ONE DRIVE Correct approach? Just want backup, not sync...

[a_gunslinger]

I just want OneDrive to be a backup, not a sync tool. My hard drive cant accommodate al the data I have backed up to OneDrive.

Here is what I want to do:

Turn off syncing to any folder.
"COPY" a folder to be backed up to the OneDrive location and let it process/upload.
After done processing delete folder from the Onedrive folder on PC.

Will this NOT delete the folder off OneDrive?

 

[a5cent]

Yes. It will sync and delete the file in the cloud too.

OneDrive is not a backup solution. Or at least it's not a good one. Bandwidth is throttled, so transferring a lot of data back and forth takes forever. It's designed to sync a small number of smaller files, not multi-GB backups.

I'd recommend not using the synced folders that way. Use them the way they were intended to be used.

For backup you'd be better off just uploading your stuff directly through the OneDrive web interface.

 

[a_gunslinger]

Thanks for the reply! So just by turning off syncing it can serve as a backup solution?

 

[a5cent]

Thanks for the reply! So just by turning off syncing it can serve as a backup solution?

Yes. It just won't be a good backup solution, because like I said, that's not what OneDrive was built to do.

If you're mainly looking to backup files that never change (video, audio, etc), then I think OneDrive is a viable backup solution, because you can then turn off syncing without having to worry about keeping local and cloud copies of the same files in sync (because they never change). That's more or less just a dump of static data that you'd use only for disaster recovery.

However, if you're looking to backup a large amount of documents that change often, then turning off OneDrive's syncing requires you to find out on your own which files have changed since your last backup and then manually sync only them. That is anything but a user friendly backup solution. Of course you could forget about all of that and just regularly dump all your files onto OneDrive, but due to bandwidth throttling, doing so regularly for large amounts of data can become a pain in the rear.

So again, in a nutshell, OneDrive just isn't a good solution for anything but the most trivial of backup problems. It's not that it can't work. It can, but only for very simple backup scenarios.

If you think you'd find yourself regularly backing up large amounts of changing files, and you want features that most people would associate with a real backup solution (like maintaining a history of file changes, doing differential backups, etc), then you're far better off going with a cloud solution that was built to be a backup solution (like AWS Backup and Restore), which OneDrive just isn't.

 

[a_gunslinger]

Ok, thanks for all the replies. That was my suspicion but wanted to be sure there weren't any known work arounds since this person is so tied to Office 365. AWS is a bit clunky also from my free trial. I signe dup for an unlimited data trial and right off it keeps canceling telling me I have met my quota (even though its unlminted). And cant get a response from Amazon, telling me its not the focus of thier attention.

To data the best I have seen are Crash Plan or 2BrightSparks.

 

[Chintan Gohel]

I just want OneDrive to be a backup, not a sync tool. My hard drive cant accommodate al the data I have backed up to OneDrive.

Here is what I want to do:

Turn off syncing to any folder.
"COPY" a folder to be backed up to the OneDrive location and let it process/upload.
After done processing delete folder from the Onedrive folder on PC.

Will this NOT delete the folder off OneDrive?

If you are looking to backup using onedrive, I have been doing that for a long time and it works quite well for me. My main aim is to upload files like photos and videos so this is what I do. I'm on windows 10

I copy the folder to the onedrive folder and start the sync process. Regardless of how many files there are (15000) or how big the total size is (15GB) the sync goes through without any issue.

Once the folder has synced, I go to onedrive settings and choose not to sync that folder on my pc. So the pc option deletes itself but the onedrive copy stays on onedrive. You don't delete from onedrive but select to not sync that folder after it has finished syncing

I've done backups this way of over 200GB and it was has worked 99% of the time for me. As for throttling speed, I'm not aware of that. Upload speed is really steady unlike using the website where speeds can fluctuate wildly hence taking a longer time to upload

 

[a_gunslinger]

These are all great ideas. Since the group is so Office 365 dependent this may be an option. The issue becomes that these people aren't very tech savvy, and one simple mistake in not understanding about what gets deleted and why, and what settings affect what, there is always a chance for a big mistake. I get it, but sometime non IT non tech savvy people can wreak havoc. I wish OneDrive/Microsoft/Office365 had a basic backup solution as well as a sync solution, or have Azure appear in Office365. But even Azure is complex and clunky.

 

[a5cent]

I'm not an IT admin, but I think most users would hate me if I recommended that they handle backups manually using OneDrive. To me it sounds like you're looking in the wrong place.

Windows has an integrated backup solution. It's called Windows File History and the main reason it would be infinitely better than OneDrive is that it's actually designed to be a backup solution. It sounds like you're required to backup data that each Windows client stores locally. If I'm right about that, I think Windows File History would be a much better solution than OneDrive:

Protect your data files with Windows 10's enhanced File History tool - TechRepublic

Might want to take a look.

 

[a_gunslinger]

Agreed. Not best solution. It just happens that all there data ended up on OneDrive, they use Office 365 for everything, and because OneDrive shows up under Office 365 admin portal they want to try and stick with it. I advised against it but they are a VERY small group of non tech savvy users. I just volunteered to try and organize the chaos. Will check out the Windows File History.