What happens to my files if my computer fails?

[spenceraday]

if i lose my data due to computer failure,  and its saved in 😧 dropbox. How is it safe being in the D drive. How can it be retreived from there to a new computer

[anonymous]

@spenceraday was all of your Dropbox data synced? You should be able to login to Dropbox on a new computer's desktop app and have everything synced back down from the cloud. Or see everything from dropbox.com.

[spenceraday]

Thanks i thought as much until it occurred to me that dropbox was located in my hard drive????

[anonymous]

It shouldn’t matter where your Dropbox folder is located, the default is under the Users directory. It should all sync the same. So your Dropbox folder is located on an external hard drive and it is not syncing with Dropbox in the cloud?

[Jay · Accepted solution]

Hi @spenceraday, it depends on where the D:\ is located. Is it an external or internal drive? If external, it is (more-or-less) permanently connected to your machine?

When a computer fails though, there’s always a chance that connected drives, internal or external, are affected, so just being on an external drive doesn’t guarantee the data’s safety.

In the unlikely case that your files were deleted, you have 30 days to recover your files online, or 120 days if on Dropbox Professional and Business.

Hope this info helps!