OneDrive-Windows 10 Impact on Local HDD ?

I have used OneDrive extensively but have not studied the underlying rules & processes - thus an ignorant question and/or observation: Did something change dramatically re how built-in OneDrive in Windows 10 stores & syncs?

Maybe I'm not understanding what's going on so, in Windows 7, when I check the contents/usage of the local Drive, some folders under my OneDrive are showing actual data written to the local drive that is more/less equivalent to that stored on the OneDrive server farm. Others definitely do not show such - mainly images/media if I'm seeing it right.
However I noticed with some alarm that when Build 9926 loaded up and I logged in to OneDrive with one of my MS accounts, the "sync" process went on interminably [quite consumptive, BTW... it was dragging my CPU to its knees] as it was loading onto my local HDD the entire pile of stuff stashed in my OneDrive web store. ??? Why? What's the value in that? So I nixed that idea until I could get a better understanding of setup.

What's the scoop? Is Windows 8.1 rules & process for OneDrive different than 7 and different than 10 or what?

I have some pretty important data files on my PC. Some files would even qualify as "Classified, Top Secret" and I'll be dammmmed if I would ever trust them to some clandestine off-site 'Cloud'.

Who runs the cloud? Is that person or group of persons, certified and bonded to handle my data? Doubtful!

I remember when some untrustworthy employees at AOL, stole thousands of members personal information.

I keep all my data backed up to two USB 3.0, external drives, that get updates from my PC daily.
My backup is done by a Batch File, that I wrote myself, to only back up New or Changed files, so my daily
backup only takes a few seconds.
Should one of my External drives, fail, there is still the second one.
Then I do full C: drive backups to a second HD, at least weekly. Just one more hedge against a C: drive crash.
My Backup/Restore program (Ghost 11.5) is on a bootable CD, for added safety.

Just Turn OFF things in Windows that you don't understand, want or trust. Eh?

Good Luck to you!
TechnoMage

TechnoMage said:

I keep all my data backed up to two USB 3.0, external drives, that get updates from my PC daily.
My backup is done by a Batch File, that I wrote myself, to only back up New or Changed files, so my daily
backup only takes a few seconds.
Should one of my External drives, fail, there is still the second one.
Then I do full C: drive backups to a second HD, at least weekly. Just one more hedge against a C: drive crash.
My Backup/Restore program (Ghost 11.5) is on a bootable CD, for added safety.

Just Turn OFF things in Windows that you don't understand, want or trust. Eh?

Good Luck to you!
TechnoMage

Do you have anything to cover a complete disaster such as a fire or flood that would potentially damage all the above mentioned backups?

cognus said:

I have used OneDrive extensively but have not studied the underlying rules & processes - thus an ignorant question and/or observation: Did something change dramatically re how built-in OneDrive in Windows 10 stores & syncs?

When you first sign into the new build, OneDrive prompts you which folders you want to sync. The new version does sync all files physically, so don't sync any folders you don't want synced. The old way had these "virtual links" but apparently this technology is considered dead and will no longer be supported in future versions of OneDrive. So, while this is new to 9926, it will eventually filter down to all versions of OneDrive on all platforms.

I agree that it's not ideal. But, it basically works the same way most other folder sync apps work, such as dropbox.

TechnoMage said:

I have some pretty important data files on my PC. Some files would even qualify as "Classified, Top Secret" and I'll be dammmmed if I would ever trust them to some clandestine off-site 'Cloud'.

Dude... you are in control of what you put in the OneDrive folder... it doesn't back up your whole hard drive. Only the stuff in your OneDrive folder that you have intentionally put there. If you don't want sensitive stuff in the cloud, don't put it there. You can still put non-sensitive stuff there for easy access from various sources.

If you read all of the disclaimers of "the cloud" and restriction descriptions someone else judges content,
To judge content for restrictions it would insinuate someone culls through it looking for violations,
Without notice data can be removed.