Windows 10: How did flash drive contents get on OneDrive in User Folder?

I do not use OneDrive. At least I do not intend to use OneDrive. However, I have just noticed that the OneDrive folder on my hard drive has contents from a flash drive I have inserted into the PC from time to time. I have several questions: (1) How did this most likely happen, since I never used OneDrive deliberately and even tried to remove pathways to it? (2) Does this mean that the contents of the flash drive are on the Microsoft cloud? (3) If the contents are on the cloud, despite MS protestations to the contrary, does this not mean they could be exposed in theory? (4) How can one choose settings n the PC that will really keep the PC's contents off the cloud? FYI, I have Windows 10 latest build and Office 2016 perpetual, without ever using (as far as I can tell) cloud-based Office.

:)

 

Moving folders from OneDrive to C: drive

Hi,

Thank you for the detailed information.

Move the OneDrive folder to a new location. This is useful if you have a limited storage capacity main drive but a separate storage drive and you want your OneDrive content synced to the separate drive.

Move the OneDrive Folder

Move the OneDrive Folder

You can refer to the following work around. This will help you to choose the folders to sync on Onedrive.

• 
  Right click on OneDrive icon of
  System Tray.
  
• 
  Click on Settings, then click on
  choose folders tab.
  
• 
  Click on choose folders option, then click on sync only these folders.
  

Hope this helps. Please do let us know if you need further help.

____________________

Thanks & Regards,

 

This PC leads to the OneDrive folder.

The folders the you see on This PC are linked to your
OneDrive account, therefore when you open the folder or file, the path automatically routes to OneDrive. To prevent this from happening, we suggest that you unlink your
OneDrive account by following the steps provided in the previous post. Once you're done, you can then sign back in and change the path of your
OneDrive folder.

NOTE: OneDrive can sync only with folders on a drive formatted with the NTFS file system, which is most commonly a hard disk drive on your computer, or an external hard disk drive. Portable storage, such as USB flash drives
or solid state memory drives, use a different file system and won't sync with OneDrive.

Let us know if you need further assistance.

 

Can an existing folder be added to OneDrive (without moving contents)?


Very easy to do this using symbolic junction links.

From an admin command prompt, type

mklink /j c:\users\yourname\onedrive\folder1 X:\folder1

where X is the drive letter of the external drive containing your folder containing music files.

See example below. I have a folder on external drive E containing one file - black.png

After creating junction link, there is a dummy folder in the one drive structure, and if you list it, you see the file.

It has not been physically copied to onedrive.

Beauty is you can now sync that onedrive folder to the cloud. If you add a file to the external drive folder, and you have it syncing, the file will automatically be synced to the cloud.

It remains on cloud if you detach external drive.

Of course, you need to make sure external drive is always given the same drive letter.

If you want to remove the symbolic link type

rd c:\users\yourname\onedrive\folder1

This deletes dummy folder AND folder in cloud. If you want to retain in cloud, rename folder in cloud first.