An online backup is becoming increasingly important. Google Drive offers a solution when it comes to backing up to online storage. Online storage means that certain files or folders you select are automatically sent to the Google Cloud environment.
Files in Google Drive (cloud) are safe against malware attacks, but also against hardware problems that may arise with your computer.
With Google's Backup and Sync Client you can easily send files to the Google Drive cloud and vice versa.
The Google backup client ensures that files in a folder are constantly sent to the “Computers” section in the cloud. The Sync client creates a folder on your computer that constantly syncs the files in that folder with Google Drive. You can share the files and folders in the Sync folder with other computers, but not the folders in the backup folder.
If you have one Google account you will receive 15GB of free disk space to send your files to the Google Drive cloud. If you want to use more, you must purchase a paid plan.
Back up files on your computer to Google Drive
To get started, download the Backup and sync software from Google. Open the Google backup and sync software.
Click the Get Started button to get started.
Use the login screen to log in with your Google account details. Click Next to continue.
Once you have successfully logged into the Google backup and sync software you will see a number of options.
In the “My laptop” or “My computer” menu you can select the folders that you can upload to the Google drive cloud. By default, these are the most important folders on your computer such as the Pictures folder, the Desktop and the Documents folder.
To add folders if necessary (note the maximum 15GB data you get for free), you can add a folder by clicking the Choose folder button.
If you click the Change button you can exclude a certain file type from being backed up to Google Drive. You can also choose to only back up photos and videos such as screenshots or RAW format images.
If you have selected the Images folder to sync with Google Drive, you will see a number of options at the bottom to adjust the image quality.
You can select the upload size of photo and video files sent to Google Drive.
If you select the option: high quality, a small compression is applied to the photos or video files up to a maximum of 16MP or 1080p for videos.
If you choose the option: Original quality, the photo or video will remain in its original quality, without compression.
Note: Until June 1, 2021, photos or videos uploaded with “High Quality” compression will not count against Google Drive disk space. If you upload more, you may have to pay extra after June 1, 2021.
If you prefer that photo and video files be sent to Google Photos, check this option. Then click Next to continue.
Here you can enter the folder location where the files in your Google Drive should be saved on your local computer. If you click the option: Sync only these folders, you can indicate which folders in Google Drive should only be synchronized on your computer.
Files that are not in a folder on your Google Drive are automatically synced to the folder location specified in the Google Drive settings in the Backup and Sync software on your computer.
Click Start to begin syncing Google Drive with your local computer.
Files you selected to be sent to Google Drive will be automatically uploaded to Google Drive.
Open Google Drive. Click on “Computers” in the left menu and then “My laptop” or “My computer”.
You will now see the folders you selected and their contents.
In Windows Explorer as well as on the Windows desktop you will find a “Google Drive” shortcut. Click on it to view the files in your Google Drive. If you drag files here, these files or folders will automatically be synchronized with Google Drive.
The backup and synchronization application can be found in Windows in the Windows system tray.
Right-click to adjust settings.
I hope this helped you. Thank you for reading!