Moving Internal HD to New Computer

[Jeadamsjr]

I have a single 3TB internal hard disk named Z:Dropbox (I used Z because I knew I would never get that high in auto naming). I've just acquired a new, much faster PC and would like to physically remove drive Z: from my old computer and install it in my new computer with the same Z:Dropbox name. Is that even possible? Where do I start? Thanks.

[Jay]

Hi there, this is described neatly in the following article.

As to the Z:\, you’ll need to first connect the drive and assign it that drive letter by Windows, which will make it permanent, and then follow the steps in the article.

Hope this helps!

[Jeadamsjr]

Yes, I had already read that article but it is not applicable to my question. I'm not interested in more downloading and syncing, and manually copying files. What I'm asking about is uninstalling that dedicated drive Z: from my old PC and reinstalling it in my new PC. And Dropbox continuing to work as it now does.

[Jay]

So you want the Dropbox desktop application on the old computer to somehow access the drive on the new computer? Are you going to replace another drive to make it the Z:\ on the old computer?

If I’m misunderstanding something, please let me know!

[Jeadamsjr]

No, I simply want to move a dedicated hard drive containing nothing but Dropbox from inside an old PC to the inside of a new PC, without losing any files and maintaining sync.

[Jay · Accepted solution]

The article did describe one way of doing the move, after you changed the location of the Dropbox folder.

There is another method however. If you wish to install the Dropbox software on the new PC and you do not want to re-download all of your files from the server, you need to choose the "Advanced" setup option during the installation process. Then you need to choose the parent folder of the existing Dropbox folder as the location for this new install.

For example, if your old Dropbox folder was added to: Z:\Dropbox you would need to choose Z:\ and the client will try and create a new Dropbox folder. If you're connecting with the same Dropbox account as before, Dropbox will detect the existing folder and will then prompt you to merge the Dropbox folder. Upon merging the desktop version of Dropbox will check the existing files and the server versions and update accordingly.

Please do note that any changes made to the files in the Dropbox folder or on the web interface while the folder was "offline" will generate conflicted copies.