Solved Configuring OneDrive Locations for New PC

I will soon be migrating to a new personal computer.

I have the following three OneDrives: one free consumer OneDrive, my own corporate OneDrive, and another corporate OneDrive.

My main OneDrive is one of the corporate accounts. The free consumer OneDrive is not used much, and the other corporate OneDrive is used for one of the entities that I consult to.

Let's say my new computer has the following drives: C for OS, D for documents, and M for media.

I want my OneDrives on the D drive. And I want to leave my documents in the cloud. So when I sign into my consumer account when firing up the PC for the first time, does it automatically default to C drive for OneDrive? Remember, I haven't had the opportunity to move my Documents folder to the D drive yet.

So my question is: When logging into my new PC for the first time, how do I get Microsoft to place my OneDrives (one free consumer and two corporate) into my Documents folder on the D drive? And remember, when I first fire up my PC, I have not moved my Documents folder to the D drive yet.

Ideally, the location of my OneDrives are as follows:

D:\Users\Kevin\Documents\OneDrive - Personal
D:\Users\Kevin\Documents\OneDrive - KevinPrivate
D:\Users\Kevin\Documents\OneDrive - KevinConsulting

How do I accomplish this? And, I assume I will be given the choice to leave the files on the cloud?

Hello,

If it may help, you can use the method in the tutorial below to move the OneDrive folder location.

Brink said:

Hello,

If it may help, you can use the method in the tutorial below to move the OneDrive folder location.

Move or Restore Default Location of OneDrive Folder in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to move or restore the default location of the OneDrive folder for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11. With OneDrive in Windows, you can sync files and folders between your computer and the cloud, so you can get to your files from anywhere - your computer...

www.elevenforum.com

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Yes, that looks very helpful.

It seems as though my process will be as follows:

1. Fire up the new PC.
2. Expect that I will be prompted whether I want my Consumer OneDrive files downloaded or not as OneDrive is automatically installed. I want the files to remain in the cloud.
3. Microsoft will place Consumer OneDrive in my C drive somewhere.
4. Once I have finished logging into my computer for the first time, I can then move my Documents folder to my D drive.
5. I can then move my Consumer OneDrive to D:\Users\Kevin\Documents\OneDrive - Personal using the process outlined by @Brink.
6. As I followed your steps, I believe I do not want to sync any folders to OneDrive in Step 17. My Personal OneDrive is correctly populated now as is. What is in my OneDrive now stays there. I will add files to OneDrive as desired. Did I understand Step 17 correctly?
7. Log into my corporate accounts and install the OneDrives in their proper locations D:\Users\Kevin\Documents\OneDrive - KevinPrivate and D:\Users\Kevin\Documents\OneDrive - KevinConsulting. Again, I assume that I will be given the option to leave the data in the cloud.

In #7 above, did I understand Step 17 correctly in the instructions? And does my approach seem reasonable?

Step 17 in the tutorial is for selecting which folders you want to be backed up and synced to the cloud OneDrive. You can also use the method below to choose folders to sync files from to the cloud OneDrive.

Choose which OneDrive Folders to Sync in Windows 11 Tutorial

It looks like your steps should be fine.

Brink said:

Step 17 in the tutorial is for selecting which folders you want to be backed up and synced to the cloud OneDrive. You can also use the method below to choose folders to sync files from to the cloud OneDrive.

Choose which OneDrive Folders to Sync in Windows 11 Tutorial

It looks like your steps should be fine.

Click to expand...

Thank you for explaining Step 17. I have always treated my OneDrives as completely separate drives. If the content is not stored in OneDrive, it does not get backed up. If the content is stored in OneDrive, then it is, obviously, backed up.

And thank you for confirming that my steps look okay.

You're most welcome.

@QP The technical issues can be solved, but the useability aspect is bad, IMHO, sorry! Can you navigate such a complex system at all times?

I think that you are better off with 3 user accounts: Personal, Private, Consulting, to protect yourself from yourself, so to speak. And even then, better use different icons for Documents Local and for Documents Cloud instead of the default identical icons, e.g. the icon with an L superimposed and the icon with the cloud superimposed.

Recently, a poster using just the usual single OneDrive folder pair (OneDrive Local and OneDrive Cloud) described the useability issue as Shanghai hijacking LOL

Haydon said:

@QP The technical issues can be solved, but the useability aspect is bad, IMHO, sorry! Can you navigate such a complex system at all times?

I think that you are better off with 3 user accounts: Personal, Private, Consulting, to protect yourself from yourself, so to speak. And even then, better use different icons for Documents Local and for Documents Cloud instead of the default identical icons, e.g. the icon with an L superimposed and the icon with the cloud superimposed.

Recently, a poster using just the usual single OneDrive folder pair (OneDrive Local and OneDrive Cloud) described the useability issue as Shanghai hijacking LOL

Click to expand...

Hi @Haydon,

It appears that my original post was unclear. I do have three different user accounts: Consumer, Corporate-Private, and Corporate-Consulting. I use the Consumer less than 1 percent of the time. Corporate-Private is my main account that I use for almost everything I do personally, so it is about 80 percent. And then 20 percent is left for the Corporate-Consulting. Yes, I know it adds up to 101 percent. But I said about so the rounding addresses that issue.

I have used this configuration for several years without any concerns. My Consumer account has a white icon. And the other two are identical blue icons. In reality, it is no big deal. If I am working on a MS Word document, I can choose to save it in any of the three OneDrives. I just make my choice and then save it. It seems easy peasy to me.

Again, I treat my OneDrives as separate computer drives. The only stuff they save is what I deliberately place in those drives.

I hope my explanation helps.

Haydon said:

Recently, a poster using just the usual single OneDrive folder pair (OneDrive Local and OneDrive Cloud) described the useability issue as Shanghai hijacking LOL

Click to expand...

There's nothing with OneDrive other than fear and lack of understanding.

Dru2 said:

There's nothing with OneDrive other than fear and lack of understanding.

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Or not even seeing the issue.

Haydon said:

Or not even seeing the issue.

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You mean the issues created by the end user.