Can I delete the SkyDrive duplicate files in my laptop?

[kmint]

I use SkyDrive as my cloud storage and have 5GB of files in it.

But I want it to be IN THE CLOUD and hidden, not accesible to everyone using my laptop and not duplicate copies of the files in my hard disk (actually triplicate copies).

For example, let's say my 3GB music collection. I keep a copy in my hard disk within "My Music", a copy in the cloud in Skydrive, but now I have a third copy in my hard disk within the Skydrive folder, which I didn't want and I wasn't asked about.

Microsoft assumed I want this third copy for some reason and downloaded everything automatically to this Skydrive folder. Great.

So, the first thing I do is uninstalling Skydrive, if I want to upload something I do it via browser, but the folder and copy of my files is still there.

My question is, can I delete those files, my music collection and so on without deleting at the same time the copy in the cloud? I mean, if I delete them here they will be deleted in the cloud too?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Wullail]

Copied this from the skydrive FAQ.


What does the SkyDrive folder do?

When you install the SkyDrive desktop app for Windows, a copy of your SkyDrive is downloaded to your PC and put in theSkyDrive folder. This folder is kept in sync with SkyDrive. If you add, change, or delete a file or folder on SkyDrive.com, the file or folder is added, changed, or deleted in your SkyDrive folder and vice versa.

 

[kmint]

But I guess you delete them if Skydrive is uninstalled.

Now... I'm not so sure it is uninstalled... completely, as there is the desktop and metro versions and still that folder is there.

Thanks anyway.

 

[sygnus21]

I use SkyDrive as my cloud storage and have 5GB of files in it.

But I want it to be IN THE CLOUD and hidden, not accesible to everyone using my laptop and not duplicate copies of the files in my hard disk (actually triplicate copies).

For example, let's say my 3GB music collection. I keep a copy in my hard disk within "My Music", a copy in the cloud in Skydrive, but now I have a third copy in my hard disk within the Skydrive folder, which I didn't want and I wasn't asked about.

Microsoft assumed I want this third copy for some reason and downloaded everything automatically to this Skydrive folder. Great.

So, the first thing I do is uninstalling Skydrive, if I want to upload something I do it via browser, but the folder and copy of my files is still there.

My question is, can I delete those files, my music collection and so on without deleting at the same time the copy in the cloud? I mean, if I delete them here they will be deleted in the cloud too?

Thanks in advance.

Hi kmint,

That's a good question. However I'm pretty sure if you delete the folders on the local drive and they're sync'd to those in cloud, they'll be deleted as well.

That said, you don't need double or triplicate folders with the same info. You can should be able to just delete the duplicates and keep the one that's sync'd to the cloud. You just need to make sure the ones you delete are not the ones sync'd.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/25054-skydrive-desktop-app-choose-folders-sync-your-pc.html

I would just backup the info and delete the folders to see what happens. This may also answer your do they get deleted as well question.

BTW even if you create a folder in Skydrive itself, it will show up in the folder under Windows Explorer.

 

[sygnus21]

Umm... thanks I guess, but could you at least let us know if it could be done. Also didn't know there was a tutorial.

 

[kmint]

The question is that SkyDrive acts different in 8.1.

In 8.0 I just uninstalled it and problem solved. Now it won't go away.

See these screenshots. In the first one you will that it is not in my list of installed programs. In the second one you can see it is still there in System32. The desktop version may be gone but it's still there in the Metro version.

So... can we get rid of Skydrive (both Metro and desktop) or not? I don't want to delete anything accidentally from the cloud.

 

[sygnus21]

Yeah as I said earlier, Microsoft did some upgrades to it. I'm sure it's now part of the update. I doubt you can uninstall it now.

BTW, I thought it was also part of Windows 8 anyway. Didn't think you could uninstall it than. I think, at most, you can just remove it from the Metro screen.

Did you see Brinks link to his tutorial posted in my post. You might check it out, maybe it'll solve your issue as to why you now want it uninstalled.

Good luck

 

[kmint]

Ok, cool, so this means I will be moving my cloud files to Google Drive. End of the story.

How to make good old customers run away. By Microsoft.

I used SkyDrive from the very beginning, but I don't take this.