Windows 10: OneDrive sync removing files stored on my hard drive

I transferred my pictures from OneDrive to my hard drive and turned off the OneDrive because working in OneDrive is excruciatingly slow. I edit and RENAME photos in multiple files. Decided I should sync my photos with OneDrive to store them in the cloud, so switch it one and onedrive replaces my entire "Photos" folder with a shortcut link to OneDrive pictures and none of my RENAMED pictures can be found, and my HARD DRIVE files are nowhere to be found. How can I retrieve them. They are NOT in my hard drive or OneDrive recycle bins. Why would OneDrive "vanish' files with different names from an

:)

 

Stored files in Hard Drive

I'd like to know if there's a way of listing all the files stored in my hardware and arrange them by size, because I want to keep track of what's on my hard drive. Thanks, I hope you answer.

 

Stored files in Hard Drive

You can use Windows search. Just search for *.* on a desired drive. When list is done just arrange them by size LOL.

You can do it via command line as well and make an output text file showing files and their sizes (but without arrangement)

 

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!