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#1
How to migrate files without confusing One Drive
I have a question which I just can't seem to find a straight answer to. I even tried contacting Microsoft support about it, but regretted that rather quickly, sadly.
My question is this:
I have circa 200 GB of files fully synced with OneDrive. I have a number of PCs all signed into my OneDrive account. They are all set to use all files offline, so any change on one PC automatically propagates throughout the others. This setup works well for me.
I want to buy a new PC when Win 10 is released next month. It is critical for me that I will be able to access all my files as soon as the PC is built and ready. I therefore need to copy all my files to that PC.
The 'easy but slow' option is to set up windows on the new PC, sign in to OneDrive and wait for the files to sync over the internet. The problem is that with the volume of files I have, this will take a week + on my internet connection. That is just not reasonable.
I would much prefer to copy all the files to an external HD and transfer them locally. This would be much faster and exactly how I would have done this pre-cloud storage.
But, if I do this and copy the files locally, will OneDrive get confused and upload the copied files and effectively result in me having two copies of everything?
I really don't want to mess this up. On the one-hand, if I wait for the files to sync over the internet I am unable to use my new PC fully for a week. On the other, if I make a local copy, I am worried that I will make a huge mess of my OneDrive files.
So the short question is - how do I copy across a large volume of files locally without upsetting OneDrive?
I am surprised no-one else has this problem.
I am sorry if there is already an answer to this here - I did a search but could not find anything.
Thanks