Experiences with File Backup to OneDrive

[Bespoken]

This post is quite long but that is necessary to explain the experiences.

HBS File Backup was scheduled for five different backups of folders on the D: drive. Incremental backups were scheduled for weekly with a full backup to be done after 4 incrementals. The target of the backups is a OneDrive folder on my C: drive. OneDrive automatically duplicates any changes in this folder to the cloud. The plan was to use the Explorer option "Free up space" on the folders to save space on the C: drive and to prevent this data from being included in the System Backup. "Free up space" keeps a small stub of the file/folder on the C: drive with the full version retained in the cloud. The step was applied after the completion of one full backup and two incrementals, not after each backup. Some unexpected results were experienced on the next scheduled run.

HBS did not like the stub versions of the previous backups.
- In four cases a new Full backup was created (an incremental was expected). The backup created was named "File Backup yyyymmddnnnnn_yyyymmdd_Full_V1_1.DBI". The first yyyymmdd was when the first full was performed, and the second is the date of the recent backup. This resulted in two files with the sub name of Full_V1_1. It is now impossible to mount that backup. The workaround was to rename the file to use the next number in the sequence, e.g., Full_v4_1.
- In one case the backup failed, reporting "No backup image was found (0x00B5013000000012)". Trying to manually run an incremental backup on any of the five backup resulted in the same error.
- The Error Log did not show any errors

Some solutions:
- not to use the "Free up space" feature, but then the System Backup will contain those files. Only the paid version of HBS allows a custom filter to be set.
- relocate OneDrive from the C: drive to another drive, but that only solves the System Backup file/folder inclusion

 I had previously used a program called Perfect Backup for backup of the data files. It successfully performed full and incremental backups even with the "Free up space" applied. It was smart enough to know what files were changed or deleted, so that a restore at any incremental point recreated the reality at that time.

Still trying to decide how to proceed, but suspect that going back to Perfect Backup is the solution.

[Froggie]

Anytime you use a OneDrive replicated folder, in any form, you'll be in for many surprises along the way... especially how various applications handle files in those folders.


I have stayed away from using OneDrive at all based on a myriad of experiences of many other users in various Windows Forums on the net.

Expect the unexpected with OneDrive... always.

[n8chavez]

You could still use Onedrive, the service, and not use OneDrive, the software. As @Froggie suggested, the OneDrive application is pretty terrible. I suggest using rclone with OneDrive, and bypassing OneDrive folders.

https://rclone.org/onedrive/

Microsoft OneDrive
Rclone docs for Microsoft OneDrive

[CDC9762]

I use OneDrive for my data files but I wouldn't bother with big image-size files - too slow with my internet connection.

My OneDrive folder is on its own partition so it never gets imaged in a System Backup. I've always kept OS and my personal data files on different partitions to make system imaging quicker and I can replace the OS without concern about losing data files.
My data files are completely present on the PC as well as OneDrive so running my file backup program causes no problems.
Without my data files in my images, I see no benefit in having a cloud (off-site) backup.

Haseleo says it supports OneDrive so you might raise a support ticket with them and see what they recommend.