User case
'I have a problem while trying to sync my external hard drive to cloud drive. To put itsimply, my old computer has a folder, which is used to sync my files to cloud storage. But now, my old computer is broken and I want tosync all my data to cloud using a new computer.
WD - My Cloud Home Duo 4TB 2-Bay Personal Cloud - White. Model: WDBMUT0040JWT-NESN. Can I sync it to an external hard drive?' Being one of the most popular cloud storage platforms, Microsoft's OneDrive offers a huge convenience to users. It not just sync all your files and data across different devices, but also back them up on the internet.
The problem is that Backup and Sync tool on my new computer does not recognize my old harddrive and I could not remember the exact path of synced files. How do I sync files andfolders from external hard drive to Google Backup and Sync? Fast thunderbolt 3 external hard drive. Any kindly advices will beappreciated.'
For Google Backup and Sync, it supports two-way synchronization (My Drive and My Computer).My Drive can syncfolders between computers while My Computer is created for each PC. If you want tosync external hard drive to cloud with different PCs, you can disconnect the external diskor logout the sync tool, go to the web of Google Drive, move the synced folder of oldcomputer to your new computer, then connect the external drive again and click Merge whenBackup and Sync ask if you want to merge.
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Why Sync External Hard Drive to Cloud?
External hard drives are increasingly used in computers for storage, such as, documents,photos, videos, images, projects, and so on. For example, autobackup files to external hard drive from computer and save backups there. Why needyou to synchronize external drive to Cloud?
I'm sure the answer is quite clear. There are 3 main reasons that can account for externalhard drive file sync:
Most cloud device offers users free storage space. For instance,Google Drive offers 15GB free storage, and OneDrive offers 5GB but you can get more bysigning up for their 365 account. Among various clouds, MEGA provides 50GB free storagethat in the forefront.
Save local internal disk space. When you have files stored on Cloud,there is no need to copy them to computer internal disk.
keep copies of important files for disaster recovery. As mentionedbefore, external drive stores crucial data. If you backed up PC to external drive or backupexternal hard drive to external hard drive, you have important backups here.Since external drive is more vulnerable to peripheral attacks, keeping these backups toone more place adds extra layer of protection.
Best Software to Sync External Drive Files to Cloud
To sync files and folders from external hard drive to cloud storage, the syncing tool is thekey point. AOMEI BackupperProfessional is powerful and trusty syncing software that allows you to sync filesand folders from internal/external hard drive to cloud storage desktop applications. Onlyneed a few clicks, you can set to sync external drive to your desire cloud automatically orinstantly, once and forever.
In addition, there are features you may use:
Schedule sync. With the schedule settings, you can sync files at afixed time, such as, Daily, Weekly, and Monthly.
Event-trigger sync. In this program, you can perform thesynchronization in User logon, User logoff, System startup, System shutdown or USB plugin.
Support real-time sync. This feature is very useful, especially forbusiness users who change their files more frequently. It can monitor if the files aremodified and sync them immediately.
Multiple cloud storage device supported. This software can syncfiles and folders to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc as long as it has beeninstalled on your laptop or desktop.
Whether you backed up inside HDD or external hard drive to cloud drive, you can protect theseimages well with the help of AOMEI Backupper. It saves time and effort because you don'thave to drag-drop or select every file each time.
Steps to Sync External Hard Drive to OneDrive via AOMEI Backupper
With AOMEI Backupper, you can sync external hard drive to any cloud drive, such as, XBOX One,OneDrive, Google Drive, etc. And all the steps are very similar, so I just take OneDrive asan example to show you the detailed steps.
1. Download OneDrive desktop application from Microsoft official website to your computer andinstall it. Connect the external hard drive to your computer as well. Then download AOMEI Backupper, install and launch it.
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2. At the main console, click Sync and then roll-down your mouse to selectBasic Sync.
3. Click Add Folder to add folders you want to sync to OneDrive. You areallowed to exclude files or folders that you don't want to sync in Filtersettings.
Hard Drive Cloud Devices Drive
4. Click the inverted triangle icon to and click 'Select a clouddrive' to save the backup.
5. Select OneDrive.
6. Now it's time to set scheduled sync configurations. Click Schedule belowand select your desire sync mode based on your own needs.
7. Click Start Sync Imovie for 10 13 6. to sync these folders for the first time.
Tips:
* Don't modify the source folder name, otherwise your files or folders will not be syncedanymore.
*Through above steps, syncing multiple folders to GoogleDrive, XBOX One, Dropbox, etc are also available.
*AOMEI Backupper Pro supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP. If you're a Server user, giveits Server edition a shot.
In conclusion, to sync external hard drive to cloud scheduled or instantly, the sync tool isof great importance. Speaking of an external hard drive, AOMEI Backupper is also great external hard drive backupsoftware. You can use it to protect and recover data on outside disk.
Summary :
With the appearance of IBM RAMAC in 1956, the hard drives have gone through a rapid development. Over the decades, hard drives have always being the workhorses of data storage. But in recent years, the solid state drive and cloud storage have taken away some market share. So people are curious: will cloud storage replace the hard drives?
Will Cloud Storage Replace Hard Drives
5. Select OneDrive.
6. Now it's time to set scheduled sync configurations. Click Schedule belowand select your desire sync mode based on your own needs.
7. Click Start Sync Imovie for 10 13 6. to sync these folders for the first time.
Tips:
* Don't modify the source folder name, otherwise your files or folders will not be syncedanymore.
*Through above steps, syncing multiple folders to GoogleDrive, XBOX One, Dropbox, etc are also available.
*AOMEI Backupper Pro supports Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP. If you're a Server user, giveits Server edition a shot.
In conclusion, to sync external hard drive to cloud scheduled or instantly, the sync tool isof great importance. Speaking of an external hard drive, AOMEI Backupper is also great external hard drive backupsoftware. You can use it to protect and recover data on outside disk.
Summary :
With the appearance of IBM RAMAC in 1956, the hard drives have gone through a rapid development. Over the decades, hard drives have always being the workhorses of data storage. But in recent years, the solid state drive and cloud storage have taken away some market share. So people are curious: will cloud storage replace the hard drives?
Will Cloud Storage Replace Hard Drives
Hard disk drive is the electromechanical data storage device which stores and retrieves digital information though the rotating magnetic platters; it is actually the most important data storage device. But, you may find the glory days of disk drive are fading in recent years, due to the appearance of solid state drive, new type of flash memory devices, cloud storage (for example, OneDrive is a famous file hosting service & synchronization service provided by Microsoft), and other storage solutions.
Because of that, people start to worry about the future of hard drive industry. So will cloud storage replace hard drives in the near future? I think it's not certain yet.
Hard Drive Demand Is Still Large
According to statistics, the disk drive unit shipments gain a peak almost a decade ago (in 2010); that is to say, this number is decreasing these years. Yet, the good news is that the hard disk industry still shipped more than 375,000,000 hard drives in 2018 (equal to that in 2005).
To tell the truth, the solid state drive and cloud storage are two biggest enemies of hard drives.
Advantages of SSD over traditional hard disk drive are:
Personal Cloud External Hard Drive
- Fast access time
- High reliability (SSD has no moving parts)
- Less power requirement
- No noise
- Small size
- Less heat
- …
Advantages of cloud storage over traditional hard disk drive are:
- Strong usability
- Save bandwidth
- Flexible accessibility
- Cost saving
- Low risk of data loss
- …
Though many people are attracted by these two kinds of new storage methods, hard drives still occupy a large market share. The reasons why hard drives are still popular:
- Price: one of the biggest advantages of hard disk drives is the price. The disk price is as low as 2 cents per gigabyte; yet, that value for SSDs is 25 cents per gigabyte. Usually, you can't get free cloud storage.
- Performance: this may beyond many people's expectations. But indeed, you can gain multiple gigabytes per second of bandwidth when transferring large files like movies. Taking the 2 cents per gigabyte price into account, I think it's really high cost-effective.
- Capacity: generally, the capacity of hard drives is larger than that of SSDs and cloud storage. Even if you can own large capacity by getting SSD or cloud storage, you need to pay more.
- Cloud: more surprisingly, the development of cloud also drives the development of hard disks. Why? More than a million disks are needed in each massive data centers. Though you can also find SSDs in some of the data centers, but definitely, hard drives are more common since they are both economical and fast enough. That is actually cloud hard drive.
To see more details on physical storage vs. cloud storage, you should read this:
I'll talk about Seagate's cloud storage vs. physical storage briefly in this post; you can decide which is better for you.
Hard Disk for Cloud Storage
Actually, I have found more and more hard drives are provided with main functions of cloud. Thus, manufacturers focus more on producing external hard drive with cloud capabilities. If you are careful enough, you'll find more and more hard disk drives are designed to provide extra cloud storage and backup options, for instance, WD My Cloud and Seagate Personal Cloud. That's also another reason to keep hard drives alive.
