Windows 10: How do I move files from a OneDrive cloud back to my hard drive with missing document...

I had a popup request from Microsoft that I thought was for archiving some files to the OneDrive cloud. Apparently, it moved ALL my Document files and the "C" drive link to the OneDrive. I can see my C drive which was not part of the upload just the "Documents" files got uploaded but cannot get them back on my laptop drive which now appears as in the cloud. I have tried to setup a new "C" drive, tried to move the files that are used every day back to the drive, but all in vain. When I tried to move the files, it appears that there are 2 mirror images of what should be on my laptop but the

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Recent shortcuts for apps show files on OneDrive instead of local hard drive

I was able to follow the steps and uncheck the "Use Office apps to sync" box but it didn't change Office's behavior. I opened and closed an Excel spreadsheet on my local hard drive. After that, when I right-clicked on the Excel icon pinned to the taskbar, a link to the OneDrive cloud file was in the list of recent files instead of a link to the file on my hard drive.

Do you have any other suggestions?

Thanks!

 

OneDrive Not Synching Files on Hard Drive to the Cloud

I have Windows 10 Home Edition and Microsoft 365, I am trying to use OneDrive to store my folders and files online and automatically back them up as I modify the copy of the file stored on my hard drive.

I have uploaded them to the cloud successfully, but when I modify the files on my hard drive the online copy (in the cloud) does not automatically synch to the updated version on my hard drive.

Am I correct in thinking that it should? And if I am correct, how do I enable automatic synching of the new version of a file on my hard drive with the online version?

The folders I wish to synch are not under ...\Documents\..., but are on a non-system drive (D:\).

 

Can I simulate OneDrive with an external-hard drive instead of the Cloud?

Using OneDrive, I can

• Select a folder to sync to the Cloud
  
• Optionally, set all files to exist only on the Cloud
  
• Free up space on my computer (C
  

Using a symbolic link I can

• Make an imaginary folder on my computer which actually resides on an external hard drive
  
• Add files to it - these are actually saved in the external drive but appear to exist on my computer
  
• Free up space on my computer
  

Pretty similar right? The end effect of both processes is to take files on my computer and store them elsewhere (cloud and external drive respectively), whilst still making them appear (to explorer at least) to reside somewhere on my C drive.

The difference is this; OneDrive leaves a skeleton of the folder's contents (placeholder files and sub-directories) on the computer. Crucially, this means you can add files to the folder even without internet connection (connection to the Cloud storage).

With a symbolic directory, if my hard drive is unplugged, there's nothing I can do to edit the folder structure - there are no placeholder files and sub-directories saved on my C drive. This means I can't use the folder unless my hard-drive is plugged in.

Is there any structure/ utility available in Windows which would allow an external hard-drive to be used in place of cloud storage?

A workaround is to keep some sort of clone of the files on my computer - and a script that detects whether the drive is plugged in and redirects the sym-link to the "offline" clone when it's not. But I feel that there's a lot more nuance to consider, and it would be re-inventing the wheel.

+I'm not sure what to use as placeholder files (more symlinks?) - placeholder directories would just be standard folders because they take up barely any space anyway.