Finally discovered how to use Skydrive as a document backup

Been using Sugarsync as a free cloud document backup for a while now until I got an email saying my free trial (I'm sure it wasnt a trial when I signed up) was coming to an end.

So off I google looking for a way to get the same functionality from my 25gb Skydrive. Low and behold someone else had the same idea on Microsoft answers and the solution is relatively simple.

It involves right clicking my documents folder, selecting the location tab and changing the location to a new location under the local Skydrive folder, then once all the documents have been moved Skydrive will sync this in the cloud and bingo, a synced document backup in the cloud.

Not certain that I understand what you are saying!

From your description it sounds like you just simply re-located "My-Documents" to the SkyDrive.

Not certain why you consider this to be a backup as this will now appear to be your prime location!

No, plenty of discussion about what's really happening here http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/forum/sd...

Skydrive in Win 8.1 keeps a copy on your hard drive while backing up that folder seemlessly to the cloud, I have done the same with my music too.

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

No, plenty of discussion about what's really happening here http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/skydrive/forum/sd...

OK, I'm going to accept what you say - far too much in that link for me to wade through (& I no longer need to know how to do it, since I have a totally independent Cloud Backup Service)!

All I know is that when I initially set-up my 8.1 PC, it directed ALL my saved files to "My Documents" in the SkyDrive, without leaving any copy on the local PC's "My Documents".

Since I hadn't initially appreciated the fact that there were 2 sets of "My Documents, it certainly had me going for quite a while because I was starting to assume that I had lost them!

In reply to a post by Banger:

Skydrive in Win 8.1 keeps a copy on your hard drive while backing up that folder seemlessly to the cloud, I have done the same with my music too.

Windows 8.1 got sky drive integrated, but you got to have your computer connected to MS servers to do so. windows, 7 and 8 had the better idea, a app that could be used to do the same thing, but you any had to have the app connected to MS servers.

This is the reason why I had to put two computers back to windows 8 from 8.1

Myself I use dropbox, mainly because it can be used on Linux as well as windows. for some people the 2GB free storage would be too little, but fine for the 3 -4 documents I got stored on it.

How secure are documents kept on SkyDrive? I also found that my Windows Phone was uploading any photos I took automatically until I disabled this function.