Anyone have decent experience with OneDrive?

andreah1

Member
Member
Messages
80
Trying to find something easy that both myself and my mother (70) can understand regarding photo/document storage. I currently use Mozy to backup/store my photos and documents and my mom uses dell datasafe. Obviously if we're both just using these as a picture/document backup it would be much cheaper if we could use OneDrive instead.
I'm pretty clear (I think) that it works somewhat the same, all pictures and documents (whatever we choose) will be uploaded to OneDrive and the original will stay on the c drive of the computer. Can it be set up to upload any new files each evening, etc. (like a back up program would) or does it automatically upload as soon as you put a new pic on the computer? And the biggest question is, what if the computer flatlines and windows 8.1 has to be reloaded - will I be able to restore all my photos and documents from OneDrive so that I have a copy on my computer's c drive as well?
I know some would say just have them all on OneDrive and use that as your drive for pictures instead of having duplicates - one set on the c drive and one set on OneDrive but I'm very cautious and want to be sure there is always a 2nd set somewhere (actually a 3rd set because we both also back them up to an external hard drive).
I hope I am making some sort of sense here.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
If you save them to the OneDrive folder as default this will create 2 copies of them, one locally on your PC and also one stored on OneDrive, it doesn't only put them on OneDrive, doing it this way it is very easy to get them back on your PC if you every re install, just select folder and say make available offline and it will copy them back down again

alternatively you could store them locally in the photos folder and manually do a copy to the OneDrive photos folder every so often, this would give you three copies though, locally in the photos folder, locally in the onedrive folder and online at onedrive, then if you do a reinstall for whatever reason, you can do as above and say make available offline and it will re download them all for you
Not sure of any automatic way of doing this

Personally for me I store them direct into the onedrive photos folder, then I have a local copy and a onedrive cloud copy for if anything goes wrong
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 3521
    CPU
    i5
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon
    Browser
    IE
My advice would be to backup data to a USB attached device (disk or large USB flash drive). I would not trust my data to an on-line storage. One Drive seems to be pretty reliable, but I have more trust in a capability that sits on my desk.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
OneDrive will upload documents and photos as soon as you save them on your PC. You could if you wanted manually pause synching and enable it in the evening but there is so way that I know of to automatically put it on a schedule.

Unless you choose not to copies will remain on your local disk also. Unless you are short of space this is a good idea. You can back them up also to an external drive and if you want use file history you can - this will mean you keep copies of files you delete by mistake. http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2484-file-history-how-use-windows-8-a.html

In the case of failure and re-installation of Windows OneDrive will download everything from MS servers or (if you have a backup) you can restore from that and it will then just download newer things which would be quicker. I have done both and both work fine but the first method (downloading everything from OneDrive servers) took several days as I have a lot of very small files.

I find it easy to use. I use dropbox also which is much faster at synching but you get much less free storage and it isn't as easy - at least I think so.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro Prieview x64
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    MacBook Pro Core2Duo
    CPU
    T7600
    Memory
    3
    Graphics Card(s)
    ATI Radeon X1600
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Internal
    Screen Resolution
    1440 x 800
    Hard Drives
    40GB
    Keyboard
    Apple
    Mouse
    Apple
    Internet Speed
    Varies
    Browser
    Various
    Antivirus
    Defender
Thanks for the info, looking like it wouldn't work for me, I have limited data per month (satellite) and need to set my stuff to back up at night when uploading is free. But, may work for my mom. Trying to figure out what would be easiest for her, she doesn't understand a lot of it and it's easiest for her if she wants to get a picture to go the the "my pictures" folder and look for it in there....trying to get her to go to a new folder may be close to impossible. I don't want to have too many places for her to look, but saving them to the OneDrive folder and having it automatically upload also to the cloud would make the most sense, ugh, trying to get her to look in that folder instead of my pictures is going to be a pain. Can't teach an old dog new tricks.
WHS - we do back up to an external drive as well so we're covered there. I'll have to talk to her and see if this sounds like something she could get used to. For the most part, all she needs to get used to is looking for photos in the OneDrive folder and not the pictures folder, right? Maybe I'M the one screwed up, ha ha!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
Hi there. OneDrive is a pretty straight-forward means of storing and sharing data. Having an 8.1 tower PC and an 8.1 Windows Phone it is very convenient. They both have apps to work within. Here’s a screenshot of the one on my tower. By right clicking the command bar opens at the bottom.

SS1.png

The app also has “This PC” that is actually the Modern/Metro File Explorer.

SS2.png

SS3.png

You can share via the “Public” folder, or can view each other’s OneDrive online, but need to sign into each other’s accounts to do so. Sign into your Outlook account > Hit the down arrow.

Snip1.PNG

Select “OneDrive” to open the OneDrive page. You can view from any folder.

Snip2.PNG

OneDrive: FAQ - Windows Help

You could upload files from a mobile device when you’re in a free WiFi hotspot to save on data costs.

Edit:

No need to set files to auto upload. You can perform manually through the app or through File Explorer. Simply copy and paste to any folder in OneDrive if using File Explorer. Via command bar in the Store app.

Just for grins, here's the app open on my phone. It scrolls sideways to see other views (recent & shared) as seen at the top.

wp_ss_20140910_0001.png
 
Last edited:

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer T690
    CPU
    Intel Pentium D Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Acer/Intel E946GZ
    Memory
    2GB (max upgrade)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 - PCI Express x16
    Sound Card
    Integrated RealTek ALC888 high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer AL1917W A LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1440 X 900
    Hard Drives
    350 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
    Thumb drives
    PSU
    Standard 250 watt
    Case
    Desktop 7.2" (183mm) W x 17.5" (445mm) L x 14.5"
    Cooling
    Dual case fans + CPU fan
    Keyboard
    Acer Windows PS/2
    Mouse
    Wireless Microsoft Arc
    Internet Speed
    54mbp/s
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    Office Pro 2013 / Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone 8.1DP GDR1
Thanks for your help, I need to sit down and try to read thru everything to get it sunk into my head! Too much going on at once, her computer had to be brought back from the dead (virus) so I'm trying to get things set up to make it easier for her. We would def. want hers to auto upload, she's on dsl so no worries there. For me, I couldn't do it and won't bother. It's worth paying for Mozy to automatically do it every night for me, I'm afraid I would forget. She's in the middle of the 8.1 update right now and I'm trying to figure out if I should have her just say "next" when it asks to sync with OneDrive or to say no and set it up after the fact. Like I said, too much going on all at once! As always, you guys are a huge help, once I can get in front of her computer I will fiddle with OneDrive and see what I can do, hey, it would save her the cost of dell datasafe and that's a plus...that program sucks! I did read that OneDrive will also save your computer settings so that's a plus too....
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
You're quite welcome. :)

Yes, it's a bit to learn, but once you have the general idea understood, it really is a breeze. With an Outlook.com account using it to sign into a device, everything really is all in one place.

The only thing I can think of is that MS gives an X amount of data on OneDrive free by signing up for a Outlook.com account. You can purchase more. Sometimes they have promotions that will include some more data free. I got free data by purchasing my phone through the MS online store. Joining Bing rewards was another.

I never have, but I suppose it will warn when the limit has been reached. You can always go in and clean some out.

Good luck to you and yours. :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer T690
    CPU
    Intel Pentium D Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Acer/Intel E946GZ
    Memory
    2GB (max upgrade)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 - PCI Express x16
    Sound Card
    Integrated RealTek ALC888 high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer AL1917W A LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1440 X 900
    Hard Drives
    350 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
    Thumb drives
    PSU
    Standard 250 watt
    Case
    Desktop 7.2" (183mm) W x 17.5" (445mm) L x 14.5"
    Cooling
    Dual case fans + CPU fan
    Keyboard
    Acer Windows PS/2
    Mouse
    Wireless Microsoft Arc
    Internet Speed
    54mbp/s
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    Office Pro 2013 / Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone 8.1DP GDR1
Another quick way of getting additional space for free

If you have a smart phone/tablet install the onedrive app and enable auto photo upload (backup), this gives you an additional 3GB for nothing
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 3521
    CPU
    i5
    Memory
    4 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    AMD Radeon
    Browser
    IE
Thanks for that, Paul. I forgot that one.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    8.1 Pro X64
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer T690
    CPU
    Intel Pentium D Dual Core
    Motherboard
    Acer/Intel E946GZ
    Memory
    2GB (max upgrade)
    Graphics Card(s)
    Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3000 - PCI Express x16
    Sound Card
    Integrated RealTek ALC888 high-definition audio with 7.1 channel audio support
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Acer AL1917W A LCD
    Screen Resolution
    1440 X 900
    Hard Drives
    350 GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10
    Thumb drives
    PSU
    Standard 250 watt
    Case
    Desktop 7.2" (183mm) W x 17.5" (445mm) L x 14.5"
    Cooling
    Dual case fans + CPU fan
    Keyboard
    Acer Windows PS/2
    Mouse
    Wireless Microsoft Arc
    Internet Speed
    54mbp/s
    Browser
    IE11
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    Office Pro 2013 / Nokia Lumia 1520 Windows Phone 8.1DP GDR1
I'll have her do that, I think I'm going to have her purchase extra anyway as well. I think she's paying 60 bucks a year now so even at 1.99 a month for the smaller package she'll be ahead of the game!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
Don't forget to use the metered connection feature of Windows 8. It was designed for people who have PCs on a limited data plan (i.e., Surface machines over LTE). You can set it on an per-app basis. So for OneDrive, you would enable metered and then tap off when you don't want it to sync and on when you do want it to sync.

The metered feature only works over WiFi and not over Ethernet (as it assumes when you plug in by Ethernet, you have a much larger pool of data because usually only desktops/laptops have Ethernet).
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
I installed the app for her today and uploaded her pics, not happy with it, I was hoping it would keep each folder intact but it just puts all pictures in one place unless you tell it to go to a particular folder. Think this isn't going to be what she wants...she wants to be able to go on there, go to the same folder as it looks on her hard drive and find the picture. Unless I did something wrong all the pictures are just single in the cloud, not in the folders like the are on her hard drive. I have Mozy and everything uploads exactly as I have it, folder by folder. Not sure if I'm making sense. I think I'm going to have her purchase Mozy instead and use one drive just for her phone pictures.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
What the heck did I do wrong then? I went into the app, not in explorer to copy files from c drive to cloud, all that was there was pictures, documents and public. I clicked on pictures, it showed all her pictures (not in their particular folders) and hit select all and it started uploading. Then, when on the start screen, clicked on onedrive again to open the app and then clicked on pictures and all her pictures were there, hundreds and hundreds not looking anything like above.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
okay, some OneDrive tips...

drag and drop the folders with the pictures you want into your OneDrive folder just the way you normally do it (through file explorer or by This PC > OneDrive location). It should automatically sync it. If not, you can force a manual sync by loading up the OneDrive app, clicking on "All Files are Up to date" and then clicking on the Sync button.

Now, more reliable syncing is through Internet Explorer. You can drag and drop on the browser windows as if it's a desktop. It works like a desktop only in IE, not Chrome or Firefox.

However, the limitation is you can't drag and drop folders with IE or Firefox. They just recently added folder drag and drop support with Chrome. But I don't use Chrome. I'm perfectly happy with the above techniques.

Note that you can create the folders manually any way you like. Then highlight all the files and drop them onto the IE browser window (which inside the folder you created).

I only use the OneDrive metro app for manual syncing. It's still missing too many features that are available with the IE web browser interface. However, they've stepped up on improving the Metro app so it's catching up fast.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
Ugh. So it sounds like using the "app" doesn't work as well and doing it the old fashioned way is best. I wanted something easier for her, something she doesn't have to think about. Like with Mozy, every night it does a back up, any new photos or documents I've added to my computer automatically upload and look exactly the same as on my c drive.
I want to know that when she adds a picture to her c drive that it also goes to onedrive (cloud), so she doesn't have to worry about it. Next time I'm on her computer, I'm going to try deleting everything I uploaded today and then moving each folder over as you stated above so that it's started out correctly. Gonna take forever. So then you are saying, once that is done, if she adds a folder to a particular folder (or if she just saves it singly into the my pictures folder) it will sync with onedrive as well?
For some reason I can't get this to sink into my head! :)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
first time setup is always the pain because of all the uploading. but once that's done, it's all super easy

yes, let's say your OneDrive is at this location: C:\OneDrive.
then you have C:\OneDrive\Pictures.
then you have C:\OneDrive\Pictures\grandpa's pics
then you have C:\OneDrive\Pictures\grandma's pics

so in file explorer, you create a folder in grandma's pics called "family trip to Arizona":
C:\OneDrive\Pictures\grandma's pics\family trip to Arizona

then you create a folder within family trip to part 1 and another folder called part 2
C:\OneDrive\Pictures\grandma's pics\family trip to Arizona\part 1
C:\OneDrive\Pictures\grandma's pics\family trip to Arizona\part 2

and then you start moving the files between the folders...

it should all sync.


here's a starting example:
you have a pile of pictures in folders on your computer. they're not in OneDrive yet.
start with a small example of a few pictures in a folder

1) launch IE and go to onedrive.com
2) create all the folders you want within the IE window (you can right-click in the IE window to bring up a context window or you can use the buttons along the top)
3) open up the folder in the IE window.
4) drag the contents of the folder in your file explorer window and drop it onto the IE window (the window showing the desired folder open).

that will automatically upload it to the cloud

now, if you want the local copy as well as the cloud copy, you have to highlight all the files and choose offline access. once the photos are tagged as offline, they'll stay synced between online and offline. which is good and bad. good in that your local mirrors your cloud. bad meaning that if you delete it off your HDD, it'll delete the cloud copy. of course, OneDrive has recycle bin support so if you accidentally delete it, you can recover it.

the reason why you need online or offline access is your OneDrive storage can be huge. but HDD or SSD storage is precious. so sometimes you want to store your pictures online and not waste your HDD space. So this way, you can store your life pictures in the cloud without worrying about wasting local storage space. And when there's a picture you want local, you just download that local picture.

sometimes you just want some pictures to be offline access.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
So, once I have all the folders uploaded will they automatically upload after that, whenever she saves a pic? And if it's not in any folder (just in my pictures) will it upload as well?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Inspiron 660
    Graphics Card(s)
    nvidia geforce gt430
so when you go to save a picture, you can point it to the OneDrive folder that's local. that will then automatically sync to the OneDrive in the cloud.

same for any type of file
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro
Back
Top