Microsoft OneDrive

[FIREmenow]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal Unfortunately those links seem to apply to either older versions or to business OneDrive versions. One of those links shows what I have seen i.e. a way of unchecking boxes next to folders to unlink but this then says: If you uncheck a folder you are syncing to your computer, the folder will be removed from your computer. The folder and its contents will still be available online. I am scratching my head as anything I put on my PC immediately is grabbed by OneDrive and sync'd. This then seems to activate the italicized statement above which makes the folder the property of OneDrive. ----------- BTW, I did see how to unlink from OneDrive entirely (the nuclear option). The link shown above must be to an older OneDrive version. For the latest version you do this: click on the clouds icon in task bar select settings select Account tab click on "Unlink this PC"

I am not having these issues and have up to date everything. You may need to do the nuclear option, and then reset it up, choosing only certain folders at the beginning. Sorry - no time to investigate right now.....

[W2R]

When first setting up a Windows 10 machine, it tries to fool you into getting a Microsoft account and activating the cloud drive. The option to not do these things is in tiny tiny tiny print and hard to see. But you don't have to sign up and you don't have to use the cloud.

I don't, and never have on any of my Windows 10 laptop computers. I don't even have a Microsoft account. It's not a problem for me. You just have to be mindful and careful when you first turn on that new computer.

Going back? I don't know because I've never arranged to use their cloud. Guess I'm a bit of a privacy nut.

[Lsbcal]

I'm tending to agree with you W2R. As I mentioned above, it is pretty easy to do the unlink to remove the OneDrive function and I may do this. I think OneDrive is great for business collaborative work. It's not a backup solution.

On my old PC I used Dropbox to backup certain files that were not something I felt was too personal. Then I could see them on my iPad and Android phone when traveling. In an emergency this could be critical. We ran into just such an emergency situation in October with the wildfires and the need to evacuate. If one has a laptop that is fine, but I've got a desktop PC which would be awkward to grab and go.

So what I really need is a very limited file backup and cloud storage utility. The free 5GB Dropbox seems to fit the bill. I may just go back to that.

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lsbcal I'm tending to agree with you W2R. As I mentioned above, it is pretty easy to do the unlink to remove the OneDrive function and I may do this. I think OneDrive is great for business collaborative work. It's not a backup solution. On my old PC I used Dropbox to backup certain files that were not something I felt was too personal. Then I could see them on my iPad and Android phone when traveling. In an emergency this could be critical. We ran into just such an emergency situation in October with the wildfires and the need to evacuate. If one has a laptop that is fine, but I've got a desktop PC which would be awkward to grab and go. So what I really need is a very limited file backup and cloud storage utility. The free 5GB Dropbox seems to fit the bill. I may just go back to that.

That sounds like a good solution.

I manually back up my laptop files twice - - once to an external hard drive, and once to a thumb drive. I do this every weekend. My backups are less than 50 GB because I only back up data files and so on; programs can be re-installed to a new laptop should there be an emergency. Back when I still had and used my desktop, I did the same but one of my desktop backups was to my laptop and vice versa.

I never feel the need to access any of my files from phone or iPad, though, so this probably wouldn't work for you.