Windows 10: OneDrive that uses symbolic linked directory

I have about 950GB of data stored in OneDrive on my Windows 10 machine. But my disk is only 500 GB. I am able to do this by defining a linked folder from C:\OneDrive that points to a second drive mklink /J C:\OneDrive\NoBackup W:\OneDrive.All works fine until I need to select a folder from OneDrive, which I have not synced until now. The Windows OneDrive applications calculates the space already used by OneDrive as the total of OneDrive data that is downloaded to my machine on both C and W drives, and ignores that fact that I still have 200GB free on C drive.Sounds like a bug to me? Any wo

:)

 

Use symbolic links (mklink) to sync OneDrive, does it still work?

Hello,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Symbolic links are used to link a local path of the local OneDrive folder. Files that are put in the linked location will be added to the local OneDrive and will be synchronized to your OneDrive. The mklink command is used to create symbolic links
at the command prompt. To create a symbolic link to a folder, you must first create a target folder in the local OneDrive and then use the command.

As the query is related to OneDrive, I would like to inform you that we have a dedicated team for OneDrive in-app support. Please post your query in OneDrive support forum by following the steps.

1. Sign in to OneDrive.com from any web browser.

2. Click on ‘?’ help icon on the top banner of the page.

3. Select Email OneDrive support.

4. Submit your question and follow the prompts to request support.

Hope it helps.

Mala S

Microsoft Community - Moderator

 

Mklink - Symbolic Link with NAS & Onedrive

This does work, and I used it to point OneDrive to my Synology NAS. However, there is a caveat.

If (when) your OneDrive account becomes disconnected and you reconnect, it will look to the directory with your symbolic links in it and decide if the local drive the links are located on has sufficient space for the files in your NAS location. If not, it will present you with a message about negative disk space - see image Negative Disk Space and won't allow you to 'Next' .




You can, of course, deselect files and folders to sync, and continue. You will be able to access the files through the OneDrive folder, but new or changed files won't sync, which does rather defeat the purpose of OneDrive!

For you to recover from a disconnect, your locally declared OneDrive location must be larger than the file space occupied by your files in your actual NAS location.

I overcame this problem by moving my local OneDrive location to a drive that had more empty space than the files occupying my NAS. To do this I created a OneDrive directory on a 2 terabyte internal drive and recreated the Symbolic Links from my original OneDrive location in it (I didn’t want to risk a copy or move of the existing symbolic links in case something untoward happened as a result). Then I unlinked OneDrive from the PC via the Settings in the OneDrive app.

Restarting the app prompted me to log in and then accept or alter the default location for OneDrive. I selected the OneDrive directory I had created on the 2 terabyte drive and away it went. OneDrive did the math on the local drive disk space vs the space taken on the NAS via the symbolic links, concluded there was now sufficient for synchronisation and signed me in.

After a short while, OneDrive confirms the local data (on the NAS) is synced with the cloud and we are good to go.

Hope my experience is helpful to others.

 

Symbolic link (Junction/s), how-to mklink? Please help with Junction?

Hi all, having been a member at Seven then Ten forums for a fair while I'm hoping to find a straight answer here..? Apologies in advance if this is too verbose.
Windows 10 system booting from (UEFI) NVME with 2xSSDs + 2 MHDDs for storage...

An application (Xperia Companion) which will not let me select or personalise the location for saving backups of my cellular phone data...

Think I found a fair definition of the differences at the Computer hope site which would suggest it's a Junction I need:

I want Xperia companion to save backups to F:\Sony Backups NOT the default C:\Users\GD\Documents\Sony. Would the Junction (link) allow me to to fulfill my wants and could someone please demonstrate the mklink commands needed?

with thanks and regards,
Dave