New tool allows you to store ALL traditional files – including Office files – right alongside your Google Files
We know that in a mixed environment of traditional Word files and Google Docs it can be confusing to know where you’ve saved something. How many times have you asked yourself “Did I save that on H? My Google Drive? My laptop? My Desktop?”
Google now provides a tool that will put your Google Drive right on your computer as a “G” Drive. It’s called Drive File Stream.
In order to use Drive File Stream, you’ll have to log into the application which can be found in the Start Menu of your computer. We have full instructions and a couple of short training videos available on the Tech Hub here:
As you use the G drive, you’ll also notice that this Drive File Stream app gives you access to your Team Drives (that you have already been able to access within the Web version of Google Drive). Team Drives allow you to collaborate and store files in a common location, just like the K drive used to be. As more and more people migrate to using the Drive File Stream app as well as Team Drives on the web, we’ll be looking to remove the K drive entirely. Keep in mind that you won’t lose any functions of the K drive, it’s just that your files will be accessed in a different way (through the G Drive). It’s likely this transition will happen within the next 6 months. As we move through this, a member of the Tech Dept will be reaching out to you to help with the move of any existing content you have on the K drive to a new folder on the Team Drive.
Frequently Asked Questions
- The files I have on the K drive used to be used for collaboration, but no one other than myself uses them any longer. Do I still need to move them to Team Drive?
If you’re the only one who is using those files, then no, they don’t need to exist on the Team Drive. But you should take time to move them to your My Drive folder. You can easily do this using Drive File Stream. Just copy/paste from the K drive to your My Drive folder.
- Isn’t Team Drive part of Google Drive? So do all of my Word/Excel files have to transfer to Google files?
Team Drive is part of Google Drive, but that does NOT mean your Word/Excel files will transfer to Google file types. Team Drive is simply the storage location of your files, not the type of files they are.
- After the files are moved, how do I access them?
Look for the Team Drives folder either by:
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- Using Drive File Stream on your computer (open Word, Excel, etc files natively within the program)
- Using Google Drive on the web, right along side your My Drive documents.
- Because these are now stored “in the cloud” I am concerned about someone sharing the files with unauthorized parties using Google’s sharing tools built into Google Drive.
We certainly understand you want to make sure access to your collaborative files are kept in check. If this is a concern, please make sure you request your files are moved to their own Team Drive, not the “Building All” team drive. This way you can control who has access to the files.
For another layer of security, your Team Drive can be set to prevent sharing with anyone outside of that team drive. So in many respects, there are several more layers of security available on a Team Drive folder than you have in a traditional file share.