OneDrive - Another over complicated product from Microsoft?

margrave55 said:

I tried Google Drive. It just works.

Just boils down who you trust the most with your data - Microsoft or Google? Given past history, I know who I'd choose ....

margrave55 said:

It just failed time after time after time

Context?

margrave55 said:

So I'd try to push a file. Anything large than a few MB would fail. Try again.

..."push" ... ? Context?

So, I thought I would give OneDrive another try before writing it off and using Google Drive.

To summarise, the desktop has two drives: C is a 256GB SSD with the Windows 10 Home OS installed and D is a 1 TB hard drive. I have changed the location of each of the standard Windows libraries (Documents, Pictures, Music, Video, Desktop etc) so that they point to similar named folders on the D: drive. This ensures all data is created on the large hard drive rather than the small SSD drive.

I was unable to determine any method of using OneDrive to sync these new Data folders to the cloud. The OneDrive front end only gives access to the standard library folders Desktop, Documents and Pictures, which is very restrictive!

Having found a video showing how to do exactly what I wanted, I ended up creating a symbolic link in the OneDrive folder on my PC, so that it points to the D: drive using the following command:

mklink Data D:\ /D

This was done through a CMD window with Administrator privileges and I had to CD to the OneDrive folder e.g. C:\Users\myname\OneDrive before issuing the command.

This essentially created a "folder" called Data in the OneDrive folder, which pointed at D: and so I could see all the sub-folders and OneDrive instantly started syncing this data to the cloud.

This appears to have done what I wanted, albeit in a somewhat un-user friendly way.

milleniumaire said:

This appears to have done what I wanted, albeit in a somewhat un-user friendly way.

I recreated what I think you wanted on a virtual machine, in a very straightforward way. Here are my steps.

Step 1: Launch OneDrive for the first time. Click on the option at bottom to change the default location for my OneDrive to a second hard drive on my system. (if you already have oneDrive setup, go to settings and choose Unlink account to get back to this point).



Step #2. Create a OneDrive folder on my E:\ drive, and select it.

Step #3. Go into newly created E:\OneDrive and create folders for Desktop, Documents and Pictures.

Step #4. Go to C:\users\user\{Desktop,Documents,Pictuers} and move them to your new E:\OneDrive\{Desktop,Documents,Pictuers}


Step #5. Run a test, using Quick access area, create a test file on the desktop folder.



Step #6. Now, go to E:\OneDrive\Desktop and verify that the file is really there


Step #7. Ensure the right folders are checked to Sync


Step #8. Optionally untick the Files on Demand feature to make 100% sure that the files are actually stored on your hard drive.



Seems pretty easy to me.

f14tomcat said:

@milleniumaire
That's the wrong one.
This is the option to add/remove/sync user folders/files.

I did find that option and I was able to view the folders, but it only showed the defaults; Documents, Pictures, Desktop. I was unable to see any way of adding another folder, so would be interested if you could show me how to do that using the "Choose folders" options.

- - - Updated - - -

Hi pparks, your post is very useful and makes sense to me as a way of doing what I want.

I did look for a way to change the location of the OneDrive folder, but couldn't find any way of doing it once it was setup, as was the case with my parents PC. I now understand from your post that using "Unlink from this PC" would allow you to do this. I guess this is essentially forgetting all the config for OneDrive and starting again, allowing you to choose the location of the local OneDrive folder.

So, what if I have folders on both drives that I want to sync? Having only one root OneDrive folder seems to be a restriction and creating symbolic links is a way to get around it, but obviously not very user friendly.

I'll leave the setup as it is, using a symbolic link, as it appears to work and I don't want to waste more time setting up my parents desktop, but thanks for the detailed instructions, I'm sure they will be very useful to the next person who wants to do this.

milleniumaire said:

So, what if I have folders on both drives that I want to sync? Having only one root OneDrive folder seems to be a restriction and creating symbolic links is a way to get around it, but obviously not very user friendly.

Yeah, trying to back up folders from different drives, folders and such from around the file system is not what OneDrive is designed to do. I think that a potential solution would be a scheduled sync job that would copy files from wherever to your OneDrive location. Obviously this would come with disadvantage of having data duplicated. I have structured my data such that what I want and need in OneDrive is in the OneDrive folder, and everything else is not as critical, can be captured in a machine image, or can be recreated if necessary.

f14tomcat said:

@milleniumaire
When you first setup and use OneDrive, only the default folders from MS will be there. The ones I have highlighted. All the rest I added either by creating a new folder in the OneDrive directory (folder) or by copying one to it. That simple. Then, they appear in the OneDrive Settings "Choose Folders". You can uncheck to keep the folder locally only, or check to sync to the cloud.

I believe the restriction of OneDrive is that you have a "root" folder identified on your PC as the "OneDrive" folder. Anything placed in this OneDriver folder is synced to the cloud. Anything outside of the folder i.e. on a different drive, is NOT synced to the cloud unless it is copied to the OneDrive folder.

So, in your case you have "copied" data into your OneDrive folder, which I guess means you are duplicating data on your PC? I used a symbolic link to achieve the same, but without duplicating data or without needing to run backup routines to copy data from existing folders into the OneDrive folder.

Google Drive on the other hand doesn't have this concept of a "root" folder, you simply identify ANY folders you want syncing and it "just happens". I'm just saying, not criticising the way OneDrive works, which on the surface appears to be rather restricting, but is perfectly adequate for simply sharing data via the cloud.

This has been an interesting learning experience, but I will be sticking with Google Drive on my own PC, while my parents simpler desktop config is okay using OneDrive, now that I've created the symbolic link.