I’m trying to figure out how to mount my Google Drive as a local drive letter on Windows. The goal is to be able to run scripts that can write files directly to Google Drive using a regular path like D:\ or E:. I need this for automation purposes where my scripts generate reports and I want them saved to the cloud automatically. Has anyone found a way to do this? I’m looking for any workarounds or third-party tools that might make this possible. Currently I have to manually upload files after my scripts run, which is pretty tedious. Any suggestions would be helpful, even if it’s a bit of a hack or unconventional solution.
Google Drive File Stream handled this perfectly before they killed it, but there’s still a solid workaround. Use rclone to mount Google Drive as a network drive and map it to a drive letter. I’ve run this setup for six months now with automated backup scripts. Install rclone, configure it with your Google account, then use the mount command with Windows-specific flags. It’s not as smooth as File Stream was, but it’s reliable enough for script automation. Only catch is you’ll need to run the mount command after each restart - though you can automate that with a startup script. Files show up immediately in the mounted drive after your scripts write them, which sounds perfect for your report workflow.
you could try insync - it mounts google drive as a real windows folder and you can map it to a drive letter through disk management. I’ve used it for automation stuff like this and it works well, though sync can be slow sometimes. much easier setup than rclone.
Mountain Duck is worth checking out - it creates a virtual drive that connects straight to Google Drive without syncing everything to your hard drive. I switched after getting fed up with sync delays from other tools. The drive shows up in Windows Explorer like any normal drive, so your scripts can write to it using regular file paths. Performance is pretty good for automated stuff, though new files take a second to show up in the web interface. The license might be worth it if you’re doing business automation regularly. Just make sure your scripts handle errors properly since network drives can timeout during file operations.