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What a drive is

A drive is a top-level folder that sits beside your vault, like an external disk beside your Mac's own folders. What changes when you mark one, and what doesn't.

1 min readUpdated 27 October 2026

01A drive sits beside your vault

Use one for anything that stands for a whole disk: LaCie 4TB, an old laptop, 2019 Archive.

All files showing the vault, Larkspur & Pine, beside a drive called Studio with 6 files, backed up
All files: your vault first, then each drive.

02Mark a folder as a drive

  • Right-click a folder at the top of your vault.
  • Choose Mark as drive.
The right-click menu on the Studio folder, with Mark as drive highlighted
Backing up a whole disk? New › Back up a drive marks it for you as it uploads.

03What changes

  • All files opens on your places: the vault, then each drive.
  • Progress shows on each drive: Backing up… 64%, then how many files are backed up.
  • Paths inside a drive start at the drive: LaCie 4TB › 2019 › Smith Wedding.

04What stays the same

  • Nothing moves and nothing uploads again.
  • Search finds everything in a drive.
  • Projects inside a drive stay projects, shared the same way.
Changed your mind? Right-click the drive and choose Remove from drives.
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