Windows 10: New Drive and New Win10, but File History does not recognize previous backups

Hello, 2 year old I7 running Win10 preinstalled, and the hard drive died. Replaced hard drive and did a clean Win10 install. Now I want to restore my latest version of files from file history. It does not recognize the Configuration/Data folders that are on my external drive, but does create a new instance, and shows the only previous version is a couple hours old. I have tried admin user and standard user, but neither allows the new OS to 'see' the file history with versions for a couple years and many gigabytes...I've seen similar issues posted, but have not run across a solution yet--seems it must be a case by case basis??? Any help would be much appreciated.

:)

 

Preserving File History to a new drive

I have Win10 file history on, backing up to a 1TB external (Seagate backup slim) drive. It is filling up, so I am buying an 8TB external.

I do not want to lose the consecutive history on the 1TB drive, ..... is there a means by which to tell Win10 to replicate the existing history on the new drive, then use that for all future file history backups?

Note please I don NOT mean 'how to I tell Win10 to use a different drive'. That I know. What I want is for all the existing history to be ported to the new drive so I will have access to that older history, if required. I understand simply copying the
file history folder from the old drive to the new one won't preserve this data.

Is what I am asking possible?

Randy

 

How do I move my File History Backup files to a new drive

Hi Alex,

You can use the File History feature of Windows 10 to back up your files on a periodic basis. This is very effective if you have a lot of personal files. Since you have a new larger amount of storage, you can change it to serve as your new back up.
To start using the File History, follow the steps below:

• Press Windows + I to open Settings.
• Click Update & security.
• On the left pane, click Backup.
• Click More options under Backup using File History.
• Scroll down to Back up to a different drive.
• Click Stop using drive.
• Go back to the previous window.
• Click Add a drive.
• Wait for it to load then you will see your hard drives.
• Once you are done selecting your external drive, toggle on the
  Automatically back up my files.
• Click X to close window.

Let us know if the solution above works for you.

 

Swapping out the USB drive to use File History.

Thanks for your help. Turns out there were a few more steps required but I was able to start using the new drive for my File History by following your suggestions with these extra steps.

1. Turn off File History via settings (This MUST be the first step)

2. Plug-in new USB drive and quick format as NTFS (record new drive letter for use in later step)

3. Remove old File History drive from the system

4. Restart PC

5. Use the "Backup to a different drive" section in Settings/Update/Backup/more options to assign new drive to File History

6. Turn on File History

7. Use the "Back up now" button to start the first backup to the new drive.

Note: The old drive will still contain the old File History files if you ever need to resort them.