Windows 10: File History - Multiple Previous Versions; Where are they kept

I am in process of setting up a new computer and was researching if I can bring all the previous file history versions over to the new PC seems this answer is YES. But as I was poking around in the old PC, I cam across some strange things.


First, I am using Windows 10 Home, Version 10.0.19041 Build 19041. Computer is an HP Pavillion HPE-240f. 64 bit.


The first is in Control Panel>All Control Panel Items>File History, it said file history had last run on 7/12/2020 I have since followed advice on some posts for an easy fix, and turned file history off and then back on, so I cannot show you that statement. When I go to Restore Personal Files, I see what I presume are backups from various dates 13 in total with the newest being from 7/12/2020 there are actually 2 from 7/12/2020; one early morning and one late at night. So it seems like File History is actually not working. I did try to run it. When I looked at the Event Log, it showed an error: "Unable to start a backup cycle for configuration C:\Users\[user]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Config". And I confirmed no files were updated in the File History folder in the drive where it should put them the actual drive is internal to the machine, but physically is its own, separate drive.






However, when I right click on an often used file in File Explorer, it shows a previous version from 10/27/2020, which actually makes more sense.



I have opened the file, and it does seem to be a version that would have existed on 10/27/2020. But where the heck is it stored? I cannot find it on the drive I use for the not currently working? File History. So this has me perplexed, even while being happy they are "somewhere".


Second, you can see that two versions show when I right click on the file to see previous versions. In the pic posted, you can see that the Open button is greyed out. The drop down for Restore has the option Restore only Restore To is greyed out. If I select the second file listed, the Open button is available for selection not greyed out and does work this is the file I opened in the paragraph immediately above. There are no additional selections using the drop down for Open. I have not tried the Restore option on this file, but do know the drop down has no additional selections.


So... is there a way to find out where these other, more recent versions are? Is there a fix to the seeing multiple files when I right click? This second issue isn't that big of a deal, honestly, just more of an annoyance. Any help is greatly appreciated.

:)

 

Previous version history file


Hello,

I am new to the forum and currently encountering a problem restoring files from the shadow volume. I do not see any version history when I click the previous version history tab. Using a third party tool like shadowexplorer I am able to see the previous versions. Exporting the files out from the shadow volume also is incomplete with file errors. Any way for me to restore fully some files from the shadow copies ?

Thanks.
Anand

 

How to stop File History on the old drive and start File History on a new drive?

I use the external drive
for File History and have a lot of information there. I want to restart the File History process on a new drive and place the previous File History drive off-site.

Please suggest the steps to stop File History on the old drive and start File History on a new drive.

 

Previous Versions

Previous version with regards to files. we have it setup on our file servers.

We have modified the number of previous versions that are kept.

Windows XP\2003 can see all previous versions. Windows 7+\2008+ however cannot see any more than I think it is 32.

It lists the oldest first.

This means that if we try to recover from previous versions we usually need to use command line as the gui is showing versions that are too old.