Posted by Edward Jacques on February 18, 2020

If you want to work on Google Drive files from your desktop, use Drive File Stream. Your files live in the cloud and you access them on demand. This frees up space on your computer’s hard drive, saves network bandwidth, and means less time waiting for files to sync. You can also make files in Google Drive available offline, and they’ll sync to the cloud when you’re back online.

You access My Drive from My Computer (Microsoft® Windows®) or Finder (Apple® Mac®) like any regular folder. You can then move your files to Drive, where it will sync to the cloud and free up your computer space.

Accessing Drive File Stream

All district Windows Pc’s and Laptops have Drive File Stream already installed.

• You’ll see the Drive File Stream under the Windows Start Menu.
• Click the Drive File Stream icon.
  • If this is your first time using Drive File Stream, you will be asked to log in to your agawamed.org account.
• To access your Google Drive files and folders, click the Open Drive Folder icon .

When Drive File Stream is run, it creates a drive in My Computer or a device in Finder named Google Drive File Stream. (In Agawam we have this as the “G-Drive”) All your Google Drive files appear here. A quick way to access this on a Windows PC is to use the keyboard combination WINDOWS + E to open file explorer.

Moving Files to a Folder

• Decide which files you want to store in Google Drive.
  • (Optional) Organize the files in folders the way you want them to appear in Google Drive.
• Click Drive File Stream.
• Click the Open Drive Folder icon.
• Move the files and folders into a folder. From now on, these files exist in the Drive folder and are synchronized with other devices that also have Google Drive installed.