# Will Microsoft OneDrive keep me from running out of C: drive space? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 19, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-microsoft-onedrive-keep-me-from-running-out-of-c-drive-space/952760 "2021-10-19T13:38:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-microsoft-onedrive-keep-me-from-running-out-of-c-drive-space/952760/1 "2021-10-19T13:38:57Z")
My corporate PC has less than 10% of the C: drive free and I don’t want to run out of space and have a malfunction. But all my user files are set up with Microsoft OneDrive. If I ignore the free space numbers and keep on working, will it automatically free up space locally so I never have to worry? Right now I have about 34 GB space available and will have a couple 9 GB files to save this week, for example. I have selected “Always keep on this device” for a small share of my existing folder structure. I could also select “Free up space” for some upper-level folders I anticipate not accessing soon, if that would help. Thanks!! ---
**Author:** ![DMC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dmc/32/18049_2.png) [@DMC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMC)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-microsoft-onedrive-keep-me-from-running-out-of-c-drive-space/952760/2 "2021-10-19T15:03:23Z")
I’m believe that most companies (no idea in your particular case) have their OneDrive ecosystem set up to stay in sync with a local drive on the user’s machine. If so, you might still run into issues. With that said, if you have a need to regularly store 9 GB files for work, your infrastructure team should be providing you with a better storage solution anyway. ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-microsoft-onedrive-keep-me-from-running-out-of-c-drive-space/952760/3 "2021-10-19T17:17:17Z")
Check out Storage Sense, which is an option in OneDrive that will automatically remove local files that you haven’t used in a while. > **[Use OneDrive and Storage Sense in Windows 10 to manage disk space - Microsoft...](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/use-onedrive-and-storage-sense-in-windows-10-to-manage-disk-space-de5faa9a-6108-4be1-87a6-d90688d08a48)** > > Learn how to turn on Storage Sense in Windows 10, so OneDrive and Storage Sense can help you manage disk space. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-microsoft-onedrive-keep-me-from-running-out-of-c-drive-space/952760/4 "2021-10-19T18:45:27Z")
> [@DMC](#): > > With that said, if you have a need to regularly store 9 GB files for work, your infrastructure team should be providing you with a better storage solution anyway. Yeah, generally speaking anything that would be of any real corporate importance should be stored on some sort of network share that’s backed up. Ideally that share would reside on a SAN or NAS, and not just a drive on a server. In my experience in OneDrive, there are two basic ways you can use it; you can set it up to be a mirroring sort of thing for specific directories, and you can just use it like another drive- add directories, etc… The latter is more than likely what you want to do if drive space is at a premium. Also, since it’s a Microsoft cloud computing service, that storage will be redundant, etc… so safe from most mayhem. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/will-microsoft-onedrive-keep-me-from-running-out-of-c-drive-space/952760/5 "2021-10-19T19:35:55Z")
OneDrive as has been mentioned, can be configured to mostly store your data in the cloud in which case it won’t utilize local drive space except in an on-demand sense. I think it defaults to doing a lot of “mirroring” though as its standard behavior, which will use up lots of local drive space. If your organization has it configured a certain way, you may not be able to alter that configuration on an enterprise setup.