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Restoring backup drive to new hardware

The external drive that I backed up died. I never tested this, but assumed that there was a way to get the files back onto the drive. It is a large folder of folders, but every time I tried to download a child folder I get an error that it contains too many zips.

Is there a fairly standard way to rebuild the external hard drive that I backed up?

Can I connect this drive to the machine and let the Dropbox Mac OS App do the work for me?

Cheers, and thanks in advance

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Accepted answers

Jay

Currently, there isn't another method to download the files from the site, aside from what I've mentioned by downloading them in smaller batches.

All comments

Walter

Hi there @dgallant, sorry to hear about this.

Can you please confirm that you're following these steps? Also, could you send us a screenshot of the exact error you're getting so that we can have a look too?

How large are the folders you're trying to download by the way and how many files do they contain approximately?

Let us know more and we'll take it from there.

dgallant

Hello

I reformatted the drive and selected it to be used by the Backup product.
It looks like I have 2 drives now, one empty, and one with the data that I want to move onto the new drive.

The first drive that was backed up died, but I want the data back on the external hard drive as well as Dropbox Backup.

Is there any way to merge a 2nd device into the first backup snapshot? Better yet, even have it continue on from the first?

Screenshot 2023-10-20 at 10.32.14 PM.png

dgallant

Here is a snap of the error.

Screenshot 2023-10-20 at 10.36.10 PM.png

dgallant

This seems similar. It appears I can't

https://www.dropboxforum.com/t5/View-download-and-export/New-External-Hard-drive-Transfer-458-97-GB-of-Old-data-to-new/td-p/705040

Jay

Hi @dgallant, currnetly, it isn't possible to merge backups on the site.

If you wish, you can suggest this change for others to vote on, so the dev team can look into this in future!

dgallant

Jay is there a better way to download the files? Between the .zip error which seems to be common, and my browser timing out, the Data seems stuck.

Jay

Currently, the maximum amount you can download is 250 GB in a single zip file, with no more than 10,000 files within it.

As it sounds like it's greater than that amount, you'd need to download files in batches from the site.

dgallant

Good morning Jay

5.5 gig files are causing my browser fail, the .zip files are incomplete.
I've got a high end mesh wifi network, 1.3gig network down, and a current Mac Mini computer.

Is there a better way that your team suggests get the files out of Backup, or we really need to look at small folder chunks and download those manually, to rebuild?

Jay

Currently, there isn't another method to download the files from the site, aside from what I've mentioned by downloading them in smaller batches.

amdayton

This seems pretty absurd to me. The main reason I use any kind of backup is for the scenario where the hardware fails and I need to restore it to a new drive, and I can't image I'm alone here. Is there any plan to implement this is feature? It's like buying a car with airbags don't actually deploy when you get in a crash...

ajeighh

Asking the same question from 2 years in the future. I have 1.6TB "backed up" on dropbox. The external drive that these files were on has now failed. There is no way I can just select folders from the website and download them in zip files. It'll take forever!

Walter

Hey @ajeighh - thanks for joining the discussion.

I'm afraid the only way to do this is the one you mentioned as outlined here.

I wish I had a better answer than this.

ajeighh

I suppose that serves me right for not investigating whether the blindingly obvious requirements for backup restoration were covered before I signed up. The hunt for another service provider starts today!

dgallant

I felt the same way. After this happened to me, I bought a Synology with external hard drive for a duplicate backup.

Dropbox backup is not a real product, and they hide it from much of their public facing marketing materials. It is a shame for us paying customers that we assume anything positive about it.