Cloud Storage: Google Drive & OneDrive

Cloud storage means keeping your files on a company's servers over the internet instead of only on your own computer. You can then open them from your phone, another computer or a cyber cafe, share them with a link, and still have them if your laptop is lost or its SSD fails.

The two cloud services most people in India already have are Google Drive (with every Google account, including your Android phone's) and OneDrive (with every Microsoft account, built into Windows 11). In this lesson you will learn how much free space you get, how to upload and organise files, how sharing works, and the one difference between sync and backup that every user must understand.

How much free space?

Both companies sell extra storage plans if you need more. When a Google account runs out of space, Google says you cannot upload new files to Drive or back up photos, and Gmail may stop sending and receiving email, so keep an eye on the storage meter. You can see it at the bottom left of Drive, or at one.google.com/storage.

Google Drive basics

Open drive.google.com in a browser (or the Drive app on your phone) and sign in.

• Upload: click New > File upload (or Folder upload), choose the files and click Open. You can also drag files from File Explorer straight into the browser window.
• Create a folder: New > New folder, type a name such as Identity Documents.
• Create documents: New > Google Docs / Sheets / Slides; they are saved in Drive automatically.
• Find files: use the search box at the top; Drive even finds words inside PDFs and scanned images in many cases.
• Trash: deleted files go to Trash and are removed for good after 30 days.

For a computer you use every day, Google's free Google Drive for desktop app shows your Drive as a drive in File Explorer, so you can open and save files without the browser.

OneDrive basics

OneDrive is part of Windows 11. Sign in with your Microsoft account, and a OneDrive folder appears in the File Explorer navigation pane. Anything you save in it is uploaded automatically.

Small icons next to each file show its status:

Right-click a file in the OneDrive folder and choose Free up space to make it online-only, or Always keep on this device to keep a copy offline.

OneDrive can also back up your Desktop, Documents and Pictures folders: open OneDrive's settings from its cloud icon on the taskbar and look for Manage back up.

Terminal knows where your OneDrive folder is. This line shows its path:

$env:OneDrive

C:\Users\Priya\OneDrive

And this lists what is in it:

Get-ChildItem $env:OneDrive | Select-Object Name

Name
----
Desktop
Documents
Pictures
Resume-Priya-Sharma.pdf

Sharing files

Sharing is the cloud's most useful feature, and also where most privacy mistakes happen.

In Google Drive:

1. Right-click the file and choose Share (or Share > Share).
2. To share with particular people, type their email addresses and choose a role: Viewer (can only see), Commenter (can add comments) or Editor (can change it).
3. Under General access, choose Restricted (only the people you added) or Anyone with the link (anyone who gets the link, even by forwarding).
4. Click Send or Copy link.

In OneDrive: right-click the file, choose Share, then pick who the link works for and whether they can edit, and copy or send the link.

Sync is not backup

Sync keeps the same files identical on all your devices. That is convenient, but it also means: if you delete a file on your laptop, it is deleted from the cloud and from your phone too. If a virus scrambles the files on your computer, the scrambled versions sync as well.

So:

• Deleted something by mistake? Check the Trash in Drive or the Recycle bin in OneDrive on the web, and restore it.
• Both services keep version history for many files, so you can go back to an older version: right-click the file and look for Version history (OneDrive) or Manage versions (Drive).
• For really important files, keep one extra copy somewhere else, such as an external drive that you connect only to make the copy.

Common mistakes

• Running out of Google storage because of years of large Gmail attachments and phone photo backups. Check the storage page twice a year.
• "Anyone with the link" on private documents.
• Thinking cloud files are always offline. Online-only files need internet to open.
• Deleting files from the OneDrive folder "to save space". That deletes them from the cloud too. Use Free up space instead.
• Using a weak password on the cloud account. Everything you store is protected only by your sign-in; turn on two-step verification, as shown in Passwords & Two-Step Verification.

Key points

• Cloud storage keeps files on servers so you can reach them from any device.
• A Google account includes 15 GB shared by Gmail, Drive and Photos; a Microsoft account includes 5 GB of OneDrive.
• Share with named people and the right role (Viewer, Commenter, Editor); avoid "Anyone with the link" for private files.
• OneDrive's Free up space saves disk space without deleting the cloud copy.
• Sync copies deletions too; use Trash, version history and an extra backup for important files.

explorer $env:OneDrive