I bought a new PC, set up my skydrive folder using the app and copied all of my data files into it. I then connected to the net and skydrive downloaded about 12 GB out of 21 GB from the web to the PC. This is exactly what I don't want. I now have to sync my data folder to the skydrive folder on the PC, which will then (at best) have to upload the 12 GB again to skydrive. Hopefully it will not continue to do this as it is chewing up my gigabytes. 

I appreciate that skydrive is intended to sync to a new location, but I don't need this. I ONLY need it as a backup. Is there any way to tame skydrive and require it to sync to my skydrive folder on the PC and not the reverse. Unless this can be done, it is almost hopeless as a backup system which would be a pity. For example, if I delete a file on my PC and, sync that to my skydrive folder on the PC, I do not want skydrive to download the file again to my PC, when the sync with my data drive would reinstate it - seemingly causing a never-ending loop and wasting time and bandwidth.

Do other cloud storage systems suffer from the same defect?