[anon(9683589)]

I have a Lenovo laptop running W10 and I'm trying to set up OneDrive for my docs and photos. As I understand it, the sync functionality will mean anything stored in the cloud will have a corresponding local copy on my hard drive...
All sounds great so far - however, what I'm concerned about is whether the cloud copy will disappear in the (unlikely!) event that my laptop breaks or I lose any files. In other words the sync will look for a local copy of a photo on my laptop, see that its not there and will then remove the cloud version.

Have I got this right? If so, seems like syncing between cloud and device is a bit of a risk.... ?

[ttsoldier]

I have a Lenovo laptop running W10 and I'm trying to set up OneDrive for my docs and photos. As I understand it, the sync functionality will mean anything stored in the cloud will have a corresponding local copy on my hard drive...
All sounds great so far - however, what I'm concerned about is whether the cloud copy will disappear in the (unlikely!) event that my laptop breaks or I lose any files. In other words the sync will look for a local copy of a photo on my laptop, see that its not there and will then remove the cloud version.

Have I got this right? If so, seems like syncing between cloud and device is a bit of a risk.... ?

No, you've got it wrong. I have been using one drive since I can remember, storing my files there.

I sync it between My surface and phones. Your info would never been deleted from the cloud. If you delete a local copy of a photo ( in the one drive folder) , it will sync and be deleted from onedrive.live.com

If you delete it from onedrive.live.com, it will be deleted on your computer as well when it syncs.

If your laptop crashes, blows up, stolen, falls off a cliff or sinks in the ocean, your files will remain on onedrive.live.com

You will only lose files you delete.

[anon(9683589)]

OK thanks for your response. Makes sense apart from this:

"If you delete a local copy of a photo ( in the one drive folder) , it will sync and be deleted from onedrive.live.com" and "If your laptop crashes, blows up, stolen, falls off a cliff or sinks in the ocean, your files will remain on onedrive.live.com"

How are these different - when a locally-stored file disappears how can onedrive tell whether I deleted a file I no longer needed or my computer crashed and the file was lost? Aren't these the same?

Sorry if I've got this all wrong! ;-)

[Ecm]

ttssoldier is correct. The difference is that deleting a file from a PC or other device is a "knowing act", sending a command through the sync to delete the cloud copy. A hardware failure doesn't send such a command. I have had one drive fail and didn't lose anything in OneDrive.

That said, a backup strategy is all about redundancy. I use OneDrive to have all my working files, most photos and music available on all devices. But, I also back up all files in OneDrive to my NAS.

[ttsoldier]

OK thanks for your response. Makes sense apart from this:

"If you delete a local copy of a photo ( in the one drive folder) , it will sync and be deleted from onedrive.live.com" and "If your laptop crashes, blows up, stolen, falls off a cliff or sinks in the ocean, your files will remain on onedrive.live.com"

How are these different - when a locally-stored file disappears how can onedrive tell whether I deleted a file I no longer needed or my computer crashed and the file was lost? Aren't these the same?

Sorry if I've got this all wrong! ;-)

It's just like ECM said. That's how it works.

I have formatted several devices with my one drive local data on it and it does not affect my One drive.

Just recently I reset my surface pro 4. Logged back in after the reinstall and everything synced as expected.

[anon(9683589)]

Ok cheers both - that makes sense!