11 ms·

OneDrive has stopped working on non-NTFS drives

109 points by protomyth 9y ago

nxc18 9y ago
It would be really nice if Microsoft kept some of their products in a consistent working, high-quality state. As a long-term OneDrive (SkyDrive, Windows Live Mesh, FolderShare) user, it has been really disappointing to see features come, go, then come back. I can't upgrade operating systems or even update the app without fear of losing critical features. For example, being able to transparently access networked (not locally downloaded) files used to be super easy, then it went away, and is now apparently coming back. Similarly, Windows Live Mesh had really good versioning, a really useful remote access service, and really cool collaboration tools. Then it went away and has never been replaced. OneDrive used to have 25Gb storage for free; that was a really good deal. Then it went to unlimited storage for Office users, but then they stopped that for no good reason. tl;dr I'm not going to be a OneDrive customer for much longer. Microsoft makes it really hard to be a fan of their products. :(
- pirocks 9y ago
  There was abuse of the "unlimited storage", by the data hoarder subreddit. This gives yopu an idea of how much they stretch the definition of "unlimited":https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/5s7q04/i_hit_a_bit_of_a_milestone_today/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/5s7q04/i_hit_a...
  - simlevesque 9y ago
    > stretch the definition of "unlimited" You can't stretch the definition of unlimited. There is literaly no amount that would stretch it. If you advertise unlimited storage, you are bending the truth, since there is no such thing as unlimited disk space. I don't see how anyone can blame the data hoarders here. Where I live, if you advertise for something that you cannot deliver, it's called fraud and you can get sued for it. I just don't see why they feel the need to lie to customers like that.
    - Steko 9y ago
      I blame them just like most of the other data hoarders are blaming them. One or two guys shit in the pool and got the whole thing canned. You can certainly qualify unlimited service for reasonable use.
      - forgottenpass 9y ago
        You can certainly qualify unlimited service for reasonable use. No, you can't. Because reasonable is a subjective moving target. There are maybe a handful of organizations outside of Microsoft that have a non-laughable chance of estimating A) cost of online storage to microsoft B) number of users C) distribution of storage used by their userbase D) cost of bandwidth E) typical bandwidth profile of users F) how much money Microsoft is willing to spend on storage as a loss leader. And then there is the un-estimateable wildcard: G) what number will "sound too big" to sysadmins and/or PMs once they see it on their metrics dashboard. "Unlimited" is a scam to avoid vocalizing the secret maximum and hoping that users have more conservative estimates of the secret maximum than it's actual value. And there is a huge incentive for users to guess conservativly at the maximum, because as soon as one person doesn't everyone else will blame them for "shitting in the pool and getting the whole thing canned"
        Steko 9y ago
        > No, you can't. Because reasonable is a subjective moving target. I don't think that matters. > "Unlimited" is a scam Baloney, everyone knows you can't actually get a million dollars of storage for $5/month just like the people at buffets know you can't just scrape $1K of food into the trash without the buffet getting shut down. There's always reasonable use limits on "unlimited" that any customer is aware of. I have unlimited checking and it's not a scam but there are obvious limits, if I wrote a million checks for 1 cent they would either close my account or change the terms. Writing a million checks is not a reasonable use case though, that would be me shitting in the pool.
        michaelmrose 9y ago
- contextfree 9y ago
  The underlying reason is that it keeps getting reorg'd into different divisions with different business models
- mel919 9y ago
  I highly recommend dropping it. Switching to a reliable cloud storage from OneDrive is an amazing experience until you reflect on time wasted trying to make 1drv work or waiting for it to start working properly. OneDrive and Dropbox have been totally opposite experiences to me, heaven and hell. Also after more than a year with OneDrive I passionately despise it. It truly is Internet Explorer of cloud storages.
- oval-atom 9y ago
  They did at one time offer UNLIMITED! Nothing but “Bait~n~Switch”. Any business that offers “UNLIMITED” anything that incurs costs has: 1. planned an exit excuse: “It was being “ABUSED”, or 2. does not mind going out of business. They said people were abusing the "UNLIMITED" to justify lowering the allowed storage limit in order to start charging. So for Outlook.com they lowered it to 15 GB, why not say 500 GB? Because it would not generate the revenue stream they could have at lower storage limits. Then they prompted you to either signup to keep it at 15 GB, or if you missed the deadline, it will go back to 5 GB. What is in the future? Be prepared when using their apps, it won't be long, and it is already happening, that the only place you can store your files that you create is on their cloud space. So be prepared if you need your data when say you are on vacation out in the boondocks! It happened! Remember their corporate motto, “cloud first, mobile first,…………. Consumer last (ad lib)”! “Your Data Belongs to U$!”
  - deadbunny 9y ago
    1. Offer an unlimited server 2. Work median usage per customer 3. Set new limit below median 4. Profit
    - BoorishBears 9y ago
      *Set new limit at median Now you don't have to deal with r/datahorder users.
- simias 9y ago
  >I can't upgrade operating systems or even update the app without fear of losing critical features. I don't use Windows a lot myself but you're not the first person I hear voicing this concern and postponing updates to avoid risking breaking something critical. This is a very bad precedent for Microsoft to set. At least it'll keep the ransomware and antivirus devs busy.
  - tinus_hn 9y ago
    > This is a very bad precedent for Microsoft to set. Such a surprise they started just forcing upgrades..
- tomw2005 9y ago
  > Then it went to unlimited storage for Office users, but then they stopped that for no good reason. That was brief and sadly disappeared. However OD is still cheaper than DropBox for 1TB of storage and comes with Office. I'd still mark that as a pretty good deal since most people are required to have Office around.
- sitepodmatt 9y ago
  I remember livemesh 8yrs ago?, it was going to be the future with its own ecosystem and all these other glorious promises, unfortunately its sync often deleted files and sometimes sync would hang for days. Everyone I know moved to dropbox at this point and most* havent looked back (*Im not a dropbox user).
  - glenneroo 9y ago
    Same thing with Streamload.. but they actually lost user's data.. then renamed the company.. and then it went bankrupt. I can say the say thing about moving to CrashPlan (also offering unlimited) and not having looked back. 8TB accumulated over the last 4 years and counting.
- ConceptJunkie 9y ago
  Well, Google is winning in a lot of areas that Microsoft used to dominate... so they are just trying to imitate their rival. However, a better imitation might be to suddenly discontinue the product without warning.
- fgonzag 9y ago
  I'm a big fan of Spideroak Hive.I mostly use it to sync my work files (everything except source code) between my desktop and laptop. I really like the fact that the files are encrypted and according to them can't be retrieved without my password. Sync.net is a similiar service that has a better UX but sadly doesn't have a way to ignore specific patterns, which I need to certain directories.
tiernano 9y ago
For reference on the ReFS part, everywhere I have read about it mentions it’s for servers. Just like ntfs was when it started out. Guessing when it becomes more main stream, it will probably be supported then...
nvr219 9y ago
I remember when people used to get mad at Microsoft because they supported legacy stuff for years and years and years.
- Omnius 9y ago
  Well they could made an announcement or email their user base letting them know of the breaking change.
  - nvr219 9y ago
    This makes me wonder, do they have data on how many users are saving onedrive files on FAT? Is that info they could pull? I don't see why not...
    - deleted 9y ago
      [deleted]
    - vthriller 9y ago
      That'll be Windows Telemetry story all over again: lots of people opting out or complaining everywhere they can.
      - gnud 9y ago
        They wouldn't need telemetry - they could have shown a local warning when the OD client detected a FAT drive.
      - tinus_hn 9y ago
        And people whining about people whining. Reality is that they do force telemetry, people aren't opting out because they can't and they are complaining amongst themselves because Microsoft doesn't care.
  - orf 9y ago
    Send an email to all their users, and not the 0.001% who use this feature?
powertower 9y ago
NTFS has all the advanced folder and file features like Junction Points and Hard Links. > The FCU includes a huge revamp of OneDrive's functionality to make the use of local and remotely stored files virtually seamless. I'm assuming it makes heavy use of that.
thriftwy 9y ago
What else would you expect from Microsoft? Last, I don't know, four releases of Windows were comically bad. This is when you no longer swear but just laugh in amazement. I would argue that from their last 6 releases (starting with Windows ME) they only had one success, that is, Windows XP, and even that one they had to rethink with SP2. (Just bought my wife a Windows 10 laptop... Sigh...)
- orf 9y ago
  The fact you brought your Wife a Windows 10 laptop and not a Ubuntu one kind of goes against the case that Windows is comically bad.
  - snakeanus 9y ago
    I am unsure how this is the case, considering that he can trivially change the OS.
  - michaelmrose 9y ago
    Maybe the wife values staying with what she is used to over quality and he values his relationship over being right? Especially since windows is a lot more of an acceptable choice when you have a free administrator on call to set it up, paper over any annoyances with whatever workarounds are available, and keep it running.
    - orf 9y ago
      My comment was merely trying to highlight that the operating systems he would perhaps hold in high regard are in fact the definition of comically bad for non-technical users. These users are the majority, and so it's a stretch to call an OS that has captured that market so entirely and completely comically bad. I would argue that it makes it the best.
      - thriftwy 9y ago
        You're like 10 years old with that. Ubuntu is pretty usable these days and Windows just isn't. Are you going to pretend Windows 8 made any sense? Windows 10 now has everything twice: It has half of apps with full-res and half with old and ugly stretched fonts. It has two control panels! One old and one new. It even has two browsers, both from Microsoft. It's like everything they ever blamed in Linux, but without even having good excuses. Come on.
ourmandave 9y ago
This can't be. OneDrive loves me! I know because it keeps starting up whenever I transfer files from a Centos Samba share despite every restraining order I've tried to issue. Of course only the Group Policy editor can stop it and that did't come with the forced Windows 10 Home edition update shoved up my hard drive. So now, in a complete turning of the tables, I'll have to wait for it to start up and then it will tell me to go f*ck myself.
- technofiend 9y ago
  You can upgrade Home to Pro for about $15 by buying the license from eBay. Not that you should have to but there you go...
  - joshschreuder 9y ago
    They're also likely to be OEM licensing with questionable legality regarding resale
- rasz 9y ago
  there you go https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10/blob/master/scripts/remove-onedrive.ps1 https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10/blob/master/sc...
iosDrone 9y ago
I flew the coup on OneDrive when they reneged on their promise to provide unlimited storage. They still charged me $50 for the months that I signed up on the basis of that false promise.
- bitmapbrother 9y ago
  Speaking of reneging, remember the time they told their users that they would be lowering their storage to 5GB? Now, I'm not sure of the exact reason why they needed to do this, but you quickly lose confidence in their capability as a cloud provider when they need to start clawing back storage from users. Meanwhile Google has been offering their users 15GB and additional storage bonuses for completing tasks such as your annual security checkup.
  - B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
    > remember the time they told their users that they would be lowering their storage to 5GB They did this - to users who had bought Windows Phones advertised with 15 GB (plus 15 GB which were being given to everybody in 2015, total 30 GB). Kicked back to 5 GB as of Jan. 2016. Except those who knew to ask by Dec. 2015 to an email circulated in forums (as a concession to protests). Those kept their quota. Asking about lost quota later to MS support was unfruitful - the techs were ashamed but had their orders to not budge an inch. (Personally saw both outcomes - keeping and losing, for different users - directly.)
  - ukyrgf 9y ago
    Weirdly, I got more space when they went free. I think I signed up on my Android for OneDrive to store my "camera roll" which gave something like 25GB free. I used that storage briefly to store/share .wav files for my band's EP, which took up a couple GB. When OneDrive announced their downgrade to 5 GB, they gave a free year of Office 365 to anybody that was currently using more than 5 GB. I think that expires later this month, at which point I will NOT be re-subscribing. It's miserable trying to maneuver around these cloud services; I'm sticking with Resilio Sync.
std_throwaway 9y ago
You have to go with the times or you have to go in time.
chis 9y ago
I have much more trust in a company's product if it's their main source of revenue. Dropbox would probably die if they lost all their desktop users, but there's really no reason Microsoft even cares about this. Anecdotally, OneDrive lost my changes to an essay twice, so I will certainly never use it again.
- _Codemonkeyism 9y ago
  OneDrive - or DropBox - is no backup solution and also doesn't relieve you from backups.
  - jhasse 9y ago
    I have relied on Dropbox as a backup solution for years. Never had a problem.
    - _Codemonkeyism 9y ago
      You're right.
    - SippinLean 9y ago
      Originally you had no backups OOTB. Now I think you can restore deleted files for a month, or longer if you upgrade. This might be enough for your use case. Otherwise it is purely sync (not backup).
calvano915 9y ago
The OneDrive syncing client has never worked properly for me since Windows 8. Just crashes and restarts, despite attempting all the fixes described online officially and non.
JamesAdir 9y ago
onedrive, onedrive for business, onedrive app - Same name not the same product! every one of them with different UI, different settings and never works without a failure. Try sharing a folder between team mates in office365. In dropbox it just appears to every team member. In office365 you need onedrive for busines (the regular onedrive that comes with Windows 10 won't show it) and then it appeas as a sharepoint folder the user. So confusing, So not working.
- dingle_thunk 9y ago
  Actually, that was only the case temporarily. For ...reasons... (I think it was the SkyDrive legal complaint?) the product rename happened before the client was technically consolidated. Since January, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business use the same client and (on o365/SP16FP1) the same infrastructure & API. If you're using the old ODFB client that was bundled with old versions of Office, you should upgrade. The old ODFB was terrible, and MS has been trying to get rid of it for years. (If you're using an old version of SharePoint 2013/2016 to host OneDrive locally, you should probably patch that too.) The new client is OK. But it's too late for me. MS have burnt me so many times with OneDrive/SkyDrive/Mesh/Windows Live/FolderSync at this point that I'm now an avowed Dropbox/Resilio user, and I won't be looking back for many years. A similar consolidation will be happening with the new Skype/Skype for Business clients. They broke my TV's skype camera to make that happen, and it's still not happening. I've switched to Hangouts/FB Messenger. The main reason these transitions are taking so long is: (a) all the on-premises customers create backwards compatibility hell (b) complete confusion around authentication and (c) they doesn't seem to be very good at delivering good software. The "OneDrive app" is a Windows 10 app store app, similar to the iOS and Android apps.
- camus2 9y ago
  > onedrive, onedrive for business, onedrive app - Same name not the same product! They did that with Visual Studio too. On Mac it's basically some IDE to develop Ios and Android apps, while on PC you're getting the actual IDE. And they do that with Skype too, where "Skype for business" is a completely different product that has barely anything to do with Skype.
trelliscoded 9y ago
I just did a greenfield deployment of Windows Server 2012 R2 for a big virtualization environment, and ReFS was supposed to be ideal for that kind of application. Everyone I talked to about it told me it was a bad idea, mostly because the supposed gains in certain virtualization operations wasn't worth risking being the first sucker to find a corner case in refs.sys. Also, no data recovery tools support it outside of experiments. Does anyone actually use ReFS in production?
- DiabloD3 9y ago
  I don't use ReFS in production, only for personal use, but Win 8.1/Server 2012 R2's version of it should never be deployed in production. If you're interested in ReFS, use Win 10/Server 2016 instead. Microsoft has made a lot of updates and changes to the codebase, including ones to prevent data loss. They're now essentially pitching Storage Spaces+ReFS as a Microsofted ZFS.
javabean22 9y ago
Never change, Microsoft, never change
duncan_bayne 9y ago
Those looking for alternatives should take a look at SyncThing - open, decentralised and open source. I use it to synchronise files across a range of devices - home NAS, phone, and laptop - and love it. https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/
dingo_bat 9y ago
I don't want to keep paying Onedrive any longer. But Dropbox is very expensive (becuase the only plan is 1TB). I want to avoid google drive because I know they will kill it randomly. What else is there?
- victorhooi 9y ago
  Why do you think Google will kill Google Drive randomly...? There's no precedent for something like that, and I can't see what motivation there would be to do such a thing either. (Disclaimer: I work for Google).
  - geostyx 9y ago
    I hope it doesn't go away... I have 170TB on it.
    - victorhooi 9y ago
      I hope so too =). (I work on supporting Google Drive, and I also use it outside of work a lot as well). Also - I saw in another earlier post you mentioned some issue about DriveFS and SecureBoot - feel free to reach out to me if you're still having issues with that?
      - geostyx 9y ago
        Whenever I try to install DriveFS on my Win10 PC with SecureBoot enabled it says "This application is not currently supported on Windows 10 Anniversary Version 1607 or later with secure boot enabled."
  - dingo_bat 9y ago
    Plenty of Google services have been killed/deprecated, even when they were widely used and popular. Google reader, hangout, gtalk, come to mind. I'm wary of getting burned again. So I have decided I will never use any google service for something that I really need to rely on. I have a throwaway gmail for giving out to all kinds of spammy websites. I use google photos for backup but also do a full backup on Onedrive. I have a play music subscription but that's not very sticky anyway, I can switch to Apple music at the first sign of trouble. Also, if you work for google, I'm surprised you think there is no precedent for google discontinuing stuff! It's literally a meme at this point.

109 points by protomyth 9y ago

It would be really nice if Microsoft kept some of their products in a consistent working, high-quality state. As a long-term OneDrive (SkyDrive, Windows Live Mesh, FolderShare) user, it has been really disappointing to see features come, go, then come back. I can't upgrade operating systems or even update the app without fear of losing critical features. For example, being able to transparently access networked (not locally downloaded) files used to be super easy, then it went away, and is now apparently coming back. Similarly, Windows Live Mesh had really good versioning, a really useful remote access service, and really cool collaboration tools. Then it went away and has never been replaced. OneDrive used to have 25Gb storage for free; that was a really good deal. Then it went to unlimited storage for Office users, but then they stopped that for no good reason. tl;dr I'm not going to be a OneDrive customer for much longer. Microsoft makes it really hard to be a fan of their products. :(

pirocks 9y ago
There was abuse of the "unlimited storage", by the data hoarder subreddit. This gives yopu an idea of how much they stretch the definition of "unlimited":https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/5s7q04/i_hit_a_bit_of_a_milestone_today/ https://www.reddit.com/r/DataHoarder/comments/5s7q04/i_hit_a...
- simlevesque 9y ago
  > stretch the definition of "unlimited" You can't stretch the definition of unlimited. There is literaly no amount that would stretch it. If you advertise unlimited storage, you are bending the truth, since there is no such thing as unlimited disk space. I don't see how anyone can blame the data hoarders here. Where I live, if you advertise for something that you cannot deliver, it's called fraud and you can get sued for it. I just don't see why they feel the need to lie to customers like that.
  - Steko 9y ago
    I blame them just like most of the other data hoarders are blaming them. One or two guys shit in the pool and got the whole thing canned. You can certainly qualify unlimited service for reasonable use.
    - forgottenpass 9y ago
      You can certainly qualify unlimited service for reasonable use. No, you can't. Because reasonable is a subjective moving target. There are maybe a handful of organizations outside of Microsoft that have a non-laughable chance of estimating A) cost of online storage to microsoft B) number of users C) distribution of storage used by their userbase D) cost of bandwidth E) typical bandwidth profile of users F) how much money Microsoft is willing to spend on storage as a loss leader. And then there is the un-estimateable wildcard: G) what number will "sound too big" to sysadmins and/or PMs once they see it on their metrics dashboard. "Unlimited" is a scam to avoid vocalizing the secret maximum and hoping that users have more conservative estimates of the secret maximum than it's actual value. And there is a huge incentive for users to guess conservativly at the maximum, because as soon as one person doesn't everyone else will blame them for "shitting in the pool and getting the whole thing canned"
      - Steko 9y ago
        > No, you can't. Because reasonable is a subjective moving target. I don't think that matters. > "Unlimited" is a scam Baloney, everyone knows you can't actually get a million dollars of storage for $5/month just like the people at buffets know you can't just scrape $1K of food into the trash without the buffet getting shut down. There's always reasonable use limits on "unlimited" that any customer is aware of. I have unlimited checking and it's not a scam but there are obvious limits, if I wrote a million checks for 1 cent they would either close my account or change the terms. Writing a million checks is not a reasonable use case though, that would be me shitting in the pool.
        michaelmrose 9y ago
contextfree 9y ago
The underlying reason is that it keeps getting reorg'd into different divisions with different business models
mel919 9y ago
I highly recommend dropping it. Switching to a reliable cloud storage from OneDrive is an amazing experience until you reflect on time wasted trying to make 1drv work or waiting for it to start working properly. OneDrive and Dropbox have been totally opposite experiences to me, heaven and hell. Also after more than a year with OneDrive I passionately despise it. It truly is Internet Explorer of cloud storages.
oval-atom 9y ago
They did at one time offer UNLIMITED! Nothing but “Bait~n~Switch”. Any business that offers “UNLIMITED” anything that incurs costs has: 1. planned an exit excuse: “It was being “ABUSED”, or 2. does not mind going out of business. They said people were abusing the "UNLIMITED" to justify lowering the allowed storage limit in order to start charging. So for Outlook.com they lowered it to 15 GB, why not say 500 GB? Because it would not generate the revenue stream they could have at lower storage limits. Then they prompted you to either signup to keep it at 15 GB, or if you missed the deadline, it will go back to 5 GB. What is in the future? Be prepared when using their apps, it won't be long, and it is already happening, that the only place you can store your files that you create is on their cloud space. So be prepared if you need your data when say you are on vacation out in the boondocks! It happened! Remember their corporate motto, “cloud first, mobile first,…………. Consumer last (ad lib)”! “Your Data Belongs to U$!”
- deadbunny 9y ago
  1. Offer an unlimited server 2. Work median usage per customer 3. Set new limit below median 4. Profit
  - BoorishBears 9y ago
    *Set new limit at median Now you don't have to deal with r/datahorder users.
simias 9y ago
>I can't upgrade operating systems or even update the app without fear of losing critical features. I don't use Windows a lot myself but you're not the first person I hear voicing this concern and postponing updates to avoid risking breaking something critical. This is a very bad precedent for Microsoft to set. At least it'll keep the ransomware and antivirus devs busy.
- tinus_hn 9y ago
  > This is a very bad precedent for Microsoft to set. Such a surprise they started just forcing upgrades..
tomw2005 9y ago
> Then it went to unlimited storage for Office users, but then they stopped that for no good reason. That was brief and sadly disappeared. However OD is still cheaper than DropBox for 1TB of storage and comes with Office. I'd still mark that as a pretty good deal since most people are required to have Office around.
sitepodmatt 9y ago
I remember livemesh 8yrs ago?, it was going to be the future with its own ecosystem and all these other glorious promises, unfortunately its sync often deleted files and sometimes sync would hang for days. Everyone I know moved to dropbox at this point and most* havent looked back (*Im not a dropbox user).
- glenneroo 9y ago
  Same thing with Streamload.. but they actually lost user's data.. then renamed the company.. and then it went bankrupt. I can say the say thing about moving to CrashPlan (also offering unlimited) and not having looked back. 8TB accumulated over the last 4 years and counting.
ConceptJunkie 9y ago
Well, Google is winning in a lot of areas that Microsoft used to dominate... so they are just trying to imitate their rival. However, a better imitation might be to suddenly discontinue the product without warning.
fgonzag 9y ago
I'm a big fan of Spideroak Hive.I mostly use it to sync my work files (everything except source code) between my desktop and laptop. I really like the fact that the files are encrypted and according to them can't be retrieved without my password. Sync.net is a similiar service that has a better UX but sadly doesn't have a way to ignore specific patterns, which I need to certain directories.

tiernano 9y ago

For reference on the ReFS part, everywhere I have read about it mentions it’s for servers. Just like ntfs was when it started out. Guessing when it becomes more main stream, it will probably be supported then...

nvr219 9y ago

I remember when people used to get mad at Microsoft because they supported legacy stuff for years and years and years.

Omnius 9y ago
Well they could made an announcement or email their user base letting them know of the breaking change.
- nvr219 9y ago
  This makes me wonder, do they have data on how many users are saving onedrive files on FAT? Is that info they could pull? I don't see why not...
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - vthriller 9y ago
    That'll be Windows Telemetry story all over again: lots of people opting out or complaining everywhere they can.
    - gnud 9y ago
      They wouldn't need telemetry - they could have shown a local warning when the OD client detected a FAT drive.
    - tinus_hn 9y ago
      And people whining about people whining. Reality is that they do force telemetry, people aren't opting out because they can't and they are complaining amongst themselves because Microsoft doesn't care.
- orf 9y ago
  Send an email to all their users, and not the 0.001% who use this feature?

powertower 9y ago

NTFS has all the advanced folder and file features like Junction Points and Hard Links. > The FCU includes a huge revamp of OneDrive's functionality to make the use of local and remotely stored files virtually seamless. I'm assuming it makes heavy use of that.

thriftwy 9y ago

What else would you expect from Microsoft? Last, I don't know, four releases of Windows were comically bad. This is when you no longer swear but just laugh in amazement. I would argue that from their last 6 releases (starting with Windows ME) they only had one success, that is, Windows XP, and even that one they had to rethink with SP2. (Just bought my wife a Windows 10 laptop... Sigh...)

orf 9y ago
The fact you brought your Wife a Windows 10 laptop and not a Ubuntu one kind of goes against the case that Windows is comically bad.
- snakeanus 9y ago
  I am unsure how this is the case, considering that he can trivially change the OS.
- michaelmrose 9y ago
  Maybe the wife values staying with what she is used to over quality and he values his relationship over being right? Especially since windows is a lot more of an acceptable choice when you have a free administrator on call to set it up, paper over any annoyances with whatever workarounds are available, and keep it running.
  - orf 9y ago
    My comment was merely trying to highlight that the operating systems he would perhaps hold in high regard are in fact the definition of comically bad for non-technical users. These users are the majority, and so it's a stretch to call an OS that has captured that market so entirely and completely comically bad. I would argue that it makes it the best.
    - thriftwy 9y ago
      You're like 10 years old with that. Ubuntu is pretty usable these days and Windows just isn't. Are you going to pretend Windows 8 made any sense? Windows 10 now has everything twice: It has half of apps with full-res and half with old and ugly stretched fonts. It has two control panels! One old and one new. It even has two browsers, both from Microsoft. It's like everything they ever blamed in Linux, but without even having good excuses. Come on.

ourmandave 9y ago

This can't be. OneDrive loves me! I know because it keeps starting up whenever I transfer files from a Centos Samba share despite every restraining order I've tried to issue. Of course only the Group Policy editor can stop it and that did't come with the forced Windows 10 Home edition update shoved up my hard drive. So now, in a complete turning of the tables, I'll have to wait for it to start up and then it will tell me to go f*ck myself.

technofiend 9y ago
You can upgrade Home to Pro for about $15 by buying the license from eBay. Not that you should have to but there you go...
- joshschreuder 9y ago
  They're also likely to be OEM licensing with questionable legality regarding resale
rasz 9y ago
there you go https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10/blob/master/scripts/remove-onedrive.ps1 https://github.com/W4RH4WK/Debloat-Windows-10/blob/master/sc...

iosDrone 9y ago

I flew the coup on OneDrive when they reneged on their promise to provide unlimited storage. They still charged me $50 for the months that I signed up on the basis of that false promise.

bitmapbrother 9y ago
Speaking of reneging, remember the time they told their users that they would be lowering their storage to 5GB? Now, I'm not sure of the exact reason why they needed to do this, but you quickly lose confidence in their capability as a cloud provider when they need to start clawing back storage from users. Meanwhile Google has been offering their users 15GB and additional storage bonuses for completing tasks such as your annual security checkup.
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y ago
  > remember the time they told their users that they would be lowering their storage to 5GB They did this - to users who had bought Windows Phones advertised with 15 GB (plus 15 GB which were being given to everybody in 2015, total 30 GB). Kicked back to 5 GB as of Jan. 2016. Except those who knew to ask by Dec. 2015 to an email circulated in forums (as a concession to protests). Those kept their quota. Asking about lost quota later to MS support was unfruitful - the techs were ashamed but had their orders to not budge an inch. (Personally saw both outcomes - keeping and losing, for different users - directly.)
- ukyrgf 9y ago
  Weirdly, I got more space when they went free. I think I signed up on my Android for OneDrive to store my "camera roll" which gave something like 25GB free. I used that storage briefly to store/share .wav files for my band's EP, which took up a couple GB. When OneDrive announced their downgrade to 5 GB, they gave a free year of Office 365 to anybody that was currently using more than 5 GB. I think that expires later this month, at which point I will NOT be re-subscribing. It's miserable trying to maneuver around these cloud services; I'm sticking with Resilio Sync.

std_throwaway 9y ago

You have to go with the times or you have to go in time.

chis 9y ago

I have much more trust in a company's product if it's their main source of revenue. Dropbox would probably die if they lost all their desktop users, but there's really no reason Microsoft even cares about this. Anecdotally, OneDrive lost my changes to an essay twice, so I will certainly never use it again.

_Codemonkeyism 9y ago
OneDrive - or DropBox - is no backup solution and also doesn't relieve you from backups.
- jhasse 9y ago
  I have relied on Dropbox as a backup solution for years. Never had a problem.
  - _Codemonkeyism 9y ago
    You're right.
  - SippinLean 9y ago
    Originally you had no backups OOTB. Now I think you can restore deleted files for a month, or longer if you upgrade. This might be enough for your use case. Otherwise it is purely sync (not backup).

calvano915 9y ago

The OneDrive syncing client has never worked properly for me since Windows 8. Just crashes and restarts, despite attempting all the fixes described online officially and non.

JamesAdir 9y ago

onedrive, onedrive for business, onedrive app - Same name not the same product! every one of them with different UI, different settings and never works without a failure. Try sharing a folder between team mates in office365. In dropbox it just appears to every team member. In office365 you need onedrive for busines (the regular onedrive that comes with Windows 10 won't show it) and then it appeas as a sharepoint folder the user. So confusing, So not working.

dingle_thunk 9y ago
Actually, that was only the case temporarily. For ...reasons... (I think it was the SkyDrive legal complaint?) the product rename happened before the client was technically consolidated. Since January, OneDrive and OneDrive for Business use the same client and (on o365/SP16FP1) the same infrastructure & API. If you're using the old ODFB client that was bundled with old versions of Office, you should upgrade. The old ODFB was terrible, and MS has been trying to get rid of it for years. (If you're using an old version of SharePoint 2013/2016 to host OneDrive locally, you should probably patch that too.) The new client is OK. But it's too late for me. MS have burnt me so many times with OneDrive/SkyDrive/Mesh/Windows Live/FolderSync at this point that I'm now an avowed Dropbox/Resilio user, and I won't be looking back for many years. A similar consolidation will be happening with the new Skype/Skype for Business clients. They broke my TV's skype camera to make that happen, and it's still not happening. I've switched to Hangouts/FB Messenger. The main reason these transitions are taking so long is: (a) all the on-premises customers create backwards compatibility hell (b) complete confusion around authentication and (c) they doesn't seem to be very good at delivering good software. The "OneDrive app" is a Windows 10 app store app, similar to the iOS and Android apps.
camus2 9y ago
> onedrive, onedrive for business, onedrive app - Same name not the same product! They did that with Visual Studio too. On Mac it's basically some IDE to develop Ios and Android apps, while on PC you're getting the actual IDE. And they do that with Skype too, where "Skype for business" is a completely different product that has barely anything to do with Skype.

trelliscoded 9y ago

I just did a greenfield deployment of Windows Server 2012 R2 for a big virtualization environment, and ReFS was supposed to be ideal for that kind of application. Everyone I talked to about it told me it was a bad idea, mostly because the supposed gains in certain virtualization operations wasn't worth risking being the first sucker to find a corner case in refs.sys. Also, no data recovery tools support it outside of experiments. Does anyone actually use ReFS in production?

DiabloD3 9y ago
I don't use ReFS in production, only for personal use, but Win 8.1/Server 2012 R2's version of it should never be deployed in production. If you're interested in ReFS, use Win 10/Server 2016 instead. Microsoft has made a lot of updates and changes to the codebase, including ones to prevent data loss. They're now essentially pitching Storage Spaces+ReFS as a Microsofted ZFS.

javabean22 9y ago

Never change, Microsoft, never change

duncan_bayne 9y ago

Those looking for alternatives should take a look at SyncThing - open, decentralised and open source. I use it to synchronise files across a range of devices - home NAS, phone, and laptop - and love it. https://syncthing.net/ https://syncthing.net/

dingo_bat 9y ago

I don't want to keep paying Onedrive any longer. But Dropbox is very expensive (becuase the only plan is 1TB). I want to avoid google drive because I know they will kill it randomly. What else is there?

victorhooi 9y ago
Why do you think Google will kill Google Drive randomly...? There's no precedent for something like that, and I can't see what motivation there would be to do such a thing either. (Disclaimer: I work for Google).
- geostyx 9y ago
  I hope it doesn't go away... I have 170TB on it.
  - victorhooi 9y ago
    I hope so too =). (I work on supporting Google Drive, and I also use it outside of work a lot as well). Also - I saw in another earlier post you mentioned some issue about DriveFS and SecureBoot - feel free to reach out to me if you're still having issues with that?
    - geostyx 9y ago
      Whenever I try to install DriveFS on my Win10 PC with SecureBoot enabled it says "This application is not currently supported on Windows 10 Anniversary Version 1607 or later with secure boot enabled."
- dingo_bat 9y ago
  Plenty of Google services have been killed/deprecated, even when they were widely used and popular. Google reader, hangout, gtalk, come to mind. I'm wary of getting burned again. So I have decided I will never use any google service for something that I really need to rely on. I have a throwaway gmail for giving out to all kinds of spammy websites. I use google photos for backup but also do a full backup on Onedrive. I have a play music subscription but that's not very sticky anyway, I can switch to Apple music at the first sign of trouble. Also, if you work for google, I'm surprised you think there is no precedent for google discontinuing stuff! It's literally a meme at this point.