Google is doing all of us a solid and giving everyone the chance to use its free cloud storage to backup an entire computer’s system files.
The new Backup and Sync feature will let you use Drive to automatically store files that you’ve already saved on your computer’s internal hard drive or other devices like memory cards in the same format.
So, instead of having to create an entirely new network of folders to keep your pic, docs, and more, the tool will simply recreate your desktop folder ecosystem directly in Drive. Great news for anyone that wants to backup a huge swath of folders.
The new functionality was first announced last month to much fanfare and then officially announced on June 28 before being delayed for reasons undisclosed.Â
Backup and Sync comes in the form of an app, which replaces the Google Photos desktop uploader and Drive for both Mac and Windows computers.
As we noted when the feature was first announced, using Backup and Sync is slightly limited by the 15 GB cap offered with free Drive accounts, so there is a low ceiling for your storage if you have a ton of files. That’s pretty easy to fix though — all you have to do to avoid going over is pay for more storage or carefully manage exactly what you backup to Drive.
The app is a great deal to automatically safeguard your files — it’s free, after all. You can snag it for Photos or Drive right now.