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Tim Hunter's avatar
Tim Hunter
Steel Contributor
Feb 08, 2019
Solved

OneDrive taking up space on C drive

My OneDrive is taking up a lot of space on my C drive. I thought OneDrive was in the Cloud. Did I set it up wrong? Any tips or ideas on how to save space on my C drive when I am using OneDrive? Thanks!

  • rav-006's avatar
    rav-006
    Copper Contributor
    I found this too. However,, if you do not have the "Always keep on this device" setting set in the folder that exists both on OneDrive and your PC, it still keeps is there whenever you access the file but I believe right clicking on the folder on the PC and and choosing "Free up space" will remove it from you PC (but will keep the link to OneDrive). Try this to see if it work for you. This Status in explorer against the file of folder will indicate if the file is on cloud only or also locally. This are only my observations from my experience . Test this to see if it work for you.
  • staceace's avatar
    staceace
    Copper Contributor

    Tim Hunter Hi a bit late but if you locate scanpst.exe and run that, (make sure the ost has not been renamed by the system to ost.corrupt - if it has either back up that and rename it back to .ost) and scanpst should find it offer to back it up then try and repair it. Depending on the state of the ost it may repair it and all will then work as usual. 

  • fswint's avatar
    fswint
    Copper Contributor

    I'm having the same issue. I have two notebooks. The 8-year-old PC is fine, not automatically linked to OneDrive. The new notebook I got about 10 months ago came with OneDrive integrated so thoroughly into the hard drive that you can't tell where OneDrive begins and your own C drive ends. The lines are completely blurred. The easiest thing to do I found is to go into OneDrive Settings and in the pop-pup window, under the Account tab and click on Unlink this PC. BUT when I did that, suddenly, I hardly had any space left on my PC because it seemed like what's on my OneDrive loaded onto the C-drive. That's what happened in my case. You can try that and see if it does on your PCs. It's insidious.

     

    This article may be useful:  What Is OneDrive and How to Stop It From Taking Over Your Computer? 

     

  • Elsie2724's avatar
    Elsie2724
    Copper Contributor
    Before reading this, I almost permanently deleted all my files from my C:\OneDrive not knowing that it would have deleted everything from my OneDrive too! OMG! My whole life would have been lost. What is the sense of having OneDrive if the files are going to be stored on you C:Drive anyway? SMH. Microsoft you need to hire American workers who use these applications on a daily basis.
    • MarkPIa's avatar
      MarkPIa
      Copper Contributor

      Yeah, that sure is not the behavior you would expect from onedrive.  I do not think that Microsoft does a good job explaining how and why onedrive behaves the way it does.  I do not rely on Onedrive or my Google drive as my only source for my data.  I back up everything to a thumb drive.  But because of the amount of data I now have stored on onedrive, I only perform a full backup about every 2 months.  I guess I need to stop being lazy and set it up so it does an incremental backup. One area I found confusing is all the little status icons that can be next to each file.  Microsoft likes to add all types unnecessary bloat to Windows.  Now, when you hover over the file, a bubble will pop up telling you what the status is.  I just do not know why sometimes it says Sync pending.  Not sure some of my folders always say this.  if I right click on onedrive at the lower right hand side of my task bar, it says onedrive is all set.  Yet some of my folders and files say a sync is pending.  Very confusing.  Elsie2724 

      • Randoid's avatar
        Randoid
        Copper Contributor
        My naïve experience with OneDrive reminds me of a favorite farside cartoon of a momma bear holding two small skulls and talking to her cubs. "Ok, one more time and it's off to bed for the both of you...'Hey, Bob. Think there are any bears in this old cave?'...'I dunno, Jim. Let's take a look.' "

        OneDrive might be more of a replication service for small amounts of data and small files. It takes cache to do this. Make a change and the file propagates to other configured locations. It's not a backup. Deleting it anywhere deletes it everywhere - so it increases the risk of a lost file. However, there is a chance you can undelete it via the web access to OneDrive. (I did that to get back my files when I tried to get out of OneDrive and thought I could delete something in one place and not affect the other.)

        DFS replication is more efficient. An enterprise is not going to double or triple the size of SANs for a DFS cache.

        My experience years ago with $2K TB SSD drive was not fun. I needed a lot of fast storage for media and building/running VMs. It was a surprise when my drive filled up. (There was the original 400GB on C, 400 GB in a cache on C, and the 400 GB in the cloud.) I can't run VMs from the cloud, so I had to keep the local copy and remove the cache. When I tried to disentangle, I lost files and time...a lot of time...trying to undo the damage. I still see OneDrive as a risk to data and productivity.

        I might be willing to use it for a small PowerShell profile. If run scripts on different machines, the same profile would be available in other location. However, linking my OneDrive to a servers is scary. So, in the end, I really wish OneDrive was not entangled with my work. I noticed that my powershell profile paths are already to the OneDrive path...without my wanting them there. I have lost control and understanding of my development environment. I'd uninstall it, but I am afraid to do so.
  • IT_Expert_Guru's avatar
    IT_Expert_Guru
    Copper Contributor

    Tim Hunter 

    This is a basic settings while we configure/sync one drive for business. When you sync one drive that time you can choose another drive instead of C:\ drive. 

    One drive is a cloud storage but when you sync it on your system it will consume local storage but there is option that you mention which files you don't need to sync.

    Hope this will help, if still you have any query than please let us know. We are here to help

    • Michael_B2325's avatar
      Michael_B2325
      Copper Contributor

      IT_Expert_Guru WHAT THE HELL IS THE POINT OF ONE DRIVE IF IT IS TAKING UP LOCAL SPACE ON MY F*CKING COMPUTER. ARE YOU PEOPLE SERIOUS?

      • jacqueswilliam's avatar
        jacqueswilliam
        Copper Contributor
        So I i'm paying for 1T of cloud storage .well let me transfer 50 gigs of images/avi files.....wait a min.... I dont have what? enough memory(WTF) on my C; drive...this is the part you keep quiet about knowing anything about computers....

        explain this to anyone who knows how to think
  • nino-'s avatar
    nino-
    Copper Contributor

    Hi Tim Hunter,

     

    You should consider filePod. 

    filePod is miniature, encrypted, cloud-enabled, personal storage device (with support for up to 2TB SDXC card). It can be configured with as many OneDrive accounts and you can use it on any of your computers interchangeably.

    To your computer, it looks like a simple USB flash drive but it has its own quad-core processor and does all the synchronization between your cloud storage accounts independently and automatically using its own WiFi connection. So you can even switch computers and continue working on any of your laptops at any time.

    It will also natively work with other cloud storage services such as Dropbox and Google Drive allowing you to easily move your content around and organize it the way you want it. It is now available on Kickstarter -- http://msonedrivee.fnd.to/filepod 

    A small, personal, smart quad-core computing device with up to 2TB SDXCUse as an ordinary USB drive (e.g. via Microsoft Explorer)Add as many OneDrive accounts you like

    • Bobapingu's avatar
      Bobapingu
      Copper Contributor

      nino- 

      I don't even understand OneDrive despite Mocrosoft continually telling me it's easy.  Yes, maybe I'm dumb.  However, your proposal sounds like a whole new level of complexity overlaid onto OneDrive.  Way too dangerous for my precious files.

      • Leemlin1971's avatar
        Leemlin1971
        Copper Contributor

        Bobapingu 

        I totally agree ... I just bought a new desktop and I was using OneDrive to sync between my laptop and desktop - until I suddenly got all these messages about running out of space ... wouldn't open certain crucial documents.   What a mess!   I do not recommend OneDrive at all.  Not user friendly at all!

    • Bobapingu's avatar
      Bobapingu
      Copper Contributor

      VasilMichev 
      Still confused.  I have a lot of crucial data on my PC 😧 drive.  I tried to put into the OneDrive cloud as a backup and to be able to access it from elsewhere.  It ended up putting a lot of it, but not all, on my C: drive, who knows why.  I now have two versions of some of the data.  This poses a serious dilemma.  It doesn't seem to sync but I'm afraid that if I delete the C: drive version, it will also delete the critical 😧 drive version.  I just don't understand OneDrive at all.  It promises so much but delivers a hotchpotch.  Can someone please explain it in plain English, not computer jargon?  

      • Gigels's avatar
        Gigels
        Copper Contributor

        Bobapingu I have the same dilemma and it sucks that Microsoft's developer's never thought this through properly.  I have now a heck of a job sorting out my data because of this.

        I moved all files to d drive - it re-created again in my profile on c-drive I tried deleting all online after downloading to a new  HHD directory separate to OneDrive, then separately moved all the new c-drive files to the HDD directory so as to compare the files, delete the copies not needed and compare and then delete the unwanted copy, this with the intent that I can then reorganize back to the cloud as I want, but no this doesn't work either. now I have multiple versions etc snd still apparent or phantom copies are being created without my direction.  Not only that but now all my mailmerged files are screwed up because of the change in locations (loads of work now there to do to correct that - not happy) also because I have had to continue generating documents, and work on files etc in the meantime I now don't know exactly where my latest version of good files are, and by opening up other files to see if they are the version I want it compounds the issue further

         

        This is disasterous - shame on you Microsoft. yo should not b in control of my data to my detrimenmt and that is the case

        It is similar with Icloud and Dropbox because of the sync process and the way the preority thinking has been done by the programmers

         

        when I eventually get a resolve I will post trhe safe method

         

    • Jeff_Parker's avatar
      Jeff_Parker
      Brass Contributor

      It is also possible to move the library to another (larger) local drive, if you have one.

      • The_Real_Riff's avatar
        The_Real_Riff
        Copper Contributor

        Jeff_Parker Excellent, at last! Didn't used to be able to move it. Idiotic from Microsoft to assume it would be on a System Drive.

    • Tim Hunter's avatar
      Tim Hunter
      Steel Contributor

      Hi VasilMichev 

       

      I was able to change the settings so the files are not stored locally, however, once you click on a file in File Explorer, then it downloads locally. Is there a way to stop the downloading when you click on the file or is the only way with the right-click then View Online?

      • VasilMichev's avatar
        VasilMichev
        MVP

        If you simply click it, without opening the file, it should not be downloaded. If it does download it, it means you have some additional software messing things up - check every "scanner" type of application you have, as well as every application that has added entries to the right-click menu, applications that generate file previews/templates, etc.

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