Syncing New Skydrive from within Explorer

[pparks1]

I also found the guides online about mapping a drive letter to SkyDrive, using WebDAV. The problem is this will only allow you to copy certain office type file extensions. (.doc, docx, .xls, .xlsx, .txt). If you try to copy .pdf or .exe or .zip you get a nice error saying "File is too large for the destination file system".

Argghhh...why do they have to make these tools so difficult to use.

 

[kado897]

Yes. Previous versions works on the sync'd folder.

 

[pparks1]

^ Kado: Are you referring to the Previous Versions option you get on Windows 7 with the "system protection" feature enabled? As far as I know, Windows Live Skydrive doesn't have a previous version or recycle bin.

 

[kado897]

^ Kado: Are you referring to the Previous Versions option you get on Windows 7 with the "system protection" feature enabled? As far as I know, Windows Live Skydrive doesn't have a previous version or recycle bin.

Yes. Windows previous versions. There are versions in SkyDrive but they are limited to MS Office documents.

 

[gregrocker]

If a hard copy of the file is kept on the computer in Skydrive folder then why wouldn't it be restored just like any other file using Previous Versions?

 

[kado897]

It would.

 

[gregrocker]

So would this cover the problem of accidentally changing or deleting a file and having it make those same changes on all other sync'd devices?

You could either restore it from Recycle Bin or change it back to previous version on any device?

 

[kado897]

Yes, you have a point, but all sorts of things, like defrag programs can delete RPs. Windows by default only creates one a week. Anyway I prefer to have a backup on a separate drive.

I know I'm paranoid about backups but I have had to rebuild a Mainframe installation from scratch because some fool didn't take proper backups.

 

[karlsnooks]

skydrive is not limited to MS office documents.

Try it. I always like to try out a statement prior to making a statement.

 

[kado897]

I didn't say that Karl. What I said was that only MS Office documents support versions in SkyDrive.

 

[karlsnooks]

I'm still confused.

True is that MS Office will allow you to work directly on office documents stored there.

What would you like for SkyDrive to do that SkyDrive does not presently do?

 

[kado897]

There are two things that Google Drive has that SkyDrive needs.

1. Support for versions for all document types.
2. A recycle bin.

 

[karlsnooks]

The easy one: the recycle bin is right there on your desktop/laptop. Remember SkyDrive has synced your change.

I've not found a document that i can not sync. There are size restrictions. Let me suggest that you start working with SkyDrive. You will be pleasantly surprised. SkyDrive is not all things to all people, but simply best of class.

SkyDrive is not a milk-giving sow that lays golden eggs.

 

[kado897]

That is not the point Karl. Do all supported devices have a recycle bin? If you are in an unsupported environment such as Linux or accessing on a PC that is not your own and are relying on the internet interface you have no options.

 

[pparks1]

skydrive is not limited to MS office documents.
Try it. I always like to try out a statement prior to making a statement.

I'm the one who commented about Office documents. I don't want to use SkyDrive like I do Dropbox. I don't want a separate folder on my hard drive that sync's to SkyDrive.

Therefore, I've tried to mount SkyDrive as a drive letter in Windows explorer. By using it via the WebDAV method, you can get it mounted and get a drive letter. However, if you try to copy up any file that is not an office type file, you will get an error about the file being a size unsupported by the system. However, it has nothing to do with filesize, it's about the file type. a 5,000 byte .txt file copies just fine, a 5,000 zip file does not. To work around this issue, I get it mounted a drive letter with Gladinet desktop...however I prefer to not use 3rd party apps to do things if I can help it, and I am always searching for alternatives.

I'm still confused.
What would you like for SkyDrive to do that SkyDrive does not presently do?

Since SkyDrive gives me 25GB by default, I would like to utilize it as a backup location. I would like to get my 13GB of digital pictures from my file server, to SkyDrive. I don't want to install the SkyDrive app on my server. And I don't want my files continuously synched to my SkyDrive account. Instead, I want to be able to run a utility like Robocopy, as a scheduled task, during the night, every couple of days which automatically syncs the Picture share on my server with the cloud. This way, I can avoid problems that could be propagated instantly with a real-time sync solution. For example, I got a couple of bad blocks on my file server recently, it mangled a good number of my picture files. Had Skydrive been auto syncing, it would have mangled those as well almost instantly. A local recycle bin would not have helped, as I hadn't manually deleted the files...they were simply damaged. I fortunately, run multiple offsite backups to external hard drives and it was easy to get my mangled files back from these drives.

So, this is how I would like to utilize something like SkyDrive, but based on it's design, it doesn't really do what I want without the use of a few third party apps, namely Karen's replicator (to identify changes, but ignore timestamps with SkyDrive doesn't support), and Gladinet desktop (which allows me to mount SkyDrive as a drive letter), so I can have a destination that Karen's Replicator can use.

 

[kado897]

it doesn't totally help your situation but you don't need to run sync all the time. You can just start it when you want and then shut it down when the sync is complete.

 

[pparks1]

^ True, that doesn't work for me. I don't want the SkyDrive app installed on my server, I keep that as clean as humanly possible. I don't want to have the pictures on my server, and on my desktop and in the cloud. I only want to sync during the night when nothing else is using my bandwidth. But I understand your suggestion was for the value of others.

 

[kado897]

Another reason to be wary of SkyDrive.

For no apparent reason it has just started uploading all the pictures I had previously syncd again.

 

[gregrocker]

Since User shell folders will not relocate to Skydrive folder I have created new ones kept in the Skydrive folder named Documents - Skydrive, etc. then added each to the related library.

Now clicking on Documents shows me my onboard Docs folder and the Skydrive sync'd one - so I can drag between the two as desired.

Does anyone know of a better method to sync all the onboard User folders more directly using Skydrive?

 

[kado897]

That is pretty much what I do.