Hey everyone, I’m trying to move a folder with lots of subfolders from my Google Drive to Google Colab. I’ve got this main folder called ‘Data’ with a subfolder named ‘output’. Inside ‘output’ there are 20 more folders (001, 002, up to 020). I want to get the whole ‘output’ folder into Colab.
I tried using the unzip command like this:
!unzip -uq '/content/drive/My Drive/Data/Output/' -d '/content/drive/My Drive/Data/Output/'
But it didn’t work. I got this error:
unzip: can't find or open /content/drive/Data/Output/, /content/drive/Data/Output/.zip or /content/drive/Data/Output/.ZIP.
Does anyone know a better way to do this? I’m stuck and could really use some help. Thanks!
I’ve dealt with similar issues transferring complex directory structures to Colab. In my experience, the most reliable method is using the Google Drive API directly. It’s a bit more setup, but it handles large nested folders without hiccups.
First, you’ll need to authenticate and create a Drive service object. Then you can use the files().list() method to recursively fetch all files and folders, and files().get().execute() to download each one.
This approach is more robust than relying on mounting or shell commands, especially for intricate folder structures. It also gives you more control over the transfer process, allowing you to implement progress tracking or selective transfers if needed.
Just be mindful of API usage limits if you’re dealing with a massive number of files. You might need to implement some rate limiting or pagination in that case.
hey FlyingEagle, have u tried using the shutil library? it’s pretty handy for this kinda stuff. Try something like:
import shutil
shutil.copytree(‘/content/drive/MyDrive/Data/Output’, ‘/content/Output’)
This should copy the whole folder structure. lmk if it works for ya!
Having worked extensively with Google Colab and Drive, I’ve found that using the google.colab library provides a straightforward solution for this task. Here’s an approach that’s worked well for me:
from google.colab import drive
drive.mount(‘/content/drive’)
import os
import shutil
source = ‘/content/drive/MyDrive/Data/Output’
destination = ‘/content/Output’
shutil.copytree(source, destination)
This method mounts your Drive, then uses shutil to copy the entire directory structure. It’s efficient and preserves your folder hierarchy. Just ensure you have sufficient Colab runtime storage. If you encounter permission issues, double-check your Drive mounting and file access settings.
Remember to unmount the drive when you’re done to maintain security:
drive.flush_and_unmount()