Is this a hard-drive prob. or am I being dumbass?

[ulrichburke]

Dear Anyone.

I'm on Windows 10. Put 75gig of stuff in the OneDrive folder to be put in the Cloud. Don't laugh - didn't realise OneDrive was an app. AS WELL AS a folder. So the folder stayed 75gig but I couldn't access any of the data, it was just saying 'there is a problem, you're not synched.' or words to that effect! (That's not the problem, this is a 3 para. story, sorry!)

So I needed the 75gig real estate back to install stuff on. Windows wouldn't let me take anything back out of the OneDrive folder, kept saying it couldn't do it because I wasn't synched. Finally found someone who told me about the app. and helped me get started using it. And everything went up to the Cloud. NOW cometh the problems!

Surely because everything's in the Cloud now, I should have an empty on-disc folder, therefore having roughly 75gig of hard drive back. But Windows wasn't saying that, it was saying 'Size of folder 75gig, size on disc 4.00meg!' If it was 4.00meg on disc, how come I didn't have the other 74.whatever gig of hard drive back? I had 56gig spare, surely with the other 75 gig I should've had 126gig (roughly) spare? Then it got stranger. After a subsequent synch., the OneDrive folder came up saying it was 6.7gig now. Wahaay, thought I, got another 68-and-a-bit gig back - but no. It's still saying I've only got 56 gig spare.

So I've got a OneDrive folder that's decided it's only 6.7gig. 56gig spare on the hard drive. Where's the other 68gig gone? Is Windows misreporting the hard drive size for some reason, do I have to worry that I've got a damaged hard drive with 68gig unusable for reasons I don't understand?

That's why I'm here - I'm totally lost. I don't know if I'm damaging my hard drive more by using it. I don't know where the missing space is or if it's corrupted somehow. I don't really understand what OneDrive's done to my hard drive at all! I don't even understand why I didn't have the 75gig back when it was telling me it was only 4.00meg on disc - what happened there? Was that when the hard drive started corrupting, if it is corrupting?

Please be gentle with the answers, if it's dead obvious to you experts, it sure as heck aint to me!! I'm here and not on a Windows forum because I've been to Windows 10 forums, they told me about the app. and got the OneDrive down to 6.7 gig, I'm worried about what's happened to the missing space and if it's corrupted, which is surely your territory?

Yours hopefully

Chris.

[Lardman]

I'm low on coffee still this morning but, that sounds far more like a onedrive cache issue (setup) problem rather than anything to do with the drive itself. Depending on how you've set it up you may have a copy in the cloud and a local copy of some or all of your data. Here's a quick guide that might help https://www.cbackup.com/articles/onedrive-taking-up-space-on-c-drive-5740.html

If you're worried about the drive (and nothing you posted would make me) then check the smart values for anything odd.