Windows 10: File History inflexibility?

I'm trying File History as a possible replacement for my old but trusty Second Copy backup program.

Am I unusual in finding it rather inflexible? In particular, it doesn't allow me to add any folders to its chosen fixed set. For example, on my SSD C: I have several large folders like C:\Agent, C:\epson and others. Not to mention the 11 GB of C:\ProgramData, which contains important files I may well want to restore sometime. Perhaps also the even larger \Program Files. Yet File History includes only C:\Users\terry.

I'm also unclear how it chose and named that set. Why two 'Videos' for example? And why are some of my subfolders listed as individual entries rather than nested inside their parent folders where I would go looking?

In fact I don't like its restore home screen, which doesn't match the familiar tree in Explorer, Which makes it less easy to restore a specific file or folder. Why that design choice?





It clearly has some strong points, especially for those rare occasions when, rather than recovering a deleted file, I might want an earlier version of it (although I'd expect a high price in terms of disk storage). So to reach a balanced view I'd welcome others' opinions please.

--
Terry, East Grinstead, UK

:)

 

File History Browser- no usable file history browser was found

Hi,

Thank you for posting your query in Microsoft Community.

I understand the frustration when things doesn’t work well.

I suggest you to Perform System Restore
and check if it works.

System restore will take your computer to pervious state when it was not facing such problem, this can be done by selecting the proper restore point.

To restore the operating system to an earlier point in time, follow these steps:

a) Press Windows key + R.

b) Type rstrui.exe and click OK.

c) Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the System restore process.



Disclaimer: When you use System Restore to restore the computer to a previous state, programs and updates that you installed after that date are removed.

Please refer the link below for more information.

What if something goes wrong in File History?


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

Note: It also applies for windows 10.

Reference:

Restore from a system restore point

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/windows-10-recovery-options

Create a system restore point

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/create-a-system-restore-point

Hope this information helps. Please let me know if you need further assistance.

 

File History - Could not enable File History

Method 1 results: Safe mode with network: As before, it found the drive,

but this time when I clicked the button "Turn on" I got the message: Could

not enable File History; This service cannot be started in Safe Mode.

Method 2 results: I did not do a clean boot because my computer did not

run fine. I still couldn't use the external hard drive in File History.

 

Solved after help elsewhere. In brief, open the Libraries list, add a new one, then populate that with the additional folders that you want to backup.