Google Drive

Azza · 17 Apr 2012 at 11:58

Nothing like Nokia Drive... as in hard drive, drive.

Google's cloud based storage akin to DropBox. Expected the launch next week... starts off with free 5GB storage. No word on pricing for extra space yet. Mac, Windows, smartphones supported, and Android will apparently have document-editing capabilities. Should allow 3rd party services and apps to connect to it.

Will be interesting to see how they go about this and the pricing for extra space!

Azza · 17 Apr 2012 at 14:37

http://mashable.com/2012/04/17/todays-top-stories-google-drive-around-the-corner-windows-8-editions/

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2539...aunch_next_week_with_5gb_of_free_storage.html

http://techcrunch.com/2012/04/16/google-drive-lives-google-drive-app-found/

http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/0...ng-next-week-for-mac-windows-android-and-ios/

http://www.slashgear.com/google-drive-leaked-5gb-cloud-space-for-free-16223134/

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/04/17/g-drive/

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-drive-details-leak-5gb-for-free/74299

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/04/17/google-drive-gives-users-5-gb-storage_n_1430739.html

http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-p...ted-next-week-with-5gb-free-storage-20120417/

http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/30/google-drive-leaks/

http://www.v3.co.uk/v3-uk/news/2168094/google-drive-slated-april-debut

http://www.washingtonpost.com/busin...-report-says/2012/04/17/gIQALlpsNT_story.html

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/storage/3351570/google-drive-will-go-live-next-week/

http://techland.time.com/2012/04/17/a-5gb-google-drive-next-week-almost-time-to-leave-dropbox/

http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2168160/google-launch-drive

Happy now?

Azza · 24 Apr 2012 at 17:58

Installing now.

Azza · 24 Apr 2012 at 18:20

Richie said:
You should still be able to publicly link someone to a file from GDrive... I have just made a blank doc to test for you - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1UI2LbLI53eSxs79iyCEQD0JeeY9R3HCI6egw9I5j-YU/edit... You should even be able to edit it without signing in... (awaits random pish)

That will make uni group work so much easier!! :cool:

Azza · 24 Apr 2012 at 18:32

Craig321 said:
How do I enable this for my Google Apps account?

What do you mean? Drive has essentially replaced Google Docs so what ever your settings for Docs were should be what they are for Drive. Unless of course you never had the Docs service installed in the first place.

Azza · 24 Apr 2012 at 18:41

lcg said:
You can't. When I log in with my Google Apps account it says 'Google Drive is not yet enabled for the [domain name] domain'

Google Drive looks impressive. I like the UI.

It works fine for me. :confused:

Azza · 24 Apr 2012 at 18:47

Craig321 said:
When you try log in with a Google Apps account it says it's not available, even though the Docs/Drive service is enabled in my Apps domain control panel

Hmmm that's very weird, like I say works fine for me.

Azza · 25 Apr 2012 at 20:25

NeilFawcett said:
From a functionality/friendlyness point of view, how does it compare to Dropbox, which is superb IMHO?
- Can you just drop files/view files as per a standard window/folder on your PC (like dropbox)?

Yes

- With GoogleDrive can you assign any folder as your sync folder? eg: Your "My Documents" folder to automatically back up all your documents?

Yes

- How much does it mess up/confuse your existing google documents and their folders?

None at all, Drive has effectively replaced Google Docs

edit--------------->

Richie are you a wizard?!?

Azza · 25 Apr 2012 at 23:03

You can assign what ever folders that are on Google Drive to sync with your computer. For example on your laptop you might only want your Docs, and not music that you've got stored online.

I don't have anything on mine, but under preferences is where you would select the folders you'd want to sync from Drive.

*click spoiler for screenshot*

And you can assign any folder or directory on your PC as the main directory, you don't have to use the Google Drive sync folder that it creates as standard, but you can only do this when you sign into the application. You can't change this on the fly, but I suppose you could just create symbolic links from other folders to the Google Drives sync folder, and do it like that. So it's not a massive issue really.

Azza · 25 Apr 2012 at 23:34

NeilFawcett said:
So that sounds like it basically matches Dropbox's abilities then!?

Any idea if it keeps backup versions of your files like Dropbox?

It sure does. Google Drive keeps current and previous versions of files. Automatically deleting previous versions only when they're older than 30 days or there are more than 100 previous versions of the same file.

https://support.google.com/drive/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2375120&topic=2460010&ctx=topic

Think it might take a bit of time to come into effect of your Google Drive though, as it hasn't done it instantly on mine, but yeah it does keep previous versions.

Azza · 25 Apr 2012 at 23:36

Terrier_Jimlad said:
Found it now yes, but when I signed back in, it wanted me to chose a different folder as the Google Drive folder wasn't empty? Had to delete the files in there, then chose the same folder and it pulled them back down again, so word of warning I wouldn't change it very often

Enjoying it so far, just hoping the 98% complete iOS app appears very shortly!

Weird, like I said I hadn't actually uploaded anything to mine. Will give it a go now and see what happens.

Azza · 25 Apr 2012 at 23:41

Terrier_Jimlad said:
Found it now yes, but when I signed back in, it wanted me to chose a different folder as the Google Drive folder wasn't empty? Had to delete the files in there, then chose the same folder and it pulled them back down again, so word of warning I wouldn't change it very often

Enjoying it so far, just hoping the 98% complete iOS app appears very shortly!

Azza said:
Weird, like I said I hadn't actually uploaded anything to mine. Will give it a go now and see what happens.

Hmmm that's a bit of a strange feature to be honest, because it means you'll then have to go downloading everything again from Google Drive.

marc2003 said:
i don't think i'll bother with this. i prefer dropbox for sharing files because you can save it to your public folder and get a URL right from the context menu in explorer. for files i don't want to share, i get 25GB for free with skydrive.

Indeed, I doubt I'll use at all to be honest, well not for anything important. That's what DropBox and SkyDrive are for.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 00:48

Yay more free storage.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 01:18

From The Verge - here

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 01:29

With SkyDrive through the website the limit is 300mb, through your desktop with the client it's 2GB.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 10:03

@NeilFawcett

You can just make a symbolic link from your other folders to the Google Drive folder, so it isn't a bit deal really.

Same with SkyDrive & DropBox.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 10:09

CaptainCrash said:
Yes, that would work, there's an option in preferences: "Only sync some folders to this computer" and you just check what you want.

Nooooooooooo, what that does is sync specific folders on the Google Drive cloud to your computer.

So if you had 'x' 'y' & 'z' on your Drive cloud and on your computer you wanted them all, but on your laptop you only wanted 'x' because of limited space then that's what that option is for.

As Filado says here what Google Drive does it create a Google Drive folder in the directory you choose.

So if you had Folder 'x' with sub folders 'a' 'b' & 'c' and you wanted to sync 'x' a long with it's sub folders it doesn't do that. When you initially start the program it asks you to assign a directory and what ever folder / directory you choose it will create the 'Google Drive' folder in there.

But to get around that as I just said you can create a symbolic link going to your Google Drive folder, or DropBox, or SkyDrive from any where else so it isn't really a problem.

NeilFawcett said:
And with Skydrive, if I signed up today, do I get 25GB? Or just 7?

I think it's only 7GB. The 25GB opt in was for people already using the service.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 10:49

NeilFawcett said:
So if my google documents has:-
document1.gdoc
fold1/document2.gdoc
fold2/document3.gdoc

And my sync'd folder on my PC has:-
document1.doc
fold1/document2.doc
fold2/document3.doc

What do I see ultimately in my gdrive on the browser, and what do I see in my PC's sync'd folder? Surely I don't see this in both:-
document1.doc
document1.gdoc
fold1/document2.doc
fold1/document2.gdoc
fold2/document3.doc
fold2/document3.gdoc

^ Because that would be a horrible mess!

Surely:-
- Online documents should NOT be sync'd back to your PC. Is this the case?
- Your sync'd folder contents and online documents need to be held/shown completely separately when viewed by a browser? Are they? Else you end up with a mess like above!

You wouldn't have anything on in your local Google Drive folder to begin with any way would you.

If you've current got 'a' 'b' & 'c' Google Documents, that you originally had in Docs that have now been moved into Drive then if you set it up they will automatically sync back down to your local Google Drive folder.

Butttttttt if you put the documents into folders on Drive online, then as with the 'Only sync some folders to this computer' feature you can choose what folders and ultimately what stuff in your Drive gets sync'd to your various devices. Anything that isn't foldered and just on it's own will get sync'd to your devices. If you have 'a' and 'b' Google Docs and move 'a' & 'b' Word Docs to your sync folder, they will appear as so on your local folder and online. Because they're different file types Drive doesn't merge them as it were with the files having the same name.

Word of warning though, Google Drive client folder doesn't seem to like upload 'docx' at the moment, well at least for me. :confused:

So you have to upload them via the website to convert them into a Google Doc.

edit------------>

Give me a moment and I'll get some screenshots for you.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 11:04

Here is a Word.doc and a Google.doc just on the Drive.

Here is using the folder preference sync. As you'll see I've set it to only allow 'folder 1' to sync with the PC, so 'folder 2' doesn't appear.

My advice would be to arrange stuff into folders. Have one on Drive cloud called 'cloud' and another called 'local' and just sync local to your PC? Or if you have both on your computer they'll be arranged accordingly.

Azza · 26 Apr 2012 at 11:45

Essexraptor said:
So...... would you say the main use of Goggle Drive/Skydrive or whatever flavour of these small (relatively) cloud services is to use it as a drop/scratch folder to sync current in use data between your hardware?

At the moment I use DropBox for my 'important stuff'. So for example my Uni work is backed up onto there and also my KeePass database. Those two things I'd consider 'essential' and what I need easy access to, if I'm on my PC, Laptop, Tablet, Phone, other computers etc etc.

SkyDrive I'm going to use to back up other things, like my photos but because of my internet's shocking upload speed it might take a while!