By : Microsoft’s OneDrive cloud storage service adds 15 GB of free space for your music, files, photos and movies with your Microsoft account. It’s a great addition to your existing hard drive with cloud storage features. Now you no longer need to carry files in USB flash drives or copy them directly to other devices. OneDrive allows a centralized storage of data, so you can get a synchronized access across all your devices.
It is integrated in Microsoft’s new Windows 8.1 operating system, making it really easy to setup and use.
Default Location of OneDrive in Windows 8.1
OneDrive have a shortcut in Windows Explorer as a blue cloud icon. It creates its own folder in User’s main directory and a makes a link to Sidebar named OneDrive. Under the OneDrive folder, the directory is subdivided to Pictures, Documents etc. You can also customize the folder structure inside the OneDrive folder. It is like an ordinary folder, you can drag, copy and drop local files to it, but the differences is they also get stored on cloud. Now you can access these files from any OneDrive supported device.
By default OneDrive uses “C:\Users\<Your User Name>\OneDrive” as its default directory. Unfortunately If you want to store data on different partition or folder, there is no direct way to do that from OneDrive or even from OneDrive PC Settings.
How to Change the Location of the OneDrive Folder
1. First of all fire up File Explorer in Windows 8.1 and then select OneDrive from the left sidebar.
2. Now Right Click on the OneDrive Folder and select Properties from drop down menu. Same can also be accomplished by selecting Properties under the Home tab from Menu bar.
3. Now from in Properties menu of OneDrive select Location tab.
4. Now you can see the default or current (if changed previously) OneDrive folder. From here you can restore the location to default by tapping Restore Default, See current folder in Explorer by tapping Find Target.
To change the default folder location just press Move button, and then browse to new location in Destination Dialog Box, select that new folder and press Select Folder.
5. Now you can see new directory as OneDrive folder under Location tab in Properties Window.
Press OK to apply changes.
6. Now you will be prompted if you want to move all files from old location to new location. Press Yes, as you don’t want to lose any of your existing files.
7. Depending on number and size of files in old location, it may take some time. You will see a progress bar, displaying current speed, file, ETA etc. Be patient until the transfer is complete and try not to turn off computer.
The OneDrive folder has now been changed to new location. This new location will now be used by the OneDrive.
Well that was a way to change default folder for OneDrive. But it would have been much easier, if it was provided in PC settings or in Right Click drop down menu.
Precaution
Make sure that syncing is not in progress in OneDrive while moving files from old location to new location.
Also make sure that the new locations have enough free space to hold all the files from old location.
