OneDrive and How to Backup or Sync Your Important Files to the Cloud.

Overview

Looking for an effortless way to backup your files on your computer? Then you should look at Microsoft's OneDrive. OneDrive is easy to setup and simple to use, once you understand how it works. As a person who travels quite a bit, I have become a huge fan of OneDrive. My important files are automatically synced from my PC to my cloud OneDrive account, which makes my files always accessible from any of my other devices. As an example, If I work on a Word document in the office, I can pick up where I left off at home by simply logging into my OneDrive account. All my OneDrive files are encrypted making my files protected from hackers. Microsoft also provides a useful OneDrive app for iOS and Android devices, making it easy to read and upload files right from your cell phone or tablet. If I want to share any of my files, I can do so by generating a link that restricts who can use that link. I can also set an expiration on that link so that the link becomes unusable after a period of time. OneDrive offers a ton of features and ton of space for your files storage needs.

How do I get OneDrive?

OneDrive can come in several flavors, but to keep it simple there is the OneDrive stand-alone products and the OneDrive for Business. OneDrive Basic is one of the personal versions available and can be had for free provided you have a Microsoft account. If you ever had Hotmail, Live, Skype or Office 365 then you already have a Microsoft account. If you've never used any of these services then you can create a free account through Microsoft here.

OneDrive Basic offers 5 gigabytes of storage which won't be enough for all your pictures and videos but may be enough to backup your important documents and desktop files. For an extra $1.99 a month, you can increase your OneDrive Basic storage to 50 gigabytes of storage. If you or your organization is currently subscribed to an Office 365 Business Premium Plan which includes OneDrive for Business, then your available storage is a whopping 1 terabyte. Which should be plenty to cover your entire system and then some. Along with a OneDrive for Business Premium Plan, you also get Word, Excel, PowerPoint & more.

How do I setup OneDrive?

This is a basic example on how to setup OneDrive and save the "My Documents“ library on a PC, to the cloud. This library is your typical default location for all your saved documents on a Windows machine. As stated this is a small sample of some of OneDrive’s features.

Sample of a Basic OneDrive setup & install:

Start the OneDrive install.

1. When prompted, enter your Microsoft Account email address.

2. Next, Enter your password.

3. Next, accept the default or change the name of your OneDrive folder. Any files or folders located here are synced to the cloud.

4. Next on the Sync files from your OneDrive screen accept default files and folders to be synced. This may not have any files or folders listed as this could be a brand-new setup and you have not yet selected files and folders to be synced.

5. Now you can open your OneDrive folder. OneDrive files will appear in File Explorer in the OneDrive folder.

6. Now you can drag, drop, move, or copy files to this new OneDrive folder you've just created.

7. To view any of your files online, go to your OneDrive account in your browser. To get to your account quickly, right mouse click on the could icon in the lower right of your screen and select View Online.

Should I backup or sync my files to OneDrive?

Once OneDrive is downloaded, the setup is straight forward. I outline a basic setup below. What you must decide is how you want to use this tool. OneDrive gives you the option of using this tool to backup or sync your files to the cloud.

The differences are very small but could make an enormous difference when you need to recover your files later. Syncing, is when a change is made to your content and is replicated in the OneDrive cloud, making your latest change available anywhere you connect to OneDrive. Although you may think that this is a backup, it really isn't. If you accidentally change or delete a file on your local machine, that file is also changed or deleted in OneDrive, because that file is synced. You can get around this by going to the recycle bin and recover the file. It's also important to note that your cloud copies of your files can be vulnerable to viruses and malware as these files can be synced from the infected system. OneDrive for business does offer a nifty feature to help in this situation and I do recommend that you read my blog "How to use OneDrive to Protect Your Files from a Ransomware Attack" as a tool to mitigating malware attacks. I outline OneDrive’s unique feature to restore from a previous date prior to the attack.

If you want to have more of a traditional Backup solution, and this is optional, OneDrive gives you the option to "unlink" your folder and/or files from getting synced. This allows you to initially sync your files to OneDrive and then once you confirmed that your files have been copied to OneDrive, you can unlink them so that your files will remain unchanged in OneDrive. At this point, syncing will only take place when you manually tell it to.

To unlink your folder or file(s):

1. Click on the cloud icon in the lower part of your screen.

2. Select More, and then Settings, then click the Account tab.

3. Now click "Unlink this PC".

4. Now your OneDrive folder in the cloud will not sync with your PC but your files are stored, protected, and can be viewed in your OneDrive online account.

5. To add files to your cloud backup, simply log into your account and choose the upload file option to add your file.

To re-link your files and folders, you'll need to run through the OneDrive setup process again and re-select the previously created OneDrive folder.

In closing :)

As I mentioned previously in this article, OneDrive offers a ton of features and worthy of your time to look. Should you need help with setting up OneDrive on your PC or have general questions, please reach out to me at MyOfficeTutor.com or email me at amylers@myofficetutor.com.