What is the safest way to remove OneDrive folders and files before repurposing a laptop?

Jim 291 Reputation points
2022-12-31T17:55:30.937+00:00

A user has been given a new laptop and successfully synced all his files from Onedrive to it. I want to now repurpose the old laptop to a temporary intern. So I want to remove all the files from his profile (desktop, documents, etc) before giving his old laptop over. What I don't want to happen is delete them all from the laptop and have them deleted from the original users OneDrive online, and subsequently from his new laptop as well. I suppose I can uninstall OneDrive from his account and remove his profile from the old laptop before giving it to the new user. But I don't want to then install OneDrive again for the new user and have it start syncing the old users account in the background. I don't see why it would, but the end result would be disastrous in this case so I need to really be sure. Currently, both the new and the old laptops are setup to "save space", i.e. everything lives in the cloud. These are local domain account systems.
So how is this plan:
Remove Onedrive from the old laptop
Remove the user from the old laptop
Login as my admin account and delete all the files from the old laptop
Login as a the new user on the old laptop to create and cache the domain credentials and have it set up the profile
Install OneDrive and connect to it with the new credentials.
I can't see why this wouldn't work, but I want a sanity check. FWIW, we are a 365 tenant.

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A Microsoft file hosting and synchronization service.
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OneDrive: A Microsoft file hosting and synchronization service.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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Accepted answer
  1. Dave Patrick 426.4K Reputation points MVP
    2022-12-31T20:03:46.277+00:00

    but I want a sanity check.

    The simplest / safest / quickest and cleaner method may be to clean install the operating system.

    --please don't forget to upvote and Accept as answer if the reply is helpful--

    1 person found this answer helpful.

2 additional answers

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  1. Jim 291 Reputation points
    2023-01-01T16:20:11.627+00:00

    Yeah, I would agree. Shortcuts tend to turn into longcuts..

    1 person found this answer helpful.
  2. risolis 8,701 Reputation points
    2022-12-31T20:00:00.997+00:00

    Hello @Jim

    Thank you for sharing this question on this community space.

    I would like to gather the following article which might fit into your case scenario so, please see down below:

    https://video2.skills-academy.com/en-us/microsoft-365/enterprise/cross-tenant-onedrive-migration?view=o365-worldwide

    Let me know if that was useful but if not, I can keep assisting you further.

    Looking forward to your feedback,

    Cheers,

    Please "Accept the answer" if the information helped you. This will help us and others in the community as well.

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