Microsoft has taken all my information.
Microsoft has taken all my information.
I arrive home from work and my Windows 11 machine starts up with the white ad banner confirming the recent major update. I run through the system checks and see my encrypted cloud backup labeled "Spider Oak" indicating only about 2 MB is available for backup. That’s a shocking realization... I search for my files, but they’re gone—they’ve been copied to OneDrive and all my photos are there. I try to restore everything and turn off OneDrive backup, but Windows won’t let me revert the folder locations back to d:\username\ext. It’s all on c: now there are no more location tabs in the document folders. I have to dig through registry keys to reset everything to the desktop drive and restart. Now the location tabs are back in Folder Options, but I’m furious—Microsoft seems to have copied my entire data to the cloud without giving me a chance to recover it. Sorry, just wanted to vent! A single drive backup sounds fine, but I really need a better, more secure solution if I want this to work again.
Placing your user folder on a different drive than C is uncommon among consumers, yet common in enterprises. When handling enterprise-level tasks on Consumer OS, it's advisable to apply enterprise configuration (group policy) to enforce preferences across major versions. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sharep...oup-policy
when data is scarce for your link, gather all files from a single source, verify everything is present. then use a Linux distribution or WSL to copy 4.99GB of zeros into one file, remove all content from another drive, and upload just that file to the same location—don’t sync, just upload. as long as Microsoft charges more for extra space, you’re protected; next time you’ll update or reinstall without forgetting, and it will work again. if you share multiple devices (like a full drive), avoid uploading when it’s full.
Yes, I used to always attempt things, but they often led to frustration. I haven't tried in a while, though if you asked, I'd think it would work better now. Stupid me for that!
Edit: Even just navigating subfolders and moving files could cause more trouble than expected.
At first setup of Windows 11, most of my files vanished—including recordings with my mom’s voice who passed away. They weren’t saved in OneDrive or any expected folders. I was left with nothing. Luckily I had backups, but that didn’t stop me from reverting to Windows 10. I was okay with the rest of the problems, but losing my files was unacceptable. The OP’s comment reminds me it’s still a serious issue. I’m hoping the file problems get resolved or that Windows 12 arrives by 2025.
You're right, it's technically against the rules. But with everything being so open now, I'm choosing to skip it—Windows 10 1809 onward, at least!