Moving N Drive Files to OneDrive on Windows 10

Moving the files on your N: drive (nexus drive) to OneDrive on Windows 10 allows the files to be easily accessed remotely from any device via a web browser on office.com.

One Drive is not a replacement for departmental R drives, as the files on OneDrive are tied to an individual. For moving files that currently exist on the R drive, Teams is the equivalent solution and the files there will not be affected by changes in staffing. 

Close all open applications prior to beginning this process,

Step-by-step instructions

  1. Ensure your device is connected to your N: drive and it has OneDrive installed
    If you are on-campus and signed into your computer with your Nexus account, you do not need to map your N: drive 

    1. Here are the steps to connect/map to your N: drive on Windows 10

    2. Here are the steps to add your account to OneDrive on Windows 10

  2. Open your OneDrive in File Explorer

    1. Open a File Explorer window (you can find it in your taskbar, the yellow folder icon)

    2. Select your "OneDrive - University of Waterloo" folder in the left-hand side panel with a blue cloud icon next to it. You may have multiple OneDrive accounts signed in at the same time. Ensure you are on your University of Waterloo account by checking the name of the folder, at the top of the window.



  3. Open your N: drive in File Explorer

    1. Open a second File Explorer window – in your taskbar, right-click the yellow folder icon, choose File Explorer

    2. Under This PC click on your N: drive, labelled with your UWaterloo username



  4. Now, you should have two File Explorer windows open, one with your N: drive opened and one with your OneDrive opened. With these two windows open side-by-side, select the files/folders in your N: Drive that you would like copied over to OneDrive either by:

    • Clicking and dragging your mouse over the folders you want or...

    • Holding <control key> and <A key> to select all or…

    • Holding <control key> and clicking on each file/folder you would like to copy
      **You may want to transfer folders in batches if you have a large N: drive: use the CTRL key and click on each file/folder you want.

  5. You can drag and drop files/folders into the One Drive File Explorer window or…

    • right-click on your selections and select Copy and then right-click in the One Drive File Explorer window to Paste

       

         

  6. You should see a loading bar which displays how long it will take to transfer the files over. Once it is complete, you should see your files listed in your OneDrive - University of Waterloo window


       

  7. You can use this method to also copy over other files that you have saved on your device to OneDrive

  8. To avoid the confusion of having duplicate copies of files, it is recommended to delete the files from your N: drive once you have confirmed that your files are on OneDrive. .

  9. Unmap your N: drive to ensure you don’t accidentally use it or save files to it:

    1. Open File Explorer

    2. Click This PC from the left pane

    3. Under Network locations, right-click the mapped drive and select the Disconnect option.

View OneDrive Transfer Online

In order to check whether your files have successfully copied over, you can log into OneDrive at office.com using your username@uwaterloo.ca (Note: Your username is your 8-character UWaterloo username, i.e. j25rober)

Then, on the main screen after signing in, click on the OneDrive icon to be taken to your OneDrive. You should see your files there.

If you do not see your files listed on your OneDrive online, you can drag and drop files directly into the web browser window with OneDrive opened up. Follow the steps above, but treat your web browser window with OneDrive open as your OneDrive window.

 

You may experience issues transferring files to OneDrive if you are using invalid file names or file types - see troubleshooting steps for more information.