Deleting on-disk OneDrive folder WITHOUT deleting from cloud?

Dear Anyone.

If this sounds like I don't know WTF I'm talking about, congratulations, you're absolutely correct!Anyway.

My Windows Version number is Windows 10, upgraded from Windows XP 64 bit.

Right. I've got a 232-gig hard drive which was running out of space. So I did the Windows Explorer Size Gigantic thing and found a 100-Gig folder that was full of all the stuff I'd uploaded to Windows One-Drive. I thought 'Well, they're safe on OneDrive, I'll delete them here'. Tried to - and it said it couldn't access OneDrive. Which is true, I'd turned off the connection because I hadn't wanted anything nasty travelling back down it - potentially - to have fun with my PC!

But it left me with a bunch of questions - and here's the time I don't know what I'm talking about so be gentle with me!

1.) Are they REALLY still on my hard drive as well as OneDrive or is the hard drive folder just a kinda 'reflection' of what's on OneDrive?

2.) If they're really still on my hard drive, how do I delete them WITHOUT deleting them off OneDrive (I know I've not got the connection turned on but if I DID, how do I say 'Delete from Drive C ONLY, NOT OneDrive'?)

3.) If the folder's just a 'reflection' of what's on OneDrive and the files aren't really there, how do I free up all that space it's taking up? I put all the files - so I thought - on OneDrive to free up the space in the first place - or I THOUGHT I had - so I don't understand why they still seem to be taking up space on my hard drive! I'm perfectly happy to slowly download them back FROM OneDrive when I need them, if they're still 'there' on the hard drive to make downloading 'faster' or something. I dunno.

All I know is I've got a OneDrive hard disc folder that seems to be taking up 100gig! And I wanna get rid of it but keep the files safe in the cloud. (If OneDrive COUNTS as the cloud!)

Or are they still on my hard drive and not on OneDrive? They SEEM to be on OneDrive but I don't understand what's going on.

Yours puzzledly

Chris.

cereberus said:

You need to set up onedrive's Files on Demand feature from its settings menu (right click on icon).
Then go to onedrive folder, right click on it and select free up space option.

That feature is confusing to me.
I just checked my OneDrive settings, and Files On-Demand is ticked, yet all my files are also on my hard drives as I want them. I want a backup in the cloud and locally.

So, I am not gonna mess with that setting until I can understand it better. All the research that I have done is that setting is supposed to save hard drive space.

Dear Cerberus.

Er - here's a picture of my OneDrive folder, if I can work out how to attach it to this! No cloudsigns or ticks in boxes, just a long list of files I want only in the cloud, not on the hard drive (but don't want to delete FROM the cloud!!)





It's come up saying 'Attach=Config}347209[/attach] so I hope something appears when I post this!

Very sorry - how do I make the ticks and cloud signs appear? BTW - there's more in that list than's appearing in the screenshot, that's why it doesn't look like that many files.

Yours respectfully

Chris.