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Forum Discussion
Set up Dropbox to sync to external storage
I'm planning to get a new PC with only a SSD. Large external conventional hard drives will handle my primary storage.
The internal SSD does not have sufficient capacity to hold my entire Dropbox. I don't want to selectively sync folders. I want a complete local copy of my folder tree.
Can I set up my Dropbox so that it syncs only to the external drives? If so, is there anything I should be aware of that I need to plan for in advance?
Hey there clegge - how are you today?
Dropbox can indeed be used with an external hard drive as long as you can ensure the drive is always connected to your computer while Dropbox is running. If the drive is ever disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running there is a small chance that the Dropbox software will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed.
Additionally, you should ensure that the file system of the external drive meets the file system requirements as found in the following Help Center article:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/system-requirements
(As you mentioned a new PC, I guess you're (going to be) using a Windows device so you'll need to make sure that the Dropbox folder will be on an NTFS-formatted hard drive)
To move your Dropbox folder to an external drive use the steps in the following Help Center article: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/move-dropbox-folder
[The location you select is the folder the Dropbox folder will be moved to, rather than the folder your Dropbox files will be stored in.]
Let me know if you have any further questions please.
- Walter
Dropbox Staff
Hey there clegge - how are you today?
Dropbox can indeed be used with an external hard drive as long as you can ensure the drive is always connected to your computer while Dropbox is running. If the drive is ever disconnected from the computer while Dropbox is running there is a small chance that the Dropbox software will start deleting files before realizing that the entire drive has been removed.
Additionally, you should ensure that the file system of the external drive meets the file system requirements as found in the following Help Center article:
https://help.dropbox.com/installs/system-requirements
(As you mentioned a new PC, I guess you're (going to be) using a Windows device so you'll need to make sure that the Dropbox folder will be on an NTFS-formatted hard drive)
To move your Dropbox folder to an external drive use the steps in the following Help Center article: https://help.dropbox.com/installs/move-dropbox-folder
[The location you select is the folder the Dropbox folder will be moved to, rather than the folder your Dropbox files will be stored in.]
Let me know if you have any further questions please.
I have a similar issue. My new laptop has 512MB SSD and my Dropbox (DB) is 600MB of 2TB available. My previous laptop had a 1TB HDD.
My plan is to use the internal 512GB SSD for system files and programs/apps only. All my working files (MyDocuments, Images, Videos, e-mail etc) will be on DB.I have copied my whole DB folder from my current laptop to a new 1TB Sandisk SSD. When I tried to sync it with the online DB it told me "insufficient diskspace" and so did not regognise the existing DB folder.
I have limited internet data (100GB/mth) and so it is not feasible to download my online DB to the new 1TB external SSD.
Is there a work around to this?
- Walter
Hi Kymmog; thanks for joining our discussion here and welcome to the Dropbox Community!
In this case, you'll need to choose the "Advanced" setup option during the installation process (or pause it if it's already initiated) and then choose the parent folder of the existing Dropbox folder as the location for this new install.
For example, if your old Dropbox folder was added to: D:\Desktop\Dropbox you would need to choose D:\Desktop.
Then, our desktop app will detect the existing folder and will prompt you to merge the Dropbox folder. Upon merging the desktop version of Dropbox will check the existing files and the server versions and update accordingly.
Just note that any changes made to the files in the Dropbox folder or on the web interface while the folder was "offline" will generate conflicted copies.
I hope this helps and please let me know if you have any more questions!
Thanks a lot ! it worked
