Brand New Computer Where did my files go?
It's a birthday gift. My3yr old computer cannot hand the massive jump in DAZ product sizes, even for older stuff which has expanded I guess with metadata. I read the DAZ requirements, I ordered it, had to be Win 11, as Win 10 was going to be upgraded to the system thingsy, I wanted it without an MS account and certainly not the one drive. But 2 days after I plugged it in, I had one of those upgrades which placed those items on my new computer. I don't need a new cloud, DAZ already has a cloud, I don't want my data held hostage by a subscription. Not in business, don't travel, have external hds. I did not realize, nor is it mentioned, that my Desktop was not local, it was "on the cloud". I had uninstalled the app, but there it was, Desktop on cloud. and since I uninstalled it I couldn't do the "Unlink". All sorts of confusing instructions on the web, as it appears many other users felt the same, I just moved everything I could find to new folders, onto my personal path, and deleted away any thing that said one cloud. My Desktop is mine, I wish to use it, not have my folders I placed on it for my access, are not to be swept off. I am messy. I don't need a gleaming empty desktop. No where was it mentioned that this One Drive thing owns the Desktop. That really chaffes my hide. Win 11 assumes all stuff should be on the cloud. I think it should say so before installation. Had a heck of time tracking down my new renders, when the folder I put on the desktop disappeared. Hoovered up by the onedrive. Since I already had one previous brand new computer die with the onedrive that time sucked up all the downloaded DAZ and other vendor products---out of my content directory!!!, I knew where to look. So be aware, your desktop may not be yours. It's a sham. I made my own Deskop path, and I was able to find my personal postwork renders folder and other important stuff. So it is doable.
Comments
As for Onedrive, if you uninstall it, Windows security nags with notifications. You can manage Onedrive and stop the nagging. See screen grab.
Edit: Side note how well do you know windows?
My render computer is not connected to the internet. Runs great. never asks for updates. I only load what I want lodaed. Has nothing running in the background.
I surf the internet with an older slower one with Win 10, Play games with it too. I would never use Onedrive, I will never get sucked into subscriptions.
Onedrive is free up to a specific amount of storage unless you scribe to more data.
This is my one concern with getting a new PC (none I have looked at have options for anything other then Win 11), I don't want to have anything to do with Onedrive and as little to do with MS as I can get away with.
The new build 22H2 was a post sale upgrade, which it also did to my win 10 on my old computer. I noticed an odd thing on the new one. If I don't respond to "restart now", my sound is disabled from a folder deep inside. When I allow the upgrade, my sound comes back. The diagnostic sees sound waves data while running a tune, but you can't hear it.
Had to get new render computer, old one becoming unstable, and unable to handle the products size increases, and I had to connect to network to download my stuff. I'm kind of stuck, because I'm not a hacker, and just wanted to do some rendering.
See, I would assume that I would choose the things to place on the cloud. If I recall, the first GB is free, and the fee rises incrementally with the arbitrary sucking up of my stuff from my computer, with no query or notice. So I could store less than 3 300or so GB figures for free. That's absurd!
It's good post for others. However, I uninstalled onedrive and don't have the cloud icon anymore. Although there is still a one drive page on the account, I can't get to the sync page because I deleted the files on the cloud. It said there was some outrageous number of files, was I sure? I really wanted to let other users looking to by a new pc/windows that it's all cloud based now, you have to something like what your posted image shows and some other things to keep data local.
For future reference- To avoid all the cloud stuff, do not connect to the internet during the Microsoft setup process. When it asks you for a Microsft account (or to create one), it should let you skip that part since you're not connected to the internet. You can connect to the internet after the setup is complete so the system can perform updates. At least, that's how I was able to get around it.