How Do I Know Uploading To iCloud Is OK and Can I Use My MacBook Air?

I have an external hard disk with 200G, and I connected it to my MacBook Air, to copy all the disk’s files to my iCloud.
Upload is taking a long time, of course, but it’s been days and I am not sure about the progress. So I have two questions:
1. How can I know the upload is advancing?
2. If I take the MacBook Air now and work with it, do I have the files on the computer as well, while uploading continues?
I want all the material from my old PC hard disk to be on iCloud, so I can fully transition to Mac.
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Ioram