Thinking About a New Dell for My Birthday

Now in diagnostic mode and it is checking Windows Health. I do not understand how it is working this stuff with a bad SSD or what-not. ?? Anyway, I will let it work and hopefully fix Windows -- maybe!

I'm on hold with Dell until their chat opens at 10am. Lots of love and care they have. Their AI chat could not understand how I could communicate on a broken laptop. So, we see how robots think!!!!!

Guess it works for now. Magic maybe. We'll see how long it continues to work. Now, how to handle that stinking OneDrive.

jeffbeish said:

Guess it works for now. Magic maybe. We'll see how long it continues to work. Now, how to handle that stinking OneDrive.

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The best way to handle "that stinking" OneDrive is to learn what it is and how it works. Millions of users and companies have done that and have made OneDrive a part of their backup and security strategy, me included.

TraderGary said:

The best way to handle "that stinking" OneDrive is to learn what it is and how it works. Millions of users and companies have done that and have made OneDrive a part of their backup and security strategy, me included.

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I have deleted 90% of my stuff from OneDrive and it just never goes away. I Un- synced it and all that, but MS still tells me it is full. Anything like that I do not trust with my data. I have read how to reduce my data on OneDrive but it seems to never go away. What gives? I have three laptops and they all are without OneDrive, but when I go on-like it is still yelling at me to buy space.

For years I did without OneDrive and never missed it one day. How do I reduce my stuff that is supposed to be on my OneDrive? It just never goes away.

So, another hitch with OneDrive; files are removed 30 days after we delete them. Great stuff MS. Why would that be?

Maybe MS th8nk we are just too slow to catch up with modern time, huh?

OK, Jeff, I fully understand your hatred of something you don't understand and don't want to use.

The first thing to understand is that OneDrive is part of the Windows operating system and has been for well over a decade. The default size of OneDrive is only 5 GB. You will always have that minimum amount of OneDrive whether you want to use it or not. You cannot delete cloud OneDrive itself.

Those of us that use OneDrive to advantage do so by subscribing to Microsoft 365 which comes with all of Microsoft Office and 1 Terabyte of cloud OneDrive. Of course, there is no requirement to subscribe or to even use OneDrive at all.

The next thing to understand about OneDrive is that it has one purpose and only one purpose and that is to keep everything that you keep in your OneDrive folder totally in real-time sync. OneDrive does this beautifully and flawlessly. OneDrive is NOT a one-way backup. It simply keeps cloud OneDrive and your local OneDrive folder totally in sync. If you delete a file/folder in your local OneDrive folder, it deletes it in cloud OneDrive. If you add a file/folder in your local OneDrive folder, it adds it in cloud OneDrive. If you modify a file in your local OneDrive folder it modifies it in cloud OneDrive. It does all this in real-time.

OK, I understand that you have made the decision not to use OneDrive by unlinking it. That's fine. You are not required to use all the features that are in Windows. You have apparently gone to OneDrive settings and unlinked OneDrive from all three of your laptop computers. If that isn't true, please let me know.

If OneDrive has been unlinked, all the synchronized data that is now no longer being synchronized still exists in cloud OneDrive. If you want all of your old synchronized data in the cloud to be gone, you must now actually go to cloud OneDrive to do it. You do that by loading your cloud OneDrive in your browser.

In your browser type in "https://onedrive.live.com". You are now in your cloud OneDrive. In the left panel choose "My Files". Now delete any data that you don't want to keep in OneDrive. It really is that simple.

I hope I've been helpful.

Oh, and yes, cloud OneDrive has its own recycle bin. Any changes or deletions you make can be restored, just like the recycle bin on your computer. The caveat is that the cloud recycle bin only holds deletions and changes for 30 days.

jeffbeish said:

So, another hitch with OneDrive; files are removed 30 days after we delete them. Great stuff MS. Why would that be?

Maybe MS th8nk we are just too slow to catch up with modern time, huh?

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People make mistakes and delete files on accident all the time. The beauty for many of us, with Cloud Storage, is that files are both on our machines and in the cloud both. A failed harddrive, or stolen laptop, are less concerning when your data is stored automatically in a second location. With a 30 day retention for deleted files, we have time to catch the issue and correct it. You can permanently delete from OneDrive if you have to, but by default it holds it around to help you.

I don't back up anywhere as often as I used to, as I don't even have to think about it because it's in 2 locations (and one of them is offsite). Also, I can get to my data on my Mac, from Linux, from my phone, from my tablet, from a web browser, from work if necessary.

Most of my data isn't sensitive, so security isn't a huge concern. And even if it was, you can use a Personal Vault which is encrypted.

pparks1 said:

People make mistakes and delete files on accident all the time. The beauty for many of us, with Cloud Storage, is that files are both on our machines and in the cloud both. A failed harddrive, or stolen laptop, are less concerning when your data is stored automatically in a second location. With a 30 day retention for deleted files, we have time to catch the issue and correct it. You can permanently delete from OneDrive if you have to, but by default it holds it around to help you.

I don't back up anywhere as often as I used to, as I don't even have to think about it because it's in 2 locations (and one of them is offsite). Also, I can get to my data on my Mac, from Linux, from my phone, from my tablet, from a web browser, from work if necessary.

Most of my data isn't sensitive, so security isn't a huge concern. And even if it was, you can use a Personal Vault which is encrypted.

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And then there is the pure joy of getting a new computer, like I did last month, and the instant you log in to your Microsoft account, BAM, all your data and photos are instantly there! I love my OneDrive.

TraderGary, I will try it for a while. I am set in my ways, so it will take some time.

jeffbeish said:

TraderGary, I will try it for a while. I am set in my ways, so it will take some time.

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Jeff, I may well be older than you are, and I definitely understand being set in my ways! I'll be following this thread and if you have any questions or problems, I'll do what I can to help. At our age we well know that there's no such thing as a dumb question. I've been using OneDrive for over 15 years now and I like to think I know a bit about it.

TraderGary said:

Jeff, I may well be older than you are, and I definitely understand being set in my ways! I'll be following this thread and if you have any questions or problems, I'll do what I can to help. At our age we well know that there's no such thing as a dumb question. I've been using OneDrive for over 15 years now and I like to think I know a bit about it.

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I'm just a youngster at 84. Or, it seems that way since 84 years seemed to go by fast. I just get frustrated doing the same things year after year with Dell or others and it seems to never end. In my days, as an EE and computer science learner, a flight simulator tech and engineer, I was happy. But, that is for the young and now I just piddle with laptops and programming my own stuff. My ending working career was as an astronomer and engineer for the U.S. Naval Observatory and my hobby was a telescope maker and user, then when needed a programmer for orbital mechanics. Yeah, mostly for fun. All I need is a simple laptop to work my way. Here's my web site if interested: https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/index.html

jeffbeish said:

I'm just a youngster at 84. Or, it seems that way since 84 years seemed to go by fast. I just get frustrated doing the same things year after year with Dell or others and it seems to never end. In my days, as an EE and computer science learner, a flight simulator tech and engineer, I was happy. But, that is for the young and now I just piddle with laptops and programming my own stuff. My ending working career was as an astronomer and engineer for the U.S. Naval Observatory and my hobby was a telescope maker and user, then when needed a programmer for orbital mechanics. Yeah, mostly for fun. All I need is a simple laptop to work my way. Here's my web site if interested: https://www.alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/index.html

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You've got me beat by only two years. I'm 82. I retired early as a senior software engineer (for a company that has since been swallowed up by CISCO Systems) to trade stocks as I was making more trading than I was at my 9-to-5 job. You have quite an impressive resume!

Gary, 82 - 84 same-o, same-o. My wife turned 80 and tells me she knows how I feel now. We beat the system a decade or so, that's what counts. After trying a musical career and race car mechanic I found myself in the Air Force and traveled the world. I was just interested in anything and everything, so things came easy and off I went. Retiring from the DoD was the best day when I had to work in DC for my last 4 years. I told them where they could stick their promotions and job, then came back to Florida.

My stock trading was a minor hobby so I never got rich. One of our astronomy gang was a commodities trader, lived in Chicago and one could never think he had money. Of course, he died early in life before we all got old. Great gang we had since the early 1970's. Most of them are gone as well now. Getting old sucks.

I just lost some patience along the way and may be short with on-line people when it is not really my nature. Last year on my birthday I started bleeding, so they thought it was diverticula and sent me home. In February it came back, and a young GI doc fixed a mass in my esophagus/stomach are and sent me home. Then my regular GI doctor was excited and sent me to Orlando then Tampa to cancer centers for tests and a PET scan; they discovered cancer. Six weeks of chemo and radiation, then more tests and a final PET scan and my cancer was gone!

So, after all that my good nature turned into thank Heaven to be above room temperature. I guess my disposition is not as mellow as usual. I am a bit short with computer people, Dell especially.

I will get over it.

Going forward, here's hoping things go well with Dell. I've had nothing but Dell laptops for the past few decades and I've never been disappointed. I've had my current Dell XPS 16 9640 since Aug 16 and so far, so good.

Ya just need to get the right kind of DELL laptops...

TraderGary said:

Going forward, here's hoping things go well with Dell. I've had nothing but Dell laptops for the past few decades and I've never been disappointed. I've had my current Dell XPS 16 9640 since Aug 16 and so far, so good.

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The new runs hotter, so maybe that is the problem. The heat is below the CPU and away from the SSD. I will check it with Core Temp. Most of the readings are 48-57C, not too much for these things.

My CPU temp is currently 110 F and PC feels only slightly warm to the touch.

TraderGary said:

...OneDrive ... has one purpose and only one purpose and that is to keep everything that you keep in your OneDrive folder totally in real-time sync. OneDrive does this beautifully and flawlessly....

Click to expand...

TraderGary said:

I love my OneDrive.

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jeffbeish said:

TraderGary, I will try it for a while. I am set in my ways, so it will take some time.

Click to expand...

I love my OneDrive too, I just don't want or need to use it the Way Microsoft thinks I should. I really don't need all my user folders backed up to the cloud, I have local network storage for that. What I do want is just to put some specific files in OneDrive to be available across all my PCs (my seasonal avatars, for example) or to share with friends and family (my own 'dropbox', as it were).

So while I have all my PCs linked to OneDrive, I turn off backing up all of my user folders.
Works for me....

Bree said:

I love my OneDrive too, I just don't want or need to use it the Way Microsoft thinks I should. I really don't need all my user folders backed up to the cloud, I have local network storage for that. What I do want is just to put some specific files in OneDrive to be available across all my PCs (my seasonal avatars, for example) or to share with friends and family (my own 'dropbox', as it were).

So while I have all my PCs linked to OneDrive, I turn off backing up all of my user folders.
Works for me....

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Agreed. I too turn OFF the OneDrive Backup feature. OneDrive is NOT a backup. It simply keeps everything in your OneDrive folder in sync with cloud OneDrive. Only keep in your OneDrive folder what you want to be synced in real-time to cloud OneDrive. Period.

jeffbeish said:

I have deleted 90% of my stuff from OneDrive and it just never goes away. I Un- synced it and all that, but MS still tells me it is full. Anything like that I do not trust with my data. I have read how to reduce my data on OneDrive but it seems to never go away. What gives? I have three laptops and they all are without OneDrive, but when I go on-like it is still yelling at me to buy space.

For years I did without OneDrive and never missed it one day. How do I reduce my stuff that is supposed to be on my OneDrive? It just never goes away.

Click to expand...

I uninstalled it. Haven't seen it since.

That's not to say it might not someday come back again, but I'll deal with that if and when the time comes