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Reinstall OSX, dropbox folder on hard drive and on cloud will be gone?

T

Temaki

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 3, 2012
15
0
If i reinstall OSX, i assume my Dropbox folder (or 4sync, google drive, whatever) will be gone. does that mean all my files stored on cloud will be gone too? i've never done that, so im just curious.
 
Temaki said:
If i reinstall OSX, i assume my Dropbox folder (or 4sync, google drive, whatever) will be gone. does that mean all my files stored on cloud will be gone too? i've never done that, so im just curious.
Click to expand...
Reinstalling OS X won't remove any of your files, unless you reformat first. It's always a good idea to backup your drive before doing anything like reinstalling the OS.
 
Last edited:
GGJstudios said:
Reinstalling OS X won't remove any of your files, unless you reformat first. It's always a good idea to backup your drive before doing anything like reinstalling the OS.
Click to expand...

yea i meant a clean install.
ok now i understand how dropbox works. if i don't have my files backed up and accidentally format my drive, then i'll be screwed.

i would rather upload all my files on other servers like mediafire or 4share. then my files would live forever, doesnt' matter i reformat my drive or not.

thanks!
 
Temaki said:
yea i meant a clean install.
ok now i understand how dropbox works. if i don't have my files backed up and accidentally format my drive, then i'll be screwed.

i would rather upload all my files on other servers like mediafire or 4share. then my files would live forever, doesnt' matter i reformat my drive or not.

thanks!
Click to expand...

No, if you reformat your hard drive, you shouldn't lose your dropbox files. When you reinstall dropbox, it should download all your files. That's sort of the whole point of dropbox, I think.
 
Yep Dropbox files are saved on the net and a copy is in the desktop file.

Clean install = reinstall Dropbox and log in and it will start to download copies.
 
You will not lose your Dropbox files. They are stored on the cloud, and any device you add (computer, phone) just syncs them over the cloud as another copy. The original always stays in the cloud.
 
andyriot said:
You will not lose your Dropbox files. They are stored on the cloud, and any device you add (computer, phone) just syncs them over the cloud as another copy. The original always stays in the cloud.
Click to expand...

how come it's possible? because when i delete a file in my Dropbox folder, that file on the cloud is deleted too (automatically).

so, when i reformat my hard drive, that means all my data is completely wiped off including that Dropbox folder. and on the cloud, all the files will be gone. Dropbox mirrors everything on the cloud and hard drive.

pls correct me if i'm wrong. thanks!
 
Temaki said:
how come it's possible? because when i delete a file in my Dropbox folder, that file on the cloud is deleted too (automatically).

so, when i reformat my hard drive, that means all my data is completely wiped off including that Dropbox folder. and on the cloud, all the files will be gone. Dropbox mirrors everything on the cloud and hard drive.

pls correct me if i'm wrong. thanks!
Click to expand...

You are wrong. When you wipe your drive... the entire machine is wiped clean... including the dropbox application that would indicate that your files are gone. Hence... the files are NOT deleted from the cloud.

If you want to be super safe. You can unlink your computer from dropbox before wiping the drive. Now, that computer is removed from the list of computers that have access to dropbox (this assumes that you have more than one computer linked to your DB account).

When you reinstall everything, and log into dropbox for the first time... your new machine will connect to dropbox and begin the initial download.

/Jim
 
flynz4 said:
You are wrong. When you wipe your drive... the entire machine is wiped clean... including the dropbox application that would indicate that your files are gone. Hence... the files are NOT deleted from the cloud.

If you want to be super safe. You can unlink your computer from dropbox before wiping the drive. Now, that computer is removed from the list of computers that have access to dropbox (this assumes that you have more than one computer linked to your DB account).

When you reinstall everything, and log into dropbox for the first time... your new machine will connect to dropbox and begin the initial download.

/Jim
Click to expand...

That makes sense. thank you! i'll test it when i reinstall OSX.
 
Don't make yourself confused here. This is as simple as tossing coin in the air. Yes, when you install dropbox app on your desktop it shows all the files hosted on your desktop and synced each time you make any updates on your system, plus it also gets updated / deleted on the app! But, it never gets deleted from the cloud. You can simply login to your account and upload your file there. Syncing on desktop is an added option. You may unlink it from your computer to be more safer if you want to. Format or re-format removes file from your system and directory including dropbox app. But in actual, the main data is stored on cloud and it never gets apart whether you format or reformat your OS.

Play with your MAC ;) And in case you want to be super space, make a backup on some other server!
 
andyriot said:
You will not lose your Dropbox files. They are stored on the cloud, and any device you add (computer, phone) just syncs them over the cloud as another copy. The original always stays in the cloud.
Click to expand...

Hello People,

I'm agree Dropbox is a cloud. Right now I want to format my Mac and I have more than 60 GB in my dropbox folder. If I format my mac (I will lost all the information), should I have to wait (a long long time) the sync between my computer and my dropbox before using the files OR can I copy and paste my files in the Dropbox folders (the files just before the format) and "nothing happened"?

Thank you so much for your help guys.
 
backdraft2014 said:
Hello People,

I'm agree Dropbox is a cloud. Right now I want to format my Mac and I have more than 60 GB in my dropbox folder. If I format my mac (I will lost all the information), should I have to wait (a long long time) the sync between my computer and my dropbox before using the files OR can I copy and paste my files in the Dropbox folders (the files just before the format) and "nothing happened"?
Click to expand...

Yes, if Dropbox has to download 60Gb of files after the fresh install it will take a long time.

If you manually put the Dropbox folder back into your new installation (from a backup) before signing in to Dropbox, then when you sign in to Dropbox after the fresh install it will simply re-index everything, but doesn't have to download it. This will all work better if you are using default settings and locations for the Dropbox folder.

Re-indexing takes quite a long time (30-60mins or so for my 40Gb folder), but much quicker than re-download.
 
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