How to add an external HD to your Onedrive sync

This is useful if you have files on an external hard disk that you want to backup online, but don’t want to clog up your laptop. Any changes you make on the hard disk or online will be synced whenever you plug in the external hard disk. This also works for any other location not in your Onedrive folder.

Step 1: decide where you want your files to appear in the Onedrive folder structure

Step 2: identify the location of the files on your external HD

Step 3: open the windows command prompt with administrator privileges:

• Press Windows+R to open the “Run” box.
• Type “cmd” into the box and then press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run the command as an administrator.
• Click Yes to confirm.

Step 4: type in the following command and the press Enter

mklink /d "C:\Users\User\OneDrive\1TBHD\unsorted" "E:\unsorted"  

Note: the bold text is from steps 1 & 2.

If successful the following message will appear:

symbolic link created for C:\Users\User\OneDrive\1TBHD\unsorted <<===>> E:\unsorted

There is the option to have a different folder name on Onedrive, but in this example they are the same.

If the folder already exists in Onedrive you will receive an error:
“Cannot create a file when that file already exists.”