It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

--
remove fred before emailing

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/27/26 7:33 AM, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick,

how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?

I would do a factory reset and start over to be "safe". Well perhaps not
that safe as MS is (gasp) watching too...

Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

I was assimilated by Google many years ago. I've always had good service and
am glad for it. With billions of users I think a human looking at your
stuff is unlikely. Your paranoia would be better served by worrying about
your doctor's computer where the staff is laughing about your constipation
problems...



--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/27/2026 10:33 PM, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let
any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly....

I host some files in Google Drive, but I am NOT installing any Google
apps. I just use a browser to login and upload files there, then share
the Google Drive links with others.

--
@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/27/26 11:22 AM, Mr. Man-wai Chang wrote:

On 3/27/2026 10:33 PM, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let
any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly....

I host some files in Google Drive, but I am NOT installing any Google
apps. I just use a browser to login and upload files there, then share
the Google Drive links with others.

I agree. As much as I have google drive app running on all my PCs, now and then I have to
get MY files onto my wife's machine and I simply open the browser and change account to
mine and download. I don't mess up her google sync yet I get MY files.

--
Linux Mint 22.3, Mozilla Thunderbird 140.8.1esr, Mozilla Firefox 148.0.2
Alan K.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

scbs29 <scbs29@fred.talktalk.net> wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my
pc if I can possibly avoid it due to the horror stories of the
invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a
Linux distro on a USB stick, how difficult would it be to remove
Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in
my concerns ?

It depends on what you mean by "I need to use Google Drive to
transfer a file.".

Do you need to use the Google Drive *software* on your PC or do you
just need to upload or/and download a file to someone's Google Drive in
'the cloud'?

If the latter, you can access any Google Drive 'cloud' by just using a web-browser and going to it's web-address, <https://drive.google.com>
for your personal Google Drive.

The web-interface to a Google Drive allows you to upload/download
files and folders. So you have no "Google stuff" on your PC, so no need
to remove any.

Bottom line: Please describe what you need to do, whose Google Drive
you need to access, yours or someone else's, etc..

BTW, about "the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google":

That's largely FUD, scare-mongering, urban legends, etc.. If you
practice safe hex and act sensibly and responsibly, you can use Google services/products without any ill effect. FWIW, I'm using Google
services since nearly two decades without any ill effect (and zero
'spam').

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/27/26 10:33 AM, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

I think people are paranoid about Google to begin with. I don't think there is any way
for you to live on the internet and not have Google pick up some info on you. Everyone is
tracking you and selling that info all around. The idea that you are pristine and clean
is false. IMHO.

--
Linux Mint 22.3, Mozilla Thunderbird 140.8.1esr, Mozilla Firefox 148.0.2
Alan K.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

AJL <noemail@none.com> wrote:
[...]

I was assimilated by Google many years ago. I've always had good service and
am glad for it. With billions of users I think a human looking at your
stuff is unlikely. Your paranoia would be better served by worrying about
your doctor's computer where the staff is laughing about your constipation
problems...

Exactly! I would really, really like to get some *real* evidence of
someone experiencing *real* harm from their use of Google services/
products. Sofar, all there is, is the usual FUD, scare-mongering, urban legends, etc. about 'them' getting 'all your personal information',
'building profiles' and doing all kinds of terrible things with them.
If that's true, how come I've never experienced *any* ill effect!? :-(

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 3/27/2026 10:33 AM, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

If someone makes a Google Drive upload they have in their account "public", then others should be able to download it with their web browser. The
owner of the file should work out the web URL and post the URL in
a message, so the other person will be able to find it.

To upload something to your own personal Google drive account,
at a minimum, the tool has to have some means of authentication.
There could be a dialog asking for the account name, followed
by whatever method they accept for the password. This could
even be as fancy as a FIDO USB key with a biometric button
you press.

Once you are authenticated, then if they wanted, they could
offer web access for personal upload or personal download.
By using a "permissions" interface on the web page, you
could set a recent upload to "public" so a friend can see it.
I do not know if they offer uploads where a simple password
(only the recipient has been told) would work.

Nothing absolutely has to use an App.
Nothing absolutely has to use a Smart Phone.

Generally, commercial services offer multiple protocols.
Maybe for example, they could offer sftp. It wouldn't
be very practical, but it might have its uses.

*******

If you need to close out a Google Drive account, Google
has "Google Takeout". That is a service that packages
everything in your name, into a ZIP file you can download.
I'm not aware of Microsoft OneDrive offering this. In this
way, you can later get a copy of everything in your account,
for whatever purpose you have in mind.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Takeout

*******

The only thing unlikely to work is "public uploads".

Only authenticated users, are likely to be allowed to
upload, and within the limitations of their quota
or "disk size". The free quota is limited.

Paul


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:10:47 +0000, Andy Burns wrote:

You don't need to install the GDrive client, just visit the website

<https://drive.google.com/drive/home>

That's what I was going to say. KIS(S) !

--
s|b

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:32:13 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

Your computers aren't networked?


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 <scbs29@fred.talktalk.net>
wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.

Why does it seem that way? I'm curious to learn what led you to that
point.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 3/27/2026 2:55 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:32:13 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

Your computers aren't networked?

You should mention all possible solutions for visitors here,
so they will have a "bag of tricks" when they're having
a bad day.

Nothing wrong with using an obvious method, if you're
having a bad day.

When I'm having a bad day, I use FTP in the house :-) So there :-)

"ftpdmin: simple ad-hoc file transfer Windows FTP server" <=== No IIS needed...

If something isn't working, you run that, then turn it off when finished.

It's similar to using Fsquirt over Bluetooth, only it uses
faster things than Bluetooth for the job.

If you don't have a Wifi router in the house, you can still
do Wifi Direct, by using the Microsoft "hotspot" in W10/W11,
and connecting the second machine to the hotspot.

You can even hook two Windows machines together with a straight
Ethernet cable, as long as they're GbE and support MDI/MDIX.
You will have to look into the IP addresses though.

There are lots of bits and pieces, for a good time.

You could use a USB stick. Not everyone has one of those.
Just as some people, also don't have hard drives for backups.
Never assume anything about the audience.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 17:55:47 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

On Fri, 3/27/2026 2:55 PM, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:32:13 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

Your computers aren't networked?

<snip>

Never assume anything about the audience.

I didn't assume anything. I simply asked a clarifying question.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Along with all the other possible solutions, if your computers are
network connection together, you can set up a Server Message Block (SMB) Share. Here is a quick tutorial on how to do that:

https://www.wintips.org/how-to-set-up-network-file-sharing-on-windows-11/

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 2026-03-27, scbs29 <scbs29@fred.talktalk.net> wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

I think it would be helful to supply moe details as to what your set up is
and what you you wish to do. No real need to explain what and why you think
of Google, just a statement that you do not wish to use Google drive.

If the file is sensitive then encryption is useful.


--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/27/26 9:22 PM, GDrive wrote:

On 27/03/2026 16:33, Alan K. wrote:

Everyone is tracking you and selling that info all around.

Not selling. Google or Microsoft is not in the business of selling
personal data of users or customers. They use the data for their own
purpose.

Okay so maybe not everyone. Also I'm not sure of that statement. But that's me.

--
Linux Mint 22.3, Mozilla Thunderbird 140.8.1esr, Mozilla Firefox 148.0.2
Alan K.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sat, 3/28/2026 5:54 AM, Daniel70 wrote:

On 28/03/2026 1:33 am, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file. Up until
now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I
can possibly avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive
nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running. If I canot find
a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a
USB stick, how difficult wouldÿ it be to remove Google stuff from my
pc ? Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I
justifed in my concerns ?

Bank in the mid-90's, when I first came online, my then ISP, as well as giving me access to Internet/E-mail/UseNet, also gave me access to 10GB (I think) of space on his server ..... so If I wanted to give someone access to a file, I'd just upload the file onto the Server and then post a link to the file to wherever/whomever.

Do you have such space available to you??

Bell as an ISP, gave us *5 MB* on their server.
You can tell from that, I did all my backups there :-)

Even back then, this generated some amount of mirth. Trying
to squeeze all the customers onto one hard drive, a worthy
project for sure.

My current ISP does not bother with such features, as it is
resource intensive to police such a thing.

Any project that has attempted to implement any kind of
service that would be useful (Firefox Send), has had to shut
it down due to abuse, which is why not many will bother
to try. The topic already has a track record. You can put
2GB for free on Dropbox, but it requires an email address
just like any other similar service. That would be enough
for a file transfer project -- not enough for a Hollywood
movie, but enough for a lot of other software projects
(a single NVidia driver :-) ).

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:55:23 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:32:13 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

Your computers aren't networked?

They're on Wifi, if that's what you mean. But that's useless for
sending a document from desktop to laptop, since the laptop is shut
down when I'm using the desktop.

I think the OP didn't say whether the two computers are in the same
house. If they are, another option is "sneakernet" with a USB stick.

--
"The power of accurate observation is frequently called cynicism by
those who don't have it." --George Bernard Shaw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Sun, 29 Mar 2026 21:19:07 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:55:23 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:32:13 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

Your computers aren't networked?

They're on Wifi, if that's what you mean.

Actually, I meant are they networked for file sharing. The connection
type is largely irrelevant.

But that's useless for
sending a document from desktop to laptop, since the laptop is shut
down when I'm using the desktop.

Vice versa, is the desktop also shut down when you're using the laptop?
Or perhaps your router has a USB port that you can use to facilitate
file sharing? Many of them do. It's not easy to see someone suggest
email for file sharing, so I'm just trying to help.

I think the OP didn't say whether the two computers are in the same
house. If they are, another option is "sneakernet" with a USB stick.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/28/2026 12:31 AM, Alan K. wrote:

I agree. As much as I have google drive app running on all my PCs, now and then I have to
get MY files onto my wife's machine and I simply open the browser and change account to
mine and download. I don't mess up her google sync yet I get MY files.

I suspect the move to apps acctually defeat the original purpose of
using a unified browser to access all internet of things. :)

--
@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/28/2026 7:32 AM, Super Luser wrote:

Along with all the other possible solutions, if your computers are
network connection together, you can set up a Server Message Block (SMB)

That's intranet (including LAN), not internet (web drive). You can
expose your SMB shares to internet anyway.

--
@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

Anyone else noticed there is zero interaction from the OP in this
thread?

--
s|b

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Yes, sorry about that but I have been tied up with other
things.
Thanks for all the help and advice.
I tried formatting the thumb drive (yes, I know I should have used
this terminology) in Linux but still didn't do the trick.
As soon as I get chance I will properly study the replies I have got and go from there.


On Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:53:12 +0200, "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

Anyone else noticed there is zero interaction from the OP in this
thread?

--
remove fred before emailing

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 3/30/2026 12:19 AM, Stan Brown wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 13:55:23 -0500, Char Jackson wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 10:32:13 -0700, Stan Brown <someone@example.com>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it

Can you mail the file to yourself? That's what I do when I want to
copy a file from desktop to laptop or vice versa.

Your computers aren't networked?

They're on Wifi, if that's what you mean. But that's useless for
sending a document from desktop to laptop, since the laptop is shut
down when I'm using the desktop.

I think the OP didn't say whether the two computers are in the same
house. If they are, another option is "sneakernet" with a USB stick.

Freds other question "USB Readonly", is about a USB stick that has gone "Read-Only".

That gives some idea how the "sneakernet" project is working :-)

I suspect the plan was to put that USB stick into a mailer.

*******

I checked my computer store inventory, and Sandisk Cruiser Glide
and Sandisk Ultra are zero, and Extreme have not been available
for a couple of years. The Walmart peg board was similarly
draining and not being refilled. There are still sticks out
there, but maybe Teamgroup or so from some place if you're lucky.
The Best Buy was never "excellent" for USB sticks, they were
cheap and ratty ones there. I've never checked Staples for inventory
of those (you'd likely have to go to the desk at the side to
see if they have any, you cannot leave USB sticks on a publicly
accessible pegboard or they'd be shoplifted). And SD sales
are now "controlled" to some extent.

That is why it's pretty funny when high end portable storage products
are being "released" these days. Are these events "paper launches"
with no stock or what ? Not quite the same thing, but Samsung
released an 8TB 2.5" SSD 870 drive "but the price wasn't listed"
which was too funny. I was wondering how far north of a thousand
that would be. The history of $1200 storage devices selling is
not good (companies have tried that before). One of the problems
is that few companies even "want to get a few of those in"
as they'll get stuck with them. Retailing is a hell of a
way to make a living.

You could even put a large hard drive in a mailer. Just remember
to use the big bubble wrap (1" domes) and put it all way round the item.
Hard drives are relatively safe in transit, as long as they
do not bang against other metal items (the non-operating limit
for shock today is maybe 300G or so, banging two steel plates
together is 1000G). We even get to see an experiment in physics
class, of a steel ball bearing being dropped onto a steel plate,
and that is around 1000G deceleration. The vibration spec
(repetitive shock) is a lot lower. At one time, hard drives
had relatively weak specs, like 2G operational and you
"walk on tippy-toes" past your hard drive. Today the arm has
to be stiffer, because of the ridiculous flying-height.

7ZIP or WinZIP, can segment an archive into individual small files
if you want to email an archive. If the item is already compressed,
the compression can be set to "Store" and the archive then benefits
from being cut into pieces but no compression is attempted.

"Split to volumes, bytes" 10,485,760 for 10MB a hundred files per gigabyte

Some ISP email may be limited to 20MB or so for attachments, and
I would select a slightly smaller size. The last file in the
set, will be a fractional one. If you have an old ADSL2 service, the
upload of your emails will take a while (all evening).

7ZIP can also encrypt the files, and you can use
your luggage password for the thing :-) If I send you a file,
the password is 1..2..3..4..5 :-) [Thanks to the movie "Space Balls"]

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Mon, 3/30/2026 10:29 AM, scbs29 wrote:

Yes, sorry about that but I have been tied up with other
things.
Thanks for all the help and advice.
I tried formatting the thumb drive (yes, I know I should have used
this terminology) in Linux but still didn't do the trick.
As soon as I get chance I will properly study the replies I have got and go from there.

At least locally here, there is a shortage of USB sticks.

You can put files on an SSD 2.5" drive if you want. I have
a USB to SSD adapter cable for the 2.5" drives, and that is
a mechanism for making the equivalent of a USB flash stick.
The cheapest SSD in town, is a 256GB 2.5" drive for about $40
(LEXAR NS100).

And you only need the adapter cable, if you want to use the
USB3 port on someones PC. If the recipient is well equipped,
you could just send the 2.5" SATA SSD in a mailer. They are
reasonably shock resistant. They don't need quite as much bubble
wrap as a 3.5" drive gets. You just have to avoid the cardboard
box getting punctured in transit.

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On 3/30/2026 7:55 PM, Andy Burns wrote:

Years ago you used to be able to map a drive letter to \\ftp.microsoft.com\pub
but not these days ...

But you can only do things at file level, not really a fread/fwrite by
sector. You can of course split a file into very small pieces to work
around this limitation. :)

--
@~@ Simplicity is Beauty! Remain silent! Drink, Blink, Stretch!
/ v \ May the Force and farces be with you! Live long and prosper!!
/( _ )\ https://sites.google.com/site/changmw/
^ ^ https://github.com/changmw/changmw

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Oops, part of my reply was to do with my other post.
Perhaps if I explain further.
I wish to convert .ts video files to mp4. My usual converter will convert the file ok
but the audio is out of synch, in fact in later parts of the file by 20-30 seconds.
I contacted the producers of my usual converter and they asked me to send
them an exmple of one of the files though Google Drive. Since I have never used Google Drive and
all I have seen on the internet concerning Google is that they are severely invasive, tracking
everthing you do and continually phoning home. I have seen opinions in magazines
that this is the case, but in the same magazine Google programs are recommended.
Who does one believe? I therefore thought that I would ask expert advice.
I copy the mp4 files to a USB thumb drive to plug into my Humax digital receiver/recorder to see if they will play corrrectly on my tv. Most files are ok, but
some will not play this way for one reason oor another.

On Mon, 30 Mar 2026 15:29:03 +0100, scbs29 <scbs29@fred.talktalk.net> wrote:

Yes, sorry about that but I have been tied up with other
things.
Thanks for all the help and advice.
I tried formatting the thumb drive (yes, I know I should have used
this terminology) in Linux but still didn't do the trick.
As soon as I get chance I will properly study the replies I have got and go >from there.

On Mon, 30 Mar 2026 13:53:12 +0200, "s|b" <me@privacy.invalid> wrote:

On Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:33:31 +0000, scbs29 wrote:

It seems that I need to use Google Drive to transfer a file.
Up until now I have been extremely loth to let any Google stuff on my pc if I can possibly
avoid it due to the horror stories of the invasive nature of Google. To this end I have GClean running.
If I canot find a way round this, eg accessing Google Drive from a Linux distro on a USB stick, how
difficult would it be to remove Google stuff from my pc ?
Possibly I am over reacting, would anyone agree, or am I justifed in my concerns ?

Anyone else noticed there is zero interaction from the OP in this
thread?

--
remove fred before emailing

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

On Tue, 3/31/2026 10:08 AM, scbs29 wrote:

Oops, part of my reply was to do with my other post.
Perhaps if I explain further.
I wish to convert .ts video files to mp4. My usual converter will convert the file ok
but the audio is out of synch, in fact in later parts of the file by 20-30 seconds.
I contacted the producers of my usual converter and they asked me to send them an exmple of one of the files though Google Drive. Since I have never used Google Drive and
all I have seen on the internet concerning Google is that they are severely invasive, tracking
everthing you do and continually phoning home. I have seen opinions in magazines
that this is the case, but in the same magazine Google programs are recommended.
Who does one believe? I therefore thought that I would ask expert advice.
I copy the mp4 files to a USB thumb drive to plug into my Humax digital receiver/recorder to see if they will play corrrectly on my tv. Most files are ok, but
some will not play this way for one reason oor another.

There's a lot of gibberish here that needs some context, to understand.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4728533/audio-video-synchronization-ts-mpeg2h264-avc-understanding-pts-in-handbrake

I think we all get the idea, that if two streams have timestamps, and
a certain point in time arrives, you can read out content from the
movie, audio and video, "precisely" aligned. What's unclear is
why the thing wants to fiddle the setting with an "internal" parameter.
Sure, all the clock signals in the hardware may not be aligned,
and may beat against one another. Maybe a particular sound chip
only supports 44100 Hz and not 48000 Hz and maybe there is less
slip with one choice than the other.

You're talking about a huge error, and the source of that must
be something else, such as there are no timestamps at all. Hollywood movie content, there are tools for "vetting" an ISO before production
that "check EVERYTHING". I tested one, and it will complain
that you are breathing, it is that thorough. I would not suspect
someone mastering, to be making these mistakes. I would not
be able to identify how this problem is "sneaking in", as there
are lots of quality checks for the master.

You can transcode with the CPU (better quality) or with the video
card, but that does not take care of lipsync. The video card
only processes the video stream, and something has to
mux the streams and make the output file. Your CPU does that.

When it comes to recording, if you've ever experimented with
computers recording stuff, the video to audio delay is not
a constant and it "wanders" the whole time you are recording.
This means, when you're in a video editor and you "slide" the
sound track left or right, no particular setting is "perfect".
The movie might be good at 33% point, bad at 50% point,
good at 75% point. And this makes it very difficult to correct,
because the error is not first order, and the "wander function"
is unknown.

Sometimes, if you open a Terminal and do

ffplay some.mp4

you might see messages in the console about particular problems
with the timestamps. This used to be a problem back when ffmpeg
and libav were competing with one another. You could compare
the two of them and they were both printing out... different
timestamp errors. The current situation seems a lot better
now, those messages no longer appear, for what little usage
I've made of ffplay.

*******

You will see various articles like this.

https://www.reddit.com/r/ffmpeg/comments/ggmjep/convert_ts_file_to_mp4_help/

The key here is to first do

ffprobe.exe some.ts # ffmpeg package = ffmpeg, ffprobe, ffplay executables

and verify that the CODECs in the .ts are what you expect. Notice that
someone is changing the container to .mp4 as they feel the CODECs
are just fine, and the streams are just copied into the output.
When I've done things like this, some of these run at 200MB/sec.
That is because they are not being re-encoded. There is no quality
loss if you are that lucky.

# The syntax of ffmpeg commands, changes with time. Caution...

ffmpeg.exe -y -i your_file.ts -vcodec copy -acodec copy -map 0:v -map 0:a your_file.mp4

If the CODEC happens to be incorrect, you can declare the desired
CODEC type and transcode (with some quality loss, you may even
want to tune the quality setting which trades off higher bandwidth
for higher quality).

But any repackaging project, starts with studying the materials
and "seeing if there is an easy way to do it".

Paul

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.13
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)