How to setup Skydrive and have it sync remains bafflingdid a manual

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Sorry for the uneditable title (did a manual???) and length of this post. I’ve read everything I can find at Microsoft, in Win 8 manuals and various blogs to no avail. Either I do not understand how Skydrive is supposed to sync across two Win 8 Pro PC’s and the cloud, or it cannot do it.

My present situation is this:

[*]A desktop PC and a laptop PC both running Win 8 Pro.
[*]Both PC’s have a local hard drive partition with the same letter (Z), drive name, and folder/subfolder set. These folders and their files are the only data I want to sync and have available to either PC on the cloud.
[*]Before I shifted from Win 7 to 8, I used SuperFileSynchronizer (now called “Syncovery”) to keep work done on either machine two-way synced with the same folder contents in the Z drive on the other. I did a daily manual run and it worked great, but offered no fallback when taking my laptop on the road.
[*]With Win 8, I logon to each PC with the same MS Account (I know Woody Leonard frowns on this. but for now that’s what I have), which links to the same 27gb Skydrive cloud storage area. I set this cloud storage up to sync with the Z drive on each PC.
[*]The initial Win 8 Pro setup installed the latest “Metro” tile version of SkyDrive on each PC.
[*]I also (and this may be a cause of my woes), installed the Desktop version on each machine. I linked each desktop version to its respective shared drive Z. That generated a Skydrive folder in the left panel of the new Explorer window. which use blue cloud icons. Since everything in each drive Z was already synced by Syncovery before I started, both desktop Skydrive folders on the two PC’s were an exact match, but not for long.
[*]When I travel and create new or change old files, I do so on the Cloud storage area, thinking it is the most accessible place and a common “hub” for doing so.
[*]When working at home on the desktop or laptop’s Z or Skydrive folder files, there is activity taking place when I look at the white Skydrive icon in my laptop taskbar, ending up saying “up to date”.
[*]There is also activity on the counterpart icon in the desktop taskbar, that never, ever finishes.
[*]Neither blue Skydrive folder in the Explorer list has the same files as its own original source Z drives, on either machine, and of course it no longer has the same drive Z content on each PC, either.

Questions: Do I have unrealistic expectations that Skydrive can keep the source Z drives and (blue) Skydrive folders on each PC all synced via the (white) Skydrive cloud storage? Should I have only one Skydrive app running on each PC, not both the Metro and Desktop versions? Should I do my real work with files only in either machine’s Z drive, or in its Skydrive folder, or in the one set of cloud folders?

Please believe me when I say that MS makes it sound so simple to set up a Skydrive cloud storage area linked to one PC’s folders, but and use – but never actually explains any details of how, and how not, to do it across two PC’s, perhaps a tablet or smartphone, and two Skydrive versions. HELP

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The Windows 8 Metro Skydrive app cannot be used to synchronize computers. You need the desktop app for that. The Metro app only allows you to access your SkyDrive content.

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Paul Thurrott has several good articles on skydrive. This is just one.

http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-tip-understand-differences-skydrive-app-skydrive-application-144573

If you do a search for skydrive on his site there are several others.

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Paul Thurrott has several good articles on skydrive. This is just one.

http://winsupersite.com/article/windows8/windows-8-tip-understand-differences-skydrive-app-skydrive-application-144573

If you do a search for skydrive on his site there are several others.

I had read the Thurrott articles but missed one of the other links that clears one major complication up – I should have moved, not copied my Drive Z folders and files to the Skydrive folder on my Desktop and Laptop PC’s, then save drive space by imaging and deleting my Z partitions. There is no reason to have both sets of files on each PC. Then, I will work within the Skydrive folders on either PC, letting the Skydrive application sync to the cloud and across both PC’s. If I need to download something when traveling, I can use the Metro version to access, but not work within, the cloud stored files. THANKS!

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Hi haybarn, when I started using Skydrive, I installed the App on both my computers, syncing worked but as SD was set to run at start-up, it increased my start time and I saw no reason to have access to my files in 3 locations. So I uninstalled SD app and only use it to backup my files in the cloud. As I use a portable version of Firefox, I can get access to them from anywhere and is a lot safer when using a pc I don’t own.

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Hi haybarn, when I started using Skydrive, I installed the App on both my computers, syncing worked but as SD was set to run at start-up, it increased my start time and I saw no reason to have access to my files in 3 locations. So I uninstalled SD app and only use it to backup my files in the cloud. As I use a portable version of Firefox, I can get access to them from anywhere and is a lot safer when using a pc I don’t own.

Hi Roderunner – Good advice – Rather than uninstalling, I’m going to try disabling SD’s auto startup and go manual when files have changed. There is one remaining complication though. My laptop’s Z drive is a mount of a TrueCrypt encrypted file, stored on another drive. In reading up on using any encryption with Skydrive, there are many issues. I was going to delete the mounted Z drive, and use only the Skydrive folder, but that data is not encrypted. There are warnings that sensitive business data should not be stored on the Skydrive cloud storage area – it could be hacked. The Skydrive EULA has prohibitions against certain content and your account can be cancelled – so someone at MS is watching actual content, right? Win 8 Pro has Bit Locker built in – not sure whether it integrates with Skydrive. So I’m still problem-solving,trying to have my cake and eat it – with encrypted but accessible and synced data on the cloud. If it comes down to one encrypted file that has to be mounted to the desktop, I may be able to live with that but it seems it will not be immediately accessible or synced with another PC encrypted file if the file name and date are the same – quite a trade-off.

Thanks

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Hi haybarn,

When I first installed SD, it made a new folder on my C:drive, then I found I could change it’s location, but I prefer the method I am currently using.
Before uploading to SD, I do this:- 32827-How-to-Zip and use a password.

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