For both SkyDrive and GoogleDrive I am a long-time user. I never really put much data into these as the max bandwidth I can get at home is about 1 MBit only. So relying on those services while working from my home office is a de facto NO GO.
Still I am just refurbishing a house we bought and into that house I am integrating a Cat7 infrastructure and the maximum bandwith available at the new location will be 50 - 100 MBit... so in the end I think the time has come to think about a more extensive use of GoogleDrive and SkyDrive (I don't think I'd need more alternatives ... but I am sure that there are enough services available if the need should ever arise).
So ... where was I ... right ... I was about to think about Sky- and GoogleDrive and how to get the best out of them.
The idea is to combine the two of them to have doubled Backup. Sure there are already posts about doing that as in nesting the google drive folder into sky drive folder. Technically that would work, but I like to have things arranged in a more convenient way.
Therefore what I want is to have GoogleDrive and SkyDrive to use exactly the same base folder. As both Tools don't allow you to change the name of the actual base folder it seems this will not work. But then again I don't like to give up so I played around with the setups (wasting about 2 GB of my monthly mobile data package for repeated GoogleDrive-ReSynchronisations) to actually get to what I wanted.
Steps necesary:
1) Download and install the SkyDrive Application (Default Options)
2) Let the app do the initial Sync of your SkyDrive
3) Exit the SkyDrive Application
4) Download and install the GoogleDrive Application (Default Options)
5) Let the app do the initial Sync of your GoogleDrive
6) Exit the GoogleDrive Application
At this point you have 2 new Directories in your user folder at
- C:\Users\...
\SkyDrive - C:\Users\...
\Google Drive
Now that the applications are shut down.,
7) Rename the SkyDrive folder to SkyDriveX
8) Rename the Google Drive folder to SkyDrive (EEK ... yah, I know ;-P )
9) Copy the content of the SkyDriveX folder to the SkyDrive folder
10) Start Google Drive Application
The Google Drive Application at this point will tell you that it can't find the synchronisation folder and that it wants to disconnect your account => DONT DO THAT... if you do that you have to reinstall Google Drive and repeat the whole procedure. Instead tell the Google Drive Application that you want to search the directory manually. Choose the SkyDrive folder and hit ok. Then the Google Drive App will automatically Sync all the new content you copied into it from the Ex-SkyDrive folder ...
And SkyDrive? Right...
11) Start SkyDrive App
and it too will immediately start to synchronize the new Content from the Ex-Google Drive folder.
It is necessary to do the renaming of the folders this way and not vice versa as the Google Drive Application would realize that the other directory is not the one it created (I guess it stores additional information about the folder location or content somewhere, not sure how it does it but it won't allow the application to another directory than the one it created itself... ignoring a new folder name tho)
Additionally the SkyDrive Application works with a '.lock'-File inside the directory. Google Drive will not be able to synchronize that as SkyDrive has a permanent grip on the file. So far that didn't cause any trouble. If it will, I will try to find out a solution and post more about it.
Now what do I have now using this setup?
I have 1 folder on my computer(s) in which I keep files I want to access and keep in sync wherever I am working from. Additionally that folder is backed up not only once, but twice.
The downsides?
The sync takes slightly longer and of course my data transfer size has doubled.
Another thought:
Also GoogleDrive is limited to 5GB so as soon as I reach that I will have to think about getting the upgrade to 25GB for 2.49 $ per month. At SkyDrive, as I have a very old account there, I already have the 25GB limit.
