Windows 10: How to migrate files without confusing One Drive

I have a question which I just can't seem to find a straight answer to. I even tried contacting Microsoft support about it, but regretted that rather quickly, sadly.

My question is this:

I have circa 200 GB of files fully synced with OneDrive. I have a number of PCs all signed into my OneDrive account. They are all set to use all files offline, so any change on one PC automatically propagates throughout the others. This setup works well for me.

I want to buy a new PC when Win 10 is released next month. It is critical for me that I will be able to access all my files as soon as the PC is built and ready. I therefore need to copy all my files to that PC.

The 'easy but slow' option is to set up windows on the new PC, sign in to OneDrive and wait for the files to sync over the internet. The problem is that with the volume of files I have, this will take a week + on my internet connection. That is just not reasonable.

I would much prefer to copy all the files to an external HD and transfer them locally. This would be much faster and exactly how I would have done this pre-cloud storage.

But, if I do this and copy the files locally, will OneDrive get confused and upload the copied files and effectively result in me having two copies of everything?

I really don't want to mess this up. On the one-hand, if I wait for the files to sync over the internet I am unable to use my new PC fully for a week. On the other, if I make a local copy, I am worried that I will make a huge mess of my OneDrive files.

So the short question is - how do I copy across a large volume of files locally without upsetting OneDrive?

I am surprised no-one else has this problem.

I am sorry if there is already an answer to this here - I did a search but could not find anything.

Thanks

:)

 

windows 10 transfer OS to different internal storage

The answer to your question, if I were to answer it, would be longer than would fit here. So, I've provided a link to a guide below that will help you. If you don't like that particular one, you can search Google; there are lots more.

How
to Migrate to a Solid-State Drive Without Reinstalling Windows

If you have any questions (including any about the particular content/step in the process), don't hesitate to ask.

 

System Memory Utilization

Thanks for the quick response. I just bought a new Dell desktop and didn't think about the system drive just having 128GB of storage without a management system that either placed all data or non-program files on the larger drive. Is there a better way
to migrate programs and files from an old PC to a new one?

 

You aren't really getting how OneDrive works. It works by hashing your files and determining if there are any changes. If the files are the same as the files on the server, they won't be uploaded.

Even if they are, you won't have "two copies", as OneDrive does not keep versions of files, it would just overwrite the file with the same file (but it won't do that, because the files will be unchanged)

 

Thanks for that - so am I right in thinking that if I copy the files across locally, keeping folder structure etc identical, I will have no problems with OneDrive? This is exactly what I was hoping to hear, thanks.

Incredibly this is the exact opposite of what Microsoft told me. They categorically told me I could not copy files across locally and my only option would be to sync them all over the internet. I was frankly astonished at that advice, but that was the advice I received.

 

My experience with using it is the same as the response from MS (but this was with an earlier build)

You can copy the files across locally, but this will cause Onedrive to re upload them all (even though the files are identical), the only way to get this to work properly is to download from onedrive using the app and set the folders to sync

 

Being so important, and given that there is conflicting information, can you not test by adding just a few files to a new box? You obviously would have to work out how to know what was actually happening, though. Maybe monitoring the upload traffic?

From personal experience (not with Onedrive) I know where you are coming from. File syncing can be a fraught experience, and, like you say, it is hard to get definitive info. Versioning or no versioning is very important to know about as well. What happens if a file gets deleted or trashed locally?

Look forward to a happy result in your case. Let's know how you go.

 

I will give it a go and see what happens and report back (it will be a month from now or so) - but it's crazy that there isn't a definitive answer.

This must be one of the huge downsides of cloud storage - is it really expected that all new PC builds can only be populated with copy files by syncing from the cloud? What about those like me who have large volumes of data stored or those with limited bandwidth connections?

 

This is for an older version of One Drive but it may still be helpful.

Move SkyDrive folder location without re-downloading all files

 

Let me clarify a few things here. First, i'm talking about the current OneDrive in Windows 10. One of the problems here is that the "old" version did not actually download files when you synced them. The new version does. So in the old version, this was a major issue.

There still won't be "two copies" even if it does upload the files a second time.

 

Thanks, but that describes how to move the folder on the same PC. In fact, since 8.1 you can do this without having to hack the registry, see:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/o...e-36a8eab9446a

 

I appreciate that - I've never used 'placeholder' files anyway, all my files are stored locally and all available offline. I can see that placeholder files can cause confusion (although I do think they are very useful if you have one device with more limited storage, like my surface pro) but I don't use them - so it really would just be a case of copying all the files to an external drive and moving them across.

Your money is on this being a relatively hassle free process?

 

Hoping to find an definite answer to this before 10 comes out

I will be in a similar situation when 10 comes out, don't want to have to download it all or cause onedrive to re upload

 

I copied my local backup of Onedrive files to my Windows 10 build 10130 version of Onedrive without difficulty. Admittedly only 6.5GB in total. The Windows 10 local version of Onedrive synced files with the cloud - it did not copy them all up again.

 

Sounds promising, looks like it has been fixed since I last tried