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DaveLeeNC's avatar
DaveLeeNC
Helpful | Level 7
5 years ago
Solved

Dropbox on Internal, but not the OS, Drive

It is becoming quite common these days for new systems to come with a smallish SSD drive intended to host the OS and a separate (internal) drive for data. At https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/desktop/move-dropbox-folder Dropbox recommends that 

 

  • Use the same hard drive: If you decide to move the folder, choose a location on the same hard drive as your operating system. Dropbox won't work correctly if the Dropbox folder becomes inaccessible, which can happen if it's located on an external drive that gets disconnected.

Given the design of many modern Windows 10 systems that is a very serious limitation. Is this still the recommendation from Dropbox? I would think that Dropbox developers would have addressed this (or it is an in-plan item).  The quoted statement kind of leaves the 'internal but not OS drive' question unaddressed. 

 

Thanks.

 

dave

  • Dropbox does play nicely with second internal drives... thats very badly worded that document. I always had my Dropbox folder on a separate D:\ drive when I used Windows. However, its right that it doesnt play nicely with external drives and that should be avoided. 

3 Replies

  • Mark's avatar
    Mark
    Icon for Super User II rankSuper User II
    5 years ago

    Dropbox does play nicely with second internal drives... thats very badly worded that document. I always had my Dropbox folder on a separate D:\ drive when I used Windows. However, its right that it doesnt play nicely with external drives and that should be avoided. 

  • DaveLeeNC's avatar
    DaveLeeNC
    Helpful | Level 7
    5 years ago

    Mark, thanks for the clearly stated explanation. dave 

  • markasaurus's avatar
    markasaurus
    New member | Level 2
    3 years ago

    This is not only a windows issue. I'm a Mac user and I have the same exact problem. The OS drive is managed by my company, and the only way to have my own files is with an internal hard drive. Back up is basically useless without being able to back up a internal drive that isn't the OS Drive. I can't believe the dropbox cannot solve this issue.

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