Access Google Drive from Windows without copying Google files to PC
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Access Google Drive from Windows without copying Google files to PC
I have a second portable laptop that is VERY limited in storage:
Lenovo Ideapad 100, 32G SSD, no HD. Windows 10 ver 1909.
I do not have space to sync my laptop to Google Drive and have it make that huge file structure that is a copy of the Google drive. I have that on the PC at home and use it regularly.
For this portable, I just need to be able to easily log in to Google Drive, and download a file or two on demand when I need them. And accessing Google drive through the browser seems a bit more ackward than it should.
When I got this laptop OneDrive was right there in the File Explorer, as a drive, and accesed it directly from there. That's what I want to do with Google Drive.
Can I do that?
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My only suggestion would be the use of an external HDD. Whether it be a HDD or SSD. You could use one of those USB external desktop storage drives......1TB, 2TB, 4TB or higher drives and then put Google drive on that.
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Google backup and sync does that automatically but you need to be clear if you backup photos or video it doesnt go the the drive it goes to Google photos so it doesnt count on your google drive space and it doesnt download them to the pc you access via Google photos.
Google photos are unlimited and free
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Google backup and sync does that automatically but you need to be clear if you backup photos or video it doesnt go the the drive it goes to Google photos so it doesnt count on your google drive space and it doesnt download them to the pc you access via Google photos.
Google photos are unlimited and free
That policy will change on June 1st regarding photos. Unlimited is going away. Updating Google Photos’ storage policy to build for the future
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If I use backup and sync on this computer, it will want to leave a copy of ALL the files on this computer and backup/sync it to the hard drive. So I have to have a copy of all 11gb of my drive data on this PC. And that's the whole point, there is not room on this pc. I have 3gb remaining on a 32gb SSD and that's it. So no room for copies of drive files.
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Not if you backup to Google photos once uloaded to photos you can remove from the hd
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