Windows 10: Select Drive for File History in Windows 10

How to: Select Drive for File History in Windows 10

How to Select a File History Drive in Windows 10


File History was first introduced in Windows 8, and has been improved in Windows 10.

Before you can turn on and start using File History to back up your files, you need to first select where your backups are saved. You can select to save backups to an internal hard drive, externally connected drive (ex: USB drive), or you can save to a drive on a network.

If the drive selected as the backup location becomes unavailable, such as when a USB cable is disconnected or the network goes down for maintenance, File History will continue to do its job by saving the copies to a cache on the local drive in the %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Data folder. Once the backup location becomes available again, the cached contents are transferred to that location and removed from the local drive.

homegroup[/b] to be able to select and save their File History on as well.

This tutorial will show you how to select a File History drive to either change or add a drive to where your files will be backed up at for your account in Windows 10.

File History will eventually be replaced by a new feature called Timeline.



Contents

• Option One: To Add File History Drive in Settings
• Option Two: To Change File History Drive in Settings
• Option Three: To Add or Change File History Drive in Control Panel

OPTION ONE [/i] To Add File History Drive in Settings
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & security icon.

2 Click/tap on Backup on the left side, and click/tap on Add a drive on the right side. (see screenshot below)

If you see a setting to turn on or off Automatically back up my files instead, then you will need to use Option Two below to change the File History drive.




3 Select a drive you want File History to back up your files to. (see screenshots below)

If a network drive you want isn’t in the list of available drives, click/tap on the Show all network locations link. If the drive you want isn’t listed there either, then use Option Three, click/tap on the Add a network location link at step 3, and follow the instructions on the screen.






4 File History will now automatically be turned on, and back up your files to the selected drive. (see screenshot below)



5 You can now close Settings if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] To Change File History Drive in Settings
1 Open Settings, and click/tap on the Update & security icon.

2 Click/tap on Backup on the left side, and click/tap on the More options on the right side. (see screenshot below)

If you see Add a drive instead, then you will need to use Option One above to add a File History drive.




3 Click/tap on Stop using drive under Back up to a different drive. (see screenshot below)



4 Click/tap on the back arrow at the top left corner. (see screenshot below)



5 Go to Option One above to add a File History drive.





OPTION THREE [/i] To Add or Change File History Drive in Control Panel
1 Open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the File History icon.

2 Click/tap on the Select drive link on the left side. (see screenshot below)



3 Select a File History drive you want, and click/tap on OK. (see screenshots below)

If the selected drive was already used by File History, then you will also need to select an existing backup to save to.

If a network drive you want isn’t in the list of available drives, click/tap on the Show all network locations link. If the drive you want isn’t listed there either, then click/tap on the Add a network location link, and follow the instructions on the screen.






4 If the new selected drive was never used by File History and files backed up by File History were found on another drive, then click/tap on Yes or No to move your existing files to the new selected drive. (see screenshot below)



5 If the new selected drive was used by File History and doesn't have your most recent files backed up on it, click/tap on Yes or No to confirm to use this drive for File History. (see screenshot below)

If you click on Yes, then a new backup of your files will be created on the selected drive.




6 File History will now automatically be turned on, and back up your files to the selected drive. (see screenshot below)



7 You can now close the Control Panel if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Reset File History to Default in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off File History in Windows 10
• How to Exclude Folders from File History in Windows 10
• How to Manually Create a File History Backup in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove Folders to be Backed Up by File History in Windows 10
• How to Change how Often to Save File History in Windows 10
• How to Change how Long to Keep File History in Windows 10
• How to Restore Files or Folders using File History in Windows 10
• How to Delete Older Versions of File History in Windows 10
• How to Recommend File History Drive to Homegroup in Windows 10
• How to Add History to Context Menu in Windows 10
• How to Create File History shortcut in Windows 10

:)

 

File History - Cannot "Add a Drive" again after selecting "Stop using drive"

pizzle101,

There is a work around.

Create a new folder in the existing drive or you can select the drive that you need and share it on the network and give permission to everyone and then follow these steps

• 
  Enter File History in the search box, and then tap or click
  File History.
  
• 
  Tap or click Select drive.
  
• 
  On the Change your File History drive page, do one of the following:
  
  • 
    Select a network location, tap or click Add network location, browse to or enter a location, tap or click
    Select folder, and then tap or click OK.
    
  • 
    In the network location \\127.0.0.1 and select the shared drive.
    
• 
  When you're asked, tap or click Yes to copy all of the versions of your files to the new drive.
  

 

File History drive

Hi Joseph,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

I would like to inform you that if your File History drive has been disconnected for too long, or it doesn't have enough space to save temporary versions of your files. To continue saving copies of your files, you'll need to reconnect your File History drive.
Plug in your external File History drive or reselect your network. You can start a backup manually or wait for the next scheduled backup or reselect the drive. Here is the steps:

To manually start a backup

• 
  Open File History by pressing Windows key> type File History
  > Click on File History.
  
• 
  Tap or click Back up now.
  

To reselect your drive

• 
  Open File History by pressing Windows key> type File History
  > Click on File History.
  
• 
  Tap or click Select drive.
  
• 
  On the Select a File History drive page, tap or click your current drive or network location, and then tap or click
  OK.
  

Hope it helps. Let us know if you need more help and we'll be glad to assist.

 

Backing up Windows 10. Error "File history drive cannot save copies of all my files because of limitations with my File History drives file system"

Hi,

To assist you better, please answer the below:

• 
  Did you make any hardware or software changes prior to this issue?
  
• 
  What is the anti-virus program installed on your computer?
  
• 
  Please provide us a screenshot which shows the error message.
  

I suggest you to stop File History service, restart the computer and then set it as Automatic from the services and check if it helps to resolve the issue.

Steps:-

1. Press Windows key + R and openRun command window.

2. Type services.msc and hit
Enter.

3. Right click on File History from the list.

4. Select Stop. Restart the computer and repeat the first three steps.

5. Click on Properties and set the set
Startup type to Automatic.

6. Click on Apply and
Ok.

Also, I suggest you to try the below steps and configure the drive on File History and check if it helps.

Steps:-

1. Type File History in the search box, and then tap or click
File History.

2. Tap or click Select drive.

3. On the Select a File History drive page, tap or click your current drive or network location, and then tap or click
OK.

Refer the steps given in the below articles and check if it helps:

File History in Windows

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17128/windows-8-file-history

Note: This also applies to Windows 10

Backup and restore your files

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17143/windows-10-back-up-your-files

Hope it helps. Revert to us with the results, will be glad to assist you.

Thank you.

 

How to reconnect file history drive? Windows 10

I cannot reconnect my file history file drive

 

How to reconnect file history drive? Windows 10

Hi Hite,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft Community.

This message occurs if your File History drive has been disconnected for long time.

In order to assist you better please confirm a few of things:

• When exactly do you get this popup?
• What is the exact popup message are you getting?

I suggest you to follow the steps from the below article “Reconnect your File History drive” and check if it helps.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-10/reconnect-your-file-history-drive

Hope this information is helpful and do let us know if you need further assistance. We will be glad to assist.