Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays if you prefer that.
Last week, we spoke about backing up in general and I recommend Google Drive, so I thought I’d take the time for a quick dive into how to make it work on your computer.
To start with, you’ll need a Google Account. If you don’t have one, we have a Google Accounts article that will explain it step by step.
Login to your Google account at google.com and press on the nine dots (also known as the Rubik’s Cube) up in the top right corner. This displays a collection of the google apps. In this case, we want Drive.
It will show the contents of your Google Drive: possibly showing any Google Docs you might have in your drive. This account is empty as it’s my demonstration account. You can manually upload folders and files but
that’s not very useful, we want automation. Up in the settings cog is a
menu item called “Get back up and Sync for Windows”. (This is
called Drive File Stream if you’ve got a G Suite Account).
Click on the download button for Backup and Sync, agree and download and the Installer will be downloaded. If you’re using a Mac, there’s a version for OSX and the steps will be very similar. Click on the installer down in the corner and the file will finish the download and install.
By default, the folders are Desktop, Documents and Pictures. I tend to choose the ” High Quality” option to fit more photos in and also tick the
Google Photos button at the bottom to allow better access to the photos.
You also have the opportunity to select the folder where the files in your Google Drive will save on your computer and then we can start.
Google Backup and Sync then begins setting itself up and finds your files. The Backup and Sync icon appears in the system tray pictured as a cloud with an up arrow in it, which changes to revolving arrows when it’s syncing. You can click on it to see progress and also links to the Google Drive folder on the computer, Google Drive on the web and Google Photos on the web.
The last icon is a hamburger icon which includes the Preferences menu and some other options. In preferences, we can change our settings including adding extra folders to backup. It also handily gives you an indication of the size of the folder. You can see here I’ve added a folder with over 30Gb to test out the uploads.
If you do run out of space you can click on the link to upgrade which is all handled by Google 1, allowing you to upgrade to 100Gb of space for AU$25 per year or upgrading to 200Gb for AU$44 per year.
Well, that about covers it for Google Drive. At The Tech Doctor Network, our
goal is to help you negotiate the technology maze. Come back every weekend for new videos.
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Thank you so much for watching. Merry Christmas!