Windows 10: My File History USB is nearly full - what should I do now?

I created my File History USB in May 2019. It's permanently plugged into my (E Drive and now has 2.01GB free, of 28.9GB.


As it was completely new to me at the time - it was recommended by an expert here - I have several questions and would appreciate your help please:


(1) I can't remember how often it takes the History - how do I find that please


(2) Is Monthly intervals the recommended one?


(3) How do I find when the History was last taken?


(4) How much space is used when it takes the History?


(5) Is it best to insert a new USB and start again? Bing says to go to Settings > Update & Recovery > File History, then toggle the File History option to ON. Is this correct?


(6) When the new USB has say two months' history, should I wipe the old USB clean (reformat) for future use?


Looking forward to your advice.


PS I hope I've used the correct Topics etc below.

:)

 

File History never copies anything

Hi,

Temporary system failure is one of the possible reasons why this issue is happening. To help resolve the issue, we suggest deleting the files in the USB drive. Follow the steps below:

• Open Settings > Update & Security > Backup > More Options.
  
• Click Stop using this drive.
  
• Delete the File History folder on your external drive.
  
• Try again to add the USB drive to backup File History.
  

Keep us in the loop with the result.

 

File history on USB security user access

Hi,

To isolate this concern, we suggest that you follow the steps below:

• Open File History folder.
• Select all the files that you don't want to be accessed.
• Right-click on the highlighted files and choose Properties.
  
• Go to Security tab.
• Click on Advanced.
• Select all the user account that you don't want to have access on your File History folder.
• Click on Disable inheritance.
• Lastly, click on OK.

Let us know how it goes.

 

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.