ.

I prefer drop box myself, but thats only a personal preference and I think I may switch. Last time I used GD it was still new and had almost no features. Now it actually seems to be a bit better than DB.

 

[BikerEcho]

Thanks for the response guys. BikerEcho, so what you're saying is that I can designate the GDrive files to the external, through their software?

Yes indeed

If that's the case, if the external were to be unplugged and some files got uploaded to the cloud by another user, that would mean the computer with the external plugged will have sync issues (since external is unplugged).

I am not sure i follow. If the external drive is unplugged from the computer and another users log into Google Drive and uploads files, yes they will be synced when the external drive is back.
If someone borrows the external drive and put on some files on his own to the google drive folder, yes, they will also be synced.
The way the synchronization works, is whatever is on the drive is gonna be downloaded to the external, and vise versa.

But if I were to plug it back then it could sync back to the external hard drive, since the file was first uploaded to the cloud. Does this logic make sense?

In case of a unplug and "replug" (if that's a word) i think you will have to manually press scan or sync button.
Note: "I think". it might just start synchronizing, or maybe it just takes some time and it will start again later. But i know there is a "Sync now" button. Then it should start syncing again.


---------- Post added at 10:18 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:16 AM ----------

Good testing Draygoes.
I have not tried it on an SD card. only a SATA drive

 

[Draygoes]

Thanks!

I was quite surprised that it never actually "lost" any of the files that I put into it. Knowing that it can stand up to tests that ask for unrealistic expectations gives me great confidence that it should hold its own against normal user error.

 

[atomichybrid]

Thanks guys for helping me out.

So let me have a bit of clarification to see if I have understood everything.

Scenario 1: I can unplug my external drive and any files been uploaded to the same GDrive account, will download the new uploaded files when I plug the external back.

Scenario 2: If I have my external unplugged and worked on a different computer and saved it in the GDrive folder(external drive). When I plug it back to the original computer with the client software, the files I saved in the external will be uploaded to GDrive.

Scenario 3: The external is unplugged and plugged into another computer. If I find that one of the files is old and it gets deleted from the GDrive folder in the external what happens from here? This is the part where I'm puzzled, if I plug my external back to the original PC, would GDrive think it was deleted? or missing? If it thinks it is deleted then the GDrive online should disappear or if it's missing then it just downloads from the cloud to the external.

Thanks for your efforts Draygoes, appreciate you testing it out. I want to clarify once and for all if this happens and my mate could save some money on software.

Cheers