Windows 10 Copy One Drive Files to New PC

The Problem:

  • Windows 10 using One Drive for your files.
  • You just did a format re-install of Windows or you have a new PC.
  • You want to copy your One Drive files to your new PC / new install of Windows.

 

The Solution:

You could just install One Drive and let it sync from the cloud. But what if you have hundreds of gigabytes or even a terabyte of data?

The good news is you can copy locally, and One Drive will sort it all out. It may take a few hours (or days), and it will create a few duplicates, but it sure beats trying to download a terabyte of data or uploading everything again.

  • Install One Drive and set it up on the new PC.
  • Exit One Drive (right click on the One Drive icon and “Exit”).
  • Copy files from backup into One Drive Folder on the new PC.
  • Start One Drive back up again.
  • Wait a little while (you can still use your PC and the files).
  • Clean up the inevitable duplicate files

I found a Microsoft forum where they said you could do this, and I tried this myself (February 2017) and it works. Took One Drive a few days to figure it all out, and about a hundred duplicate files (which is annoying, but didn’t take too long to sort out), but no massive uploads or re downloading a terabyte of data.

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