How do I fix a mess I created with OneDrive, iDrive and Documents/Desktop folders

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PhilHoppes

So I thought I was helping a friend with his PC. There is a sorted history which explains why I did what I did, suffice it to say I did not accomplish what I set out to do. Rather than delve into the history lets look at what currently exists on the PC and hopefully there is a good solution to this.


I set up the computer to backup the Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Videos folders on OneDrive. I "thought" to do this all I needed to do was move the directories out of the user directory into the OneDrive directory. I did this with a drag-n-drop Move command. I discover the Settings method of doing this AFTER I actually did a move on the directories. This all appeared to work....at first. In addition to this, the PC has a subscription to iDrive to backup everything. I set up iDrive to do backups also.


Needless to say all of this failed spectacularly. I found iDrive was failing because the "files" in Documents/Desktop/ .....etc. are not files at all but links because the files are all kept up in the cloud but because they are in the cloud iDrive cannot back them up. So I went into the OneDrive settings and told it to keep all of the files local as well as in the cloud. OneDrive proceeded to do this with the exception that it never reconciled itself completely. I say this because there are flies on the computer that have a X on the file icon. The application cannot open the file because it is "not there". Now, if I go up and use a web browser and from there log into the OneDrive account in the cloud, locate the file up in the cloud, I can open the file up. Not only that. When I open the file in the cloud, now the file can be opened on the local directory because it has been downloaded and now actually exists.


I suspected that my moving the Document folder phyically into the OneDrive folder may have caused the issue so I did a move back to put the Documents folder under the user folder, where it normally should be. About half of the files actually moved. The files that moved were all of the files/folders that have a X on the icon. The files and folders that did not move are all of the files that locally existed and were not a link. So what I have now looks like this:


OneDrive in the cloud using Web Browser


Documents

Folder A

foo.bar

foo2.bar

foo3.bar

foo4.bar


On the PC at location \users\username\OneDrive\Documents

Documents

Folder A

foo.bar

foo1.bar


On the PC at location \users\username\Documents

Documents

Folder A

foo3.bar (Has X on system icon and will not open)

foo4.bar (Has X on system icon and will not open)


Now....if I go to the web and just double click foo3.bar it will open in the web browser AND the file will download to the

PC at location \users\username\OneDrive\Documents and I can now open it up on the desktop.


I have about 20,000 files that exist up in the cloud but don't show in the OneDrive\Documents folder but are seen in the \username\Documents folder

but I cannot open them up. I cannot possibly go through one by one and open them on the web to copy them down so I can fix this. Is there a procedure where I can have windows fix all of this and not lose any data?

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