Backup & Sync or File Stream
With your @loomiswolves.org school google account you get unlimited storage within Google Drive! Since this is the case it is best practice that you save most of your files and items to your Google Drive rather than saving them to your laptop hard drive.
WHY?
You ask.
- Should your laptop hard drive fail do you have a backup of the files stored on it? Are you willing to risk losing all of the files saved on your laptop should the laptop hard drive fail or become damaged? Unless you have moved them to an offsite cloud storage like Google Drive or Dropbox the likely answer is NO. Perhaps you backup your machine to an external hard drive. When was the last time you plugged in and ran a backup?
- Maybe you have gotten by this long and figure that hard drive failure won't happen to you so no worries. I have seen failures resulting from spills that damage a laptop or drops and other unplanned mishaps. These could not only cause damage to your laptop but also result in you losing files off of it as well. I have also seen it happen randomly without cause! If you have things stored in Google Drive you have a copy of those files saved in the cloud and won't lose them even if your device becomes damaged!
- Have you ever wished you could access a file but didn't have your machine with you at the time? If you have them saved and syncing to Google Drive you could access them from another device by signing into your Google Drive, often even just a phone or other mobile device can provide this access.
- Another positive to having files syncing to Google Drive is that should your laptop need sent for repair or being replaced with new it is much easier to transition to a different machine when your files are stored in Google Drive rather than just on the machines hard drive.
- Do you have multiple machines? If so and you have one of these solutions installed and are syncing things to Google Drive you can go back and forth between machines and have the most recently edited file available to you on each machine.
Your Google Drive Syncing Choices:
*Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream*
Clicking on the above image takes you to the Google support page and has links for downloading either Backup and Sync or Drive File Stream.
Which one is right for you is somewhat of a personal preference. Knowing that many of you save files to your Desktop or Documents folder of your Mac laptop quite frequently this would lead me to say Backup and Sync is better for you. If you don't often save to your Desktop or Documents folder then Drive File Stream might be the choice. If you use and save to a Shared Drive often then Drive File Stream would be your pick. If you often work offline (without internet connection) and have the available hard drive space on your machine I would probably lean towards Backup and Sync.
Click on the appropriate link for the option that you would like to download and install.
Then choose your proper operating system and follow the instructions to set up the backup service selected and choose what to backup through it.
Setting these apps to open upon login
Go to the System Preferences, Users & Groups, and then the Login Items tab. Click on the +plus symbol and choose for the proper app to start automatically at login. This way should you restart your machine the service will start automatically each time. You can see the Backup and Sync logo in the top menu bar on your Mac and can monitor that to make sure things are syncing when working and saving items.
*Photos & short videos are more easily backed up through the use of the Google Photos app. When setting up Backup & Sync there is a checkbox near the bottom of the window under the Google Photos section that states: Upload newly added photos and videos to Google Photos. Placing a checkmark in this box will send your photos and videos from your Mac to Google Photos storage rather than just into your Google Drive.