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Forum Discussion
Backing up internal hard drives
Hello All,
Hopefully I can get some help with this situation that I am having.
I have a custom built PC with the following Hard drive configuration:
NVME 1 (500 GB): Boot drive (Has...
Rich
Super User II
Super User II
jrpentland78 wrote:
Don't offer PC back-up services if you're not going to back-up the whole PC....
They don't offer PC backup services and they don't advertise that they do. What they offer is the backup of select system folders and external drives. That doesn't mean you can't use Dropbox to backup your failing drive. You just need to do it manually by copying the files from your drive into the Dropbox folder on your main drive.
Then, what would a feature that is itself called "Dropbox Backup" meant to do? Especially with not-so-random words like "Mac and PC Backup" strung together and something on their own website titled "how to use computer backup" (see below) I can totally see how someone would think this isn't something they offered. That is, if the advertisement for it, as an essential feature to protect ALL your PC or MAC files didn't make you think it wasn't something dropbox did stump you first.
This post is completely wrong and the first thread you see when you google "Dropbox Backup". What is the fine-print on "one computer" regardless of size? Does it include internal hard drives? What's stopping me from backing up multiple TB secondary internal drives?
- Hannah
Dropbox Staff
Hey Ryan T.6, thanks for the nudge here and for your feedback, which is really valuable.
You can find answers to your questions in the FAQ article for our backup feature, but do let us know if you have additional questions.
I disagree that the FAQ addresses the question.
There is no definition of "external" hard drive that is technically sufficient. Is a drive that plugs in via USB-C , is mounted on the computer at boot time and then network shared from the computer an "external" hard drive or is it a second internal drive? The distinction called "external" hard drive seems to be a transient device you plug into the computer occasionally. Who does that? What is that? A portable drive for traveling? A camera?
The question and thread, along with numerous others deal with what Dropbox may be calling "second internal drive". There are FAQ answers that say you can only backup files that are on the same drive as the Dropbox file. Well, I tried that. I followed the instructions for migrating the dropbox folder location to the second drive. Guess what I see on the folder selection list for backup? That's right, I still see the C: drive folders just as many other posts have complained.
I explored creating junctions to the dropbox folder. Guess what? That solution was broken deliberately at some point and now dropbox backs up the junction file itself instead of following it.
There are also articles in the library (not user posts) that say to install dropbox on the drive that needs to be backed up. Oh cool, I can do that. Doh! No I can't. The installer does not give an option for that and no question about how to overcome that obstacle is ever answered. And yet the FAQ and library articles still mention installing dropbox on the the drive that needs to be backed up as the answer. I purchased the product after reading the FAQ and library articles on this subject with an expectation it would work.
We have a problem. It isn't an uncommon problem. We want to back up folders that are not on the C: drive. In my case that is the singular reason I purchased dropbox. If dropbox can achieve this, publish an article on how to do it. If dropbox cannot do this, it should be explicitly stated.
Stay far away from Dropbox unless you want to manually save some files that you need to manually update if that is what you're looking for. Google drive will do what you want.
