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One Drive in Windows 11 has destroyed access to crucial documents

Anonymous
2022-08-29T10:59:31+00:00

A new Dell laptop with Windows 11 arrived in July set up by a reputable technology company from who I bought the laptop. My husband pays for an annual 365 subscription which is for up to 5 computers. He has windows 10. I used to have windows 10. One Drive on Windows 11 seems to be flawed. One Drive synched a lot of my most needed files and folders on the desktop without me asking it to do so , but in the process ruined access to them on the hard drive and I can't get at them in One Drive either. Years of important work now inaccessible. And the tech guy at Hailsham Technology is at a loss. He came to look. Said he thinks there is an issue and Microsoft will produce a fix. He is thinking about it. I paid him too as he came to ensure I had my external hard drive working as a back up. I have. Thank goodness. But I can't just keep on going into the external hard drive to find documents and folders. Trying to save to documents or a USB and an error message comes up about One Drive. No good giving me complicated suggestions or processes as I am not able to do that.

365 is up for annual renewal in September. The last time ten years ago I tried to get help direct from Microsoft over not being able to save thousands of outlook emails onto a new laptop, the technical advisor , a woman, was rude, hopeless at explaining , took hours to get to and was ultimately completely useless.

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Anonymous
    2022-08-29T12:22:03+00:00

    I'm afraid to say the "Tech" who looked at your PC would appear to be clueless and is giving you a cock and bull story

    OneDrive is not a backup, it’s a cloud location of your data.

    .

    The default installation of Office 365 and its OneDrive component uploads all the contents of the PC  \My Documents\ folders to OneDrive, (syncs) and there will be a OneDrive folder in File Explorer containing all the OneDrive content. And in Word etc the default Save location is set to OneDrive.

    The OneDrive folder in file explorer is a cache copy of the files on OneDrive, delete a file there and it will be deleted on OneDrive

    Assuming you are using MS Outlook as a component of MS Office your mail is not stored on OneDrive, its data files are on the local PC and its the same under any win or Office version

    In any Office Component > Help > Contact

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  2. Anonymous
    2022-08-29T13:35:26+00:00

    A new Dell computer is setup at the factory by Dell and is ready to go as soon as you press the Power button for the first time. It doesn't need to be setup by a third-party. It seems like your computer was previously owned, and nobody here can guess what the third-party did to your computer in allegedly setting it up.

    It appears that you have a backup of your data - that was your best move - which was transferred to your computer. If that's the case, you should find a professional - not a 'sham' - to restore your computer to the way it was when it left Dell's factory. Then you can move in your backed up data and start to enjoy your new computer.

    New computers come from the factory with a hidden partition on the hard drive that contains all the software that was installed by the manufacturer at their factory. Using the manufacturer's own instructions, you can access that partition and restore its contents, so that your computer will look and work exactly as it did when it left Dell's factory. That procedure is over and done in minutes, and it's guaranteed (by Dell) to work as long as the previous owner or your third party didn't interfere with the hidden partition.

    Even if someone interfered with the hidden recovery partition, all is not lost. You can still install a fresh copy of Windows on the computer and then restore your backed up data. You'll have to reinstall all the other software that was originally on the computer. Office 365 will be quick and easy to reinstall (at no charge.)

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