Backup - OneDrive Issues

MaryJo said:

How does one learn how to use OneDrive properly?

I have my "real" documents at D:\Documents. All I want to do is have a copy of my documents in OneDrive and sync the two so I can access them from anywhere. After unlinking and re syncing One Drive I now have my "real" documents at D:\Documents plus files at D:\Documents\OneDrive, and in OneDrive. I thought I understood how OneDrive worked, but now I don't seem to have a clue how it works. I've managed to get myself very confused and very frustrated.

I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to use and understand OneDrive.

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Here's one of the best videos I know of on the very basics of OneDrive. Leo does an excellent job of explaining how it works.

Many people (Home users) don't want the additional cost unless it's vital to access all your stuff anywhere you might be. It won't take long to eat through your 'free storage allowance', and then you start to pay. I have external drives and perform imaging of my PC regularly, this gives you protection from Malware attacks and data loss through other causes. 'Imaging Backup' Maryjo, is also super useful if ever your PC starts misbehaving, you can revert the system back to where it was before you had the issue. This can be a great help in diagnosing the problem.

If you really must have Onedrive, then take your time and read the advice and "how to's" on this site, there is loads of it concerning Onedrive, you love it or hate I guess.

telboy911 said:

Many people (Home users) don't want the additional cost unless it's vital to access all your stuff anywhere you might be. It won't take long to eat through your 'free storage allowance', and then you start to pay. I have external drives and perform imaging of my PC regularly, this gives you protection from Malware attacks and data loss through other causes.

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In addition to files accessible from multiple machines, phones, tablets, or web browsers....it's also that it's a second copy, always up to date in real time.

I also make images and such to external drives at home so that I can completely recover the machine in the event of drive failure/malware/corruption. However, this requires me to have drives, it also requires action on my part to get a backup utility and then use it regularly enough to ensure its up to date enough with my rate of change on my computer. And finally, ideally this backup drive is kept offsite so that something like a house fire doesn't wipe out my source and my backups at the same time. (my sisters house burned down...so I'm pretty sensitive to this possibility).

telboy911 said:

If you really must have Onedrive, then take your time and read the advice and "how to's" on this site, there is loads of it concerning Onedrive, you love it or hate I guess.

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It really does seem to be an either or...there aren't many people who feel they can either take it or leave it. I've never really found it difficult to use, but I've never really ran it in it's default configs or used the standard Libraries paths for data on my computer.

pparks1 said:

And finally, ideally this backup drive is kept offsite so that something like a house fire doesn't wipe out my source and my backups at the same time. (my sisters house burned down...so I'm pretty sensitive to this possibility).

It really does seem to be an either or...there aren't many people who feel they can either take it or leave it. I've never really found it difficult to use, but I've never really ran it in it's default configs or used the standard Libraries paths for data on my computer.

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Yes, you have to Backup as a regular process and are often reminded about this in PC mags. But I'm talking about general home users, it's major trauma to have a housefire, but worrying about whether your data may or may not have been destroyed... Really, I would have more pressing things to worry about, to be honest. Most 'run of the mill' families with young kids around, perhaps don't do Backups at all Personally, I found Onedrive something I do not need or want, that's just me. I certainly don't want to increase the wealth of Microsoft by paying subs for it. But just getting back to Onedrive as a user feature. For general home computing if a piece of software, any software is causing users issues regarding its functionality and/or lack of intuitive operation, and going by the number of people asking for help, Onedrive is a tad guilty of that, then I blame Microsoft. The majority of Home users and businesses too, are not experts in 'Operating System Software' whatever its destination. We all use a computer as a tool and have some basic general understanding of how to use it, some more than others. I feel some members on occasion can be a little unkind at times to others who just can't "get their head around something". We all need help with something sometimes. Anyway, that's all I have to say about Onedrive as I may be boring others on here who love it, Microsoft too and Mr. Gates for marketing Windows

telboy911 said:

Yes, you have to Backup as a regular process and are often reminded about this in PC mags. But I'm talking about general home users, it's major trauma to have a housefire, but worrying about whether your data may or may not have been destroyed... Really, I would have more pressing things to worry about, to be honest.

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Yes, your life is #1. But people are very sad when they lose all of their pictures/videos and other data they store at home.

telboy911 said:

For general home computing if a piece of software, any software is causing users issues regarding its functionality and/or lack of intuitive operation, and going by the number of people asking for help, Onedrive is a tad guilty of that, then I blame Microsoft.

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It's usually from the people who firmly believe "cloud=bad". They jump through hoops to try to remove it and it ends up causing them problems.

Honestly, I think it's great for an average joe who doesn't know much about their computer that in the event that their computer is lost, damaged or stolen that when they log back in on a new machine that their stuff is simply just there again. No effort on their part to backup or recover, it just happened.

I do realize it's not for everyone, but i try to find the positives rather than hunting for the negatives.

For me I think the changes to OneDrive should be the following:

Default to OFF the Files On Demand option.

Keep everything local and on the cloud. Mirror. An actual backup.

The one drive folder being only a way to view what's on OneDrive. Instead of moving your documents to it and messing with locations.


I think that would make it less confusing for people

andrew129260 said:

For me I think the changes to OneDrive should be the following:

Default to OFF the Files On Demand option.

Keep everything local and on the cloud. Mirror. An actual backup.

The one drive folder being only a way to view what's on OneDrive. Instead of moving your documents to it and messing with locations.


I think that would make it less confusing for people

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I would agree with this ^^^^. I've always used OneDrive as a real-time mirror.

TraderGary said:

I would agree with this ^^^^. I've always used OneDrive as a real-time mirror.

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I also realized this would also avoid the issue of if you have more than the 5GB or 15GB of what's included in the free storage, than your files don't get separated into 2 places screwing everything up. Your files stay exactly where they were and only backed up what was available for the free plan. This way they could still offer the extended storage for $ with a pop-up, but none of your files get touched. Which is how it should be. Because when someone has data over the free plan of storage offered it becomes cumbersome very quickly.

I really think that's the biggest issue with OneDrive

TraderGary said:

Here's one of the best videos I know of on the very basics of OneDrive. Leo does an excellent job of explaining how it works.

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Thank you TraderGary. I found another one by Leo that goes in depth of using OneDrive backup. I've spent days trying to figure out what I was doing wrong. In less than 30 minutes watching this video I discovered that I did nothing wrong, my PC when new was setup to backup OneDrive. Again, thank you!