I Found A Use For One Drive

Introduction

I don't know when it first came into my life, but the idea seemed good until I appeared to run out of space and it started to ask me for money or to take out a subscription, none of which I wanted to do. Here is the wiki entry if you want to read up on it:

Like Google Drive, it is Cloud storage and gives you 5Gb of storage free (although you need to have purchased a Windows computer with a Windows operating system to get it), Google Drive gives me 15Gb "free" although with my first Google Pixel phone it was unlimited, and now they keep telling me that I am running out of space so I can buy more.

It is strange how almost every "free" offer requires you to buy something first.

So How Have I Found A Use For One Drive?

I have just got a new Windows 11 Professional laptop to sort of go with my Windows 11 Professional desktop. Both are reconditioned, the desktop about ten months old and the laptop and early Christmas present from Fiona.

There are times that I want to work on something while on holiday that I can finish at home. Cloud based solutions allow us to access things on multiple devices such as phones, tablets and different computers.

One of the main problems is that they try to back up your devices, taking everything that is on there, and this soon gobbles up all the free space they initially give you. This is part of the move towards renting things rather than owning things.

I have seen a meme that complains that people have to rent music from Spotify or Apple when they could just download a song or buy a hard copy.

On my computers, I have purchased Microsoft Office 2021, and with music, I buy CDs, Vinyl and Downloads so I can listen when I want and do not pay for streaming providers and the artists get my money.

I switched One Drive back on again but switched off all backups. I now use it as a holding area for work, which is common to my devices. One of those is the pictures in my wallpaper slideshow.

I also use it for data that I use to create my Kindle books, so I can update them on either computer.

To make One Drive work, you have to take control of it. It appears as one of your network connections, but you do need a live internet connection to make it function.

Conclusion

The lead cartoon shows the attitude I had at first, and most of my work is held on one of my computers, but my One Drive is now controlled by me.

I do not have enough space on there to use it as a backup, but it is useful as a work area. Over my last two holidays, it has functioned well with no harassment to buy anything.

Google Drive is a bit more awkward because it backs up all my phone photographs and videos, but to control this I download them, store them on my home computer and then delete them from Google Drive, but it sends me warnings when I am 80% full, I should only be bothered and informed when it gets to 98%. I haven't found a way of dealing with the messages apart from ignoring them.

So the way to deal with these drives is to take control where you have the option.

Thank you for reading and I hope you feel a little less annoyed with One Drive.