How do I stop dropbox from continually trying to upload my whole c drive?

Question

For no apparent reason, and not requested by me, Dropbox is trying to copy my entire c drive. I am going crazy and have tried every suggestion I have seen here to stop it uploading and it just keeps doing it. I can suspend/pause but that is no help as there will be things I want to upload. It is using up all my memory so my computer keeps crashing and it is also crippling our internet for other things. 
I am using a windows 10 laptop. It says it will take 2+ days to complete. But as there are files which Dropbox doesn't allow (.ini etc) I think it will just keep churning away forever.

A lot of things I did have on dropbox actually seem to have disappeared during this process.
What am I doing wrong?

Jay · Answer

If you don't want those files to appear in your Dropbox account, you can delete them from your account.

You can upload specific files to the Dropbox folder manually.

Dropbox doesn't have an option to backup your whole hard drive, only certain folders. Provided the computer backup is disabled, those folders won't get backed up to Dropbox.

deannep · Answer

Hi Jay

you may have found the problem

I ran a search for ‘Desktop’ in the Dropbox folder on File Manager:

they are from backups of my old computer done to a portable HD by professionals when the hard disk died and I had it replaced with a solid state drive. The computer is now being replaced and I need the files in the backup so I uploaded the portable hard drive to Dropbox which was obviously a mistake.

What should I do now?
If I delete the folder named 'from hardrive' from Dropbox, will that fix things?
What can I safely copy from the portable HD backup? Do I need to manually find the documents & music files on it and upload them (that will take a very long time)? 
How do I ensure that Dropbox does not try to backup my whole laptop in the future?
Thanks

Jay · Answer

Hi @deannep, it looks like the computer backup is no longer running on your device.

Could you confirm what system folders you see in the Dropbox folder, such as Desktop?