TUESDAY TECH TIDBITS:
A technology blog supporting the SAU16 staff.
by Sandy Blanc
What?
Let's be honest, the tech space is flooded with a plethora of options for storing/saving data nowadays. In addition to the computer's hard drive, there's a myriad of online platforms like Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud, and many more (with the added complexity of varying spaces based on the signed-in account). On top of that, there are external hardware alternatives like thumb drives, external hard drives, DVDs, and CDs. The options seem endless. The confusion of where to save files is complicated by data security, backup, and organization.
Where can I put all of the SAU16-related files to keep them in a safe, backed-up location, that I can access?
- The answer is Google Drive!
Before I get into the specifics of how you can do this, let's talk about WHY you should keep Google Drive as your central location for SAU16 files. Depending on what device you use in SAU16, you will be faced with where to save your documents. The most common devices we use are Macs, PCs, and Chromebooks.
- You can access your files from ANY device in Drive.
- You may or may not know that on a Chromebook or Mac, there is NO backup for anything saved onto your hard drive (downloads, documents, and DESKTOP).
- So, if anything happens to your device, you could lose your files if you save them there!
- There is a backup "H Drive" on a PC, but there is no guarantee that backup will stay available in the coming years.
- The consideration with cloud storage is how much storage space is available for you? Depending on the platform and plan it varies.
- For many years SAU16 had "unlimited" storage through the Google Enterprise/Education license we pay for. However, in 2021 Google changed its policy for storage and set limits of storage for our domain. The Google Drive space our domain has allotted to us should be sufficient for your work needs.
- You should always make an effort to tidy up what you store in your SCHOOL Google Drive account. Videos and images take up the most space in general.
- If you use Microsoft Office 365 (the online version of Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.), then the data is stored in One Drive (One Drive is NOT Google Drive, it is Microsoft's online drive). I discourage saving SAU16 documents in different locations as they can become misplaced, or you forget where it is.
Do not get the accounts mixed up!
- Another point about Google Drive: I have seen staff/students signing into TWO accounts at work (one sau16.org and one personal account). What you may not know is that sometimes your personal account may be signed into on Docs, but not Drive for example. So, if you create something in Docs, it may be misplaced as it will be automatically saved to your personal Drive account. This is not a good practice for data privacy concerns and for the organization of files in general.
- To avoid confusion, either do NOT sign into both, OR use an "incognito window" to sign into your personal account to keep the two separate and avoid confusion.
How to use an Incognito Window in Drive: Go to the 3 dots- select "New Incognito Window", then go to mail.google.com or whatever application you want to sign into your personal account.
Install Google Drive on your Mac or PC to remove multiple steps of saving any document to your Google Drive account
- Installing Drive for Mac or PC sets up a sync between your Macbook/ PC and your SAU16 Google Drive folder that copies your files between the two locations. In the event of a hard drive failure, your data is safe in your Google Drive. Here is a brief summary of this application.
How do I install Google Drive on my Mac or PC?
2. Install Drive to Mac or PC onto your computer (remember if you are on a Mac, go to "Self-Service" and promote yourself to Admin so you can install it).
3. Once installed, you will see the Google Drive installed in Finder on the left side (on a Mac).
If you are downloading or saving a file (from ANY application)- you can go to “Save As” and then select Google Drive for Desktop (as you see left). That will save directly to your Google Drive. If you create Google documents, such as Docs, Slides, Sheets, etc., they automatically save to Drive.
* You can access the below settings and more by going to Google Drive and clicking on the settings wheel.
Happy Holidays!
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