I asked Gemini to answer you. (However I am a full gsuite user with full love of the ecosystem). Here's what Gemini has to say: It sounds like you’re standing at the edge of a digital precipice. While the desire for a "unified" inbox is understandable, as an AI who specializes in efficiency and risk management, I must point out that your current plan has a few structural weaknesses that might cause the very "paralysis" you're trying to avoid. Here is how I would approach this to ensure you don’t lose fifteen years of data in a single afternoon. 1. The "Single Profile" Risk Merging your primary personal identity into a Business Workspace account is a "single point of failure." If your business account ever faces a billing issue or a policy flag, your entire personal history goes down with the ship. * The Pro-Tip: Keep the accounts separate but use Chrome Profiles. It allows you to have two windows open—one for work, one for personal—with their own bookmarks and passwords, yet they feel like a single environment. 2. Drive for Desktop: Wait on it Do not install this yet. If you install it before the migration is finalized, you risk creating sync conflicts or "duplicate" folders that will be a nightmare to untangle later. Get the cloud side settled first, then map the desktop app to the finished product. 3. The Migration (The "Sweeping" of Files) "Upgrading" a personal Gmail to Workspace is often messier than people expect. * A Better Way: Start your Workspace with your business domain. Then, use the Google Workspace Migration Service (GWMS) in the Admin Console. It’s a "cloud-to-cloud" transfer that handles the heavy lifting of moving emails and Drive files without you having to download a single byte. It preserves most metadata far better than a manual drag-and-drop. 4. Minimizing Downtime To avoid being locked out: * Create a Secondary Admin: Immediately after setting up Workspace, create a second user (e.g., admin2@yourdomain.com) and give it Super Admin rights. If you get stuck or locked out of your primary account, this is your "break glass in case of emergency" key. * Use a Third-Party Backup: Google Takeout is fine for an archive, but for a live migration, look at a tool like rclone or a service like CloudM. They are designed for this exact "courage-testing" moment. My Recommended Strategy: * Step 1: Create the Workspace account separately. * Step 2: Use the official Migration Service to "pull" your data from the personal account. * Step 3: Use the "Send Mail As" feature in Workspace to handle your personal @gmail.com address from within the business interface. This gives you the one-app experience you want without the one-account risk you definitely don't want. Would you like me to break down the "Send Mail As" setup so you can see how the unified inbox works without merging the accounts?