Backing Up Data to OneDrive

The majority of local locations that your data will be stored on in your computer will be the following:

• On the Desktop
• In your Downloads folder
• In your Documents folder

You do not need to back up any data from network drives, such as from the printer scanner folder - these files are accessed through the network from your laptop but aren’t saved on the laptop itself.
You may have none of these or many of these network drives accessible from your File Explorer, ignore these when you’re going through the backup process that is explained further below.

The image below shows an example of a network drive for the scanner of the Admin office printer:

Example process of backing up your data.

Creating a Backup Folder and Copying Data into it for Uploading to OneDrive:

The first thing to do is to organise what files you want to back up. This is mainly to simplify the upload process to OneDrive and to keep everything in one folder.

1. Make a new folder on your Desktop for copying your files into.
   • Right-click on any empty space on the Desktop, hover over “New” and then click on “Folder”.
   • Call this new folder something simple like “My Backup Files June2026” and press Enter on the keyboard.
2. Open this new folder by double left-clicking on it.
   • Make another new folder for each location you’re copying files from. This is to keep it more tidy and so everything isn’t all in one messy folder that you’ll need to organise later.
   • Example folders to make and name are “downloads”, “documents” and “pictures”. Make any other ones you want - it’s solely for keeping it organised.
   • Other folders you may want to make would be “desktop” and “videos”, etc.
3. Now use File Explorer to browse to the relevant locations on the left section of the window (Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Pictures, etc).
4. Select any files you wish to save / keep and then right-click on the selected files and click on “Copy”.
   • You can highlight multiple files by pressing and holding “CTRL” (bottom left of the keyboard) and then left-clicking each file. These can then be copied all together by right-clicking on them after they’re selected and clicking “Copy”.
   • You can also select multiple files by left-clicking and dragging to make a selection box to highlight files within it.
5. Browse back to your new folder for your data backup - either click the Back arrow at the top left or close the File Explorer window and open it again by double left-clicking your backup folder on the Desktop.
6. Once you’re back in your data backup folder, go to the relevant folder inside your data backup folder (if you’ve made them, e.g: “downloads”, “documents”, “pictures”, etc).
7. Once you’re in the relevant folder - right click on empty space within the window and click on “Paste” to copy your previously selected files into that folder.
8. Repeat this for each location that you have files saved on your computer.

You can refer to this video example below:

If the video above does not play, you can click here to view the video from SharePoint:
https://activ8energies-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/p/autobot/IQCSZG6aW22nS5A3mHvYbdiDAe5jV8sSOrp4H6CdINClVr4?e=DU3dZ5&nav=eyJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJTdHJlYW1XZWJBcHAiLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJTaGFyZURpYWxvZy1MaW5rIiwicmVmZXJyYWxBcHBQbGF0Zm9ybSI6IldlYiIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXcifX0%3D

Uploading Your Backup Folder to OneDrive

Once you’ve got all of the files that you want to keep copied into that new folder, you can follow the steps below to save them onto your OneDrive.

1. First thing to do is to open your OneDrive folder. This is done by clicking the small cloud icon down on the bottom right of your screen on the taskbar - next to where it shows the date and time.
   
   
2. The cloud icon for OneDrive will look different if it’s not already signed in.
   • It will be a blue cloud icon if it’s signed in.
   • 
   • It will be a grey cloud icon if it is not signed in.
   • 
     • If it is grey, click it and then click on the blue “Sign In” button on the window that pops up.
     • It should auto-fill the account name, otherwise it will need to be typed in. The account name is your Activ8 email address.
     • Click “Next” to continue through the Sign In process.
     • Click “Not Now” when it asks to also set up the mobile app on your phone.
     • Click “Next” until it has a button to Open the OneDrive folder.
   • If there is a cloud icon with a red or yellow alert icon on it (a red X or yellow ! ), click it and follow any provided instructions from OneDrive to resolve it. This is typically a data sync issue and it will usually resolve itself when clicked.
     • If there is any issue where it is giving error messages or failing to sync after following any instructions it provides, contact IT for assistance to resolve it.
   • If there is no cloud icon at all - click on the Windows logo on the taskbar and in the top search box type “OneDrive” and it should give the option of opening the OneDrive app. This will also add the cloud icon to the location described above.
3. Once OneDrive has the blue cloud icon and you’ve clicked it on the bottom right of the screen, it will open a small window where there will be a button on the bottom left to “Open Folder”. Click that to open the OneDrive folder.
4. This folder is where you will now copy over your files from your computer to the OneDrive cloud storage.
5. Leave the OneDrive window open (minimize it if needed) and go back to your Desktop to select and copy your backup folder that you made previously.
6. Go back to the OneDrive File Explorer window again and right click on an empty space in the center and click Paste.
   • This will now copy your files over to the OneDrive folder from your computer.
   • This can take some time to complete - there will be a “Status” column with a few different icons, depending on what state the files are in. There will initially be a circular blue arrow icon to show that data is uploading or synchronizing when you copy in new files or folders. See image below:
     
   • The 2 blue arrows going in a circle means that data is being transferred. (Don’t turn off your computer until this turns into the green tick icon for your backup folder)
     
   • The green tick icon with white background means all files are saved on the OneDrive cloud storage.
     

Once the blue circular arrow status icon changes to the white circle with a green tick, your data is finished uploading and is saved to your OneDrive folder.

You can refer to this video example below for how to open your OneDrive folder and copy the backup folder files into it:

If the video above does not play, you can click here to view the video from SharePoint:
https://activ8energies-my.sharepoint.com/:v:/p/autobot/IQAFXF3Q1yIcTIu5JH2-FwHQAZSyqD08KTMZrZrj54_mdbY?e=1wixNW&nav=eyJyZWZlcnJhbEluZm8iOnsicmVmZXJyYWxBcHAiOiJTdHJlYW1XZWJBcHAiLCJyZWZlcnJhbFZpZXciOiJTaGFyZURpYWxvZy1MaW5rIiwicmVmZXJyYWxBcHBQbGF0Zm9ybSI6IldlYiIsInJlZmVycmFsTW9kZSI6InZpZXcifX0%3D