Many people use Google Drive because of its unique attractions, which mainly come from its storage plans. They even provide about 15 GB of free storage to every user. With this, data can be accessed at any time.
Users can manage and access their data from anywhere. You can upload your data and download it at any time. But sometimes, you would need to transfer your Google Drive data to an external hard drive.
There will be moments when you do not want to contain the old data in your drive. You might have new data to upload to the drive, so you should shift old data to an external hard drive.
Or maybe you are taking extra precautions and are saving data on multiple locations to add an extra layer of protection. There could be many other reasons, too. If you are thinking about how to backup Google Drive to external hard drive, then below are some quick methods.
Methods to Backup Google Drive to External Hard Drive
1] Via Web Browser
The files saved on your Google Drive can be opened using a web browser. After that, you can download the files which you plan to have on your external hard drive. Also, you can download them directly to an external hard drive. In order to download directly to your external hard drive, create folders beforehand. But you can also make custom folders that can be adjusted on the go. Below are the steps to move data from Google Drive to the external hard drive.
- Open a web browser that you use.
- Visit https://drive.google.com/ to open Google Drive’s webpage.
- If you are signed out, it will ask you to sign in. Give the login credentials for your Google account.
- From the list of data, select what you wish to download. Press and hold the CTRL button and click on the files to select multiple files.
- Click on three vertical dots and select the ‘Download’ option.
- Browse to the destination folder. You can also browse directly into your external hard drive.
2] Via Google Drive’s App
You can also download and install the desktop application of Google Drive if you do not want to access files via the URL in the web browser. Dedicated apps make it a bit easier to operate and manage data. In case you do not have the app on your PC, then you can download and install it from Google Drive’s website. The steps to transfer data to your external drive are as follows.
- Launch the desktop application.
- Login in with your credentials.
- Click on ‘My Drive’.
- Select the folders and files that you are interested in.
- Right-click on the selected files and choose the ‘Download’ option.
If you press and hold the SHIFT button and click on the first and last file, the files in between will automatically be selected. To select random files at once, press and hold the CTRL button.
3] Via Google Takeout
If you use Google Drive’s webpage or desktop application, you will have to select all the files that you desire to download manually. However, with Google Takeout, you have the option to download all the contents of any Google product, including Google Drive.
- Open a web browser that you use.
- Visit https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout to open Google Takeout.
- First, you need to select which product you need to download the data from. Select Google Drive from the list.
- Then, it will ask you whether you need a download link or should they upload your data to some other platform from where you can download it. Click the option that says ‘Send Download Link via Email’.
- It will ask you how many times you want ot run this activity. Choose ‘Export Once’.
Conclusion
Taking regular backups of your data is essential to avoid data losses in any unforeseen event. One popular way is to save files on your Google Drive. However, if you want to transfer those contents to your external hard drive, then you can do this by using any of the methods mentioned above.
