Have I lost my files to OneDrive?

[Bambooboat]

Hi friendly forum! I recently purchased and set up a new laptop with Windows 11. I assume it defaulted to the OneDrive settings. When I copied my files/data (30GB) from an external drive onto my computer, OneDrive promptly began giving me error messages (not enouhg storage space?) and selling me additional storage. I am on the free account with 5GB of free storage and don't wish to purchase more. I want to retain my files on my local hard drive, and use OneDrive for maybe a few select folders.

My issue is that now I have tons of files in OneDrive using up the whole 5GB and much more. I deleted these files from OneDrive but I get a message saying that the files will be deleted from all my devices! Does that mean that it will delete them from my local hard drive as well???? It says I have 30 days to recover them from the OneDrive trash.

I don't get it. I don't understand the mess I am in. I can't delete everything and start from scratch because I have since added more files to the computer that are not yet backed up and I would not know which these are.

How do I make sure all my files are on my computer before I wipe OneDrive clean?

Many thanks for any words of wisdom. New at Windows and this is driving me crazy!

 

[Ian]

Welcome to the forum .

There's a bit more info on the process here:

What happens when you delete files in the cloud - Microsoft Support

Training: We'll show you what happens when you delete a file or folder on OneDrive with one device what happens on your other devices.

support.microsoft.com

If you delete from OneDrive, they'll no longer be available on any PC/Phone that is connected to your one drive account. However, if your files are copied out of the OneDrive folder to another folder on your machine, you can make a "local" backup to be sure they won't disappear.