Google Drive

Azza said:
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.
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You can contrive it by setting your sharefolder as "C:/GoogleDrive/" and then creating s child folder of "local" and defining in preferences:-
- Only sync "local"
- Don't Sync Good Docs files

This then means:-
- Online documents are not brought back to your PC
- Any files you put into "C:/GoogleDrive/local" appear online tucked away in "local".


Messy though isn't it!

If only online documents and PC (local) documents were ring fenced and held separately :( So you'd see/access them separately, not all mashed up togethor (for no reason). :(

Personally, for my use, I'll keep using dropbox, as I don't want the confusion of my local files, and online only documents, getting all mashed up.
 
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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?
 
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?
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My dropbox just has random useful stuff on it, also use it for photo hosting.
 
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?
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I would say the main use of these applications (for most people) is to work as a virtual USB memory stick. So you can transport data around your machines/locations easily.

Now, googles offering seems to confuse the matter because they already have online documents. And if you have these, they clash head on with the local content you're trying to share which confuses the matter. I think they've dropped the ball there! They shouldn't have combined the two, but held and showed them separate!


As such I'll continue using Dropbox as it doesn't clash with my online documents. Just hope they increase their storage space to stay competitive!
 
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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?
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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!
 
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Azza said:
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!
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^^ Just wish I could get hold of that 25GB offer to do that :(
 
thanks for the answers guys :)

Yup... I think it's hit the nail on the head time. Like most of you I just use this as what I term a "scratch" folder to keep in progress stuff with me. ie if I work on a file or program over the weekend etc I can drop it in the sync folder and carry on or retrieve it at work. Also for transfer small stuff to friends va the public folder with a link etc. Then drop it into my server at a later date for backup to a larger cloud backup service (AWS S3). Through using that for the last 2 months I have grown accustomed to the very SLOW upload rate. Damn it's annoying
 
Can anyone find (technical) information for SkyDrive & Google Drive as to how their desktop clients work?

I'm just wondering as neither seem as fool-proof as Dropbox.

What Dropbox does in simplified fashion:

(You have a totally empty new Dropbox)

You put a new file in your Dropbox folder

Dropbox then hashes the file and notes it's name and location ("Indexing" in the Dropbox tooltip) and adds it to a local file list

It uploads the file

It then downloads the server file list and compares that to the local one

If both the same then all is good.


Equally if you upload a file when your computer is off, it adds that file to the server file list. Then when you turn on your computer Dropbox connects, downloads the server file list, compares it to your local one, and knows to download the new file.

This makes Dropbox fool-proof.
 
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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!
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There is a way to stop this for the client side. Go to preferences on the desktop client and, in the "Sync Options" section UNCHECK the "Sync Google Docs files" then hit Apply.

The folder will re-synch and all the Google Docs will not be visible on the desktop side.



As for the online side... Only way I see round it is to stick a sub folder within the root of the GDrive folder on the client side and put your PC files in that. The web side should then copy the folder as a whole keeping it separate from the online files.
 
Richie said:
There is a way to stop this for the client side. Go to preferences on the desktop client and, in the "Sync Options" section UNCHECK the "Sync Google Docs files" then hit Apply.

The folder will re-synch and all the Google Docs will not be visible on the desktop side.



As for the online side... Only way I see round it is to stick a sub folder within the root of the GDrive folder on the client side and put your PC files in that. The web side should then copy the folder as a whole keeping it separate from the online files.
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Indeed. Se post #101 (above).

Still think its plain wrong to mash online documents into local (on PC) content!?

Should be viewed/stored separately IMHO!
 
Was looking forward to this as just a simple back-up of some important documents.

Is this now not the best solution?
 
There's no real way of say it's the best. There's no difference between it and DropBox to be honest. Only when it comes to extra storage pricing is when it's at an advantage to be honest.
 
Azza said:
There's no real way of say it's the best. There's no difference between it and DropBox to be honest. Only when it comes to extra storage pricing is when it's at an advantage to be honest.
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I think you should only use these services up to the free quota.... and that's it.

If you require more substantial storage look at the bigger cloud storage providers. The rates are far more competitive than Google, Dropbox or Skydrive.

A fella posted some rates a few ? pages back. I worked out that I'm getting closer to 750GBs worth of data storage for the same as most of them are charging for 100GBs.

And yes ... I can just login from any computer to my account and download a file if I need to replace it or have a copy elsewhere. :D getting th data up is STILL slow :(
 
Azza said:
There's no real way of say it's the best. There's no difference between it and DropBox to be honest. Only when it comes to extra storage pricing is when it's at an advantage to be honest.
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The is indeed no difference between it and dropbox, UNLESS you use google's online documents. You'll then find you have to adjust settings/work practices else get in a bit of a pickle IMHO.
 
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