Windows 10: How Can I Use File History to Install Old Files on New PC?

I backed everything up on the old Windows 10 PC using File History before replacing it with a new Windows 11 machine. Now I need to install all the old files. But I don't really see any commands that would make that happen.Is there an automated way, or must I manually just copy everything over to the new machine?

:)

 

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.

 

Windows 10 File History is unable to restore old backup files to a new PC

When adding an existing File History drive to a new PC via the Windows 10 Settings Panel, File History does not recognise the existing backups on the drive, and therefore there is no facility to restore these files to a new PC. Instead, it simply starts
backing up new files from the new PC to a new folder on the drive. There is no easy way to restore the backed-up files from the old PC to the new PC, and this is a huge problem.

I'm aware the legacy Windows 8.1-style Control Panel in Windows 10 has a version of File History which can restore old File History backups to a new PC, but aside from being increasingly well hidden, there's a good chance the legacy Windows 8.1 Control Panel
will be removed at some point from Windows 10.

So why is the ability to restore old File History backups to a new PC not available in the Windows 10 Settings Panel, and when can we expect to see this crucial feature added?

 

File History restart

Hi Jim,



Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community forums.



To change the backup drive for File History, the current process should be stopped. I suggest you to try the steps listed below to stop file history on an older drive and restart it on a new drive:



Change File History backup drive:

• Open Settings and navigate to Update & Security > Backup.
  
• Click on More Options, scroll down to locate
  Backup to a different drive section, and choose Stop Using Drive.
  
• Plug in the new storage drive, navigate to Settings > Update & Security > Backup,
  and choose Add a Drive.
  
• Restart File History and configure it by referring to the article
  
  File History in Windows.
  

Hope it helps.

Regards,