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andy666's avatar
andy666
Copper Contributor
Jul 30, 2025

Reinstalling Onedrive after crashed HDD?

I had my Onedrive installed on an external HDD but the HDD crashed so I bought a new SSD hard drive to replace the old one.
My Onedrive folder was E:\onedrive\onedrive so when I signed in to my one onedrive he prompted for the location of Onedrive. I entered the path and then I got a message saying 'the Onedrive app could not by synchronised. For the moment the Onedrive map could not be added.'
My only option is the 'OK' button and then I have a screen that keeps stating 'starting...'.
If I look at the bottom right to the onedrive icon I can see that I'm logged in with my account but he doesn't synchronises.

I have about 300GB of pictures on the Onedrive so I'm a bit scared to do something wrong what would overwrite or erase the existing files on the cloud.

What can I do to solve this problem?

Should I chooses a new path for the Onedrive? And if so, how do I reconnect all the files that are on the cloud to the new path?

Thanks!

files
office 365
storage
Sync

3 Replies

  • jamereach66t's avatar
    jamereach66t
    Brass Contributor
    Aug 05, 2025

    It’s best to choose a new folder on your SSD instead of using the old path. OneDrive will sync your cloud files to the new location without deleting anything. If it’s stuck on “starting…”, try resetting OneDrive using:
    %localappdata%\Microsoft\OneDrive\onedrive.exe /reset
    Then restart your PC. checkout the https://injectormlapk.org/.

  • andy666's avatar
    andy666
    Copper Contributor
    Aug 01, 2025

    I have found the solution.
    Apparently the new SDD was FAT32 formattted and Onedrive needs a NTFS format.
    After formatting the drive Onedrive synced on the old path.

  • MrCharlesJenkins's avatar
    MrCharlesJenkins
    MCT
    Jul 31, 2025

    Don’t reuse the old OneDrive folder path from your crashed HDD, choose a new folder location on your SSD and let OneDrive create a fresh sync there. Since all your files are safely stored in the cloud, OneDrive will download them anew, ensuring no sync conflicts or data loss. Before doing this, verify your files online and back up any local files not yet synced. This clean restart is the safest and most reliable way to recover your OneDrive setup after a drive failure.

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    Don't forget to mark as solution if my answer suits you

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