Not long ago, Dustin Hopkins gave me a call to let me know that my computer was reporting a potential hard drive failure. Yes, we have software that helps monitor university-owned computers in our domain. Normally, I would have time to back up my computer and install a new hard drive before a complete failure, but not that day. My computer died as I started a full backup. Sadly, these things happen, and I could have lost all the files on my hard drive.
Fortunately, I use OneDrive to synchronize all my files on my desktop and in my Documents folder to OneDrive in the cloud. This is part of our Office 365 services. This means I already had a backup of my work, so once my computer was repaired, it was an easy process to restore all my files. I did not lose any data.
The OneDrive application is already installed on any Windows 10 computer. When you first start it up, you will need to login to your University Office 365 account and by default it will synchronize (keep a copy) of the files on your desktop and in your Documents folder. If you get a new computer, or if like me, your computer lost its hard drive, OneDrive will copy all your synchronized files back to your computer. Pretty nice.
In addition, OneDrive makes your files available from anywhere you have an Internet connection or from a mobile device if you download the OneDrive app. It also protects you against ransomware since OneDrive keeps versions of your files in the cloud. If a file gets encrypted by malware, you can restore the previous unencrypted version.
I encourage everyone to make good use of the OneDrive service.