Windows 10: File History apparently was not working after initial setup

I have a Windows 10 64-bit desktop with several internal drives:

C: SSD with OS

D: old HDD that used to host OS, now a backup

E: RAID1 pair

F: RAID1 pair


I upgraded the C drive to SSD March of 2018, but before doing so, I saved a system image backup to D, and set up File History to back up C files to D as well. Over the course of the year, I checked File History a couple times to make sure it was up to date... but I didn't check the backup location contents. I only looked at the File History app to verify the last backup date was current.


Last week while trying to update the BIOS, I inadvertently changed something that corrupted the C drive so I had to try to restore everything.

First, the system image backup could not be reloaded so I'm trying to manually restore the system.

Second, upon trying to restore the files from C, I found that the files in the backup location were last dated from March of 2018. No new files had been backed up since then, even though File History said it had backed up later in the year.


Why did that happen? I can't find an answer online, and the more I look into Windows backup utilities, the more instances I find of people who were burned by them. It seems to me that Windows backup options are junk and should never be trusted.

:)

 

File History Stopped Working...


I've searched this site and Google for the error I get and have found nothing that seems to pertain to this issue exactly. I have been using the file history backup function since installing W10 Home right before the free offer expired and it has been working fine. I was using an internal 250GB hard drive for the backup drive and it got fragmented and too full to defrag. I replaced the drive with a new out of the box 1TB internal drive and formatted it. The drive is shown to be healthy in Device Manager and I can access it fine. I've even copied a folder to it with no issues. I ran the file history set up steps to use this drive and there are the usual folders on it now. The Backup Options page in Settings shows the target drive, that there are no files backed up, and that backup has not been run. The When I try to run the backup to backup all of the folders specified in the setup, I get the following error message in a popup window:
"We can't copy files to your file history drive"
"Failed to initiate user data backup"
(error 80070005)
I've tried several things, but nothing seems to work. I'm very ignorant on permissions, but puzzled that this worked fine until I changed drives, but I've obviously missed a step somewhere. Logs don't show anything relative to this issue.

 

File History Physical Connected But Not Electronic

Hello Candun,

Thank you for posting your concern in Microsoft Community and welcome to the Windows 10 Family.

From the description provided, I understand that File History is not recognizing the external USB expansion drive, even though the drive had worked initially and it was behaving normally in File Explorer.

This issue may occur if any of the backup in the drive you are backing up is corrupted or the library is corrupted.

Please follow the below suggested methods and check if it helps to resolve the issue.

Method 1

1. Open File History and click Select Drive. Select a different drive other than the one that is failing to be recognized. you can consider adding an extra internal HDD to your PC in this situation.

2. Go to the external USB drive that wasn't being recognised, find the File History folder and rename it to "File History.old" or delete it.

3. Go to your C:\Users\your user folder\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows, find the File History folder and rename it "File History.old" or delete it.

4. Re-open File History, click Select drive and select the original USB drive that was not being recognised. The drive should now set up normally and start operating.

5. Delete the File History folder on the drive used in step 1

Method 2

This issue may happen due to system file corruption. I suggest you to run System file checker. System File checker (SFC) scan is done to check if there are any corrupted system files that could be causing this issue. Kindly follow
the below given steps:

• 
  Press Windows key + X, select
  Command prompt (Admin) to bring up elevated Command prompt.
  
• 
  In Command prompt type
  sfc/scannow and press enter.
  

• Restart the computer.

If no corrupted system files were found in the previous state, then I suggest you to try the following steps to employ the DISM command lines:

• 
  Open command prompt by pressing Windows key + X and selecting “Command prompt admin”.
  
• 
  In command prompt, type the following commands and press Enter after each command:
  

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Scanhealth

DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth

• 
  Close the command prompt and restart the PC and check if it works.
  

Also refer: What if something goes wrong in File History?

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/what-something-goes-wrong-file-history

(Note: Applies to windows 10)

Hope the above information was helpful. If you need further information, feel free to write to us and we would be happy to help you.

Thank you.

 

File History won't work, says insufficient space

Hi,

It is possible that the user profiles are also being restored when restoring your files in
File History. We suggest that you manually choose the files you want to restore. Here are the steps:

• Go to Control Panel.
• Search for File History.
• Click the Restore personal files option on the left pane of your screen.
• Select the folders you want to restore and then click the restore icon.

Note: Make sure that you don't copy the duplicated folders listed.

Feel free to get back to us if you need further assistance.