Windows 10: File History

Hi.
Hope I have posted this in the correct forum - I could not find a 'Backup & Restore' page.

I have just purchased a NAS drive and I am going to enable Windows 10 to backup to this using File History.

My question is, how does windows store these files?

For example, could I look at these files and access them from my NAS drive or are they backed up in the same way as a system image (and only accessible from the File History application)?

Many thanks
Chris

:)

 

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.

 

You can look at them direct if you want to. The current versions are stored in

<Drivename>:\FileHistory\<User name>\<Computer Name>\<Backed up Drive>\Users\<User>\Whatever

so for example my OneDrive documents (which I store on D drive are stored in)

G:\FileHistory\Hali\HALI-WIN10\Data\D\Users\Hali\OneDrive\Documents

Old versions of files are in (I think)

<Drivename>:\FileHistory\<User name>\<Computer Name>\Data\$OF\<Some random rumber>\<some random file.dat[\I]

Easier to use the File History GUI though IMO *Smile

 

That's great thanks. Saves me using a 3rd party software.

Yes I would use the File History GUI if I ever needed to restore.
It's just if I am away from the home and I'd like to access one of my PC files, I should be able to browse the folders in my NAS using File Explorer.

 

That should work yes but historical versions of a file will not be accessible (at least I don't know how).

 

So in theory, the file it shows would just be the most recent version?

 

As far as i am aware, i could be wrong (can't test right now) you can see all versions of the file there is.

The history location date stamps the file every times it changes so you get the same file name x numbers of times (depending on how often it changes with the date) obviously each file will have different contents depending on the changes to the file.

All these files can just be viewed as normal

 

I just checked and it seems you are right - old versions are there as well. I must have just picked an unchanged file when I looked before.

 

Thanks for all your replies. Looks like this is the ideal solution for me then.
With the process running in the background constantly, does it have an effect on system resources and performance?

 

I have never seen performance issues at all, I have mine run every hour.

 

I had File History enabled for a while and you can specify where they are saved so I saved mine to my NAS. You should be able to use them to restore from.

 

I set all this up yesterday and all seems to be working great.
One more question, how does File History know when to delete an item (and when does it do this)?
For example, I create an album of pictures on my PC, I then delete them after a few hours because I no longer need them.
File History will have backed these up, do I need to manually delete them from my backup?

 

Yes you would have to delete them manually. That is kind of the point *Smile Otherwise if you deleted something by mistake you wouldn't be able to get it back. This way you can think "I'm sure I had something in this folder last week" and you can go and find it through file history...

You could put a retention period of 3 months say (on the assumption you'd have noticed by then) and then it would delete it. By default it will retain them forever (or until your disk is full at which point it starts deleting older versions).

What I do is exclude places I know contain temporary items I don't want backed up - in my case the Downloads folder and Desktop for example.

 

That makes sense now. I'll do the same - 3 month retention and exclude those folders.

Thanks for your help!