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For a while I ran file history using a 1TB external HDD that filled up pretty quickly due to my backup needs. Yesterday I purchased a new 6TB external to work with, turned file history off temporarily, copied the FileHistory folder to the new drive, and turned it back on. Unfortunately it's seeing it as an entirely new backup and ignoring the previous data. Is there a proper process for doing this that I'm missing somewhere?

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2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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From Backup settings (more options):

Back up to a different drive.

You'll need to stop using your current backup drive before you add a new one. This won't delete any files from your current backup.

  1. Open "Settings" app
  2. Open "Update and Security"
  3. Select "Backup" category
  4. Click "More options" under Backup using File History
  5. Scroll down to "Back up to a different drive"
  6. Click "Stop using drive"
  7. Go back to the main Backup window
  8. Click "Add a drive"
  9. Select the new drive

Source: How To Work With File History In Windows 10, From The Settings App

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Windows File History is set up to utilize the external drive until it runs out of space. Unlike other backup solutions, it doesn't automatically delete older backups by default, and transferring the backup folder is ill-advised. As you have seen, it won't register. You'll need to either provide yet another backup drive or wipe the old drive and reuse it from 0GB. In the future, you may want to edit File History settings, to prevent it from filling up the backup drive as quickly. A suggested rate is one file version backup every 30 minutes. You may wish to tweak this to once every two hours, depending on how many files you have on your local drive. More links of the topic of Windows File History can be found here:

http://www.digitalcitizen.life/what-do-when-your-file-history-backup-drive-out-space

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-change-file-history-settings-in-windows-10.html

Good Day to You.

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  • 2
    A good day to you too, sir!
    – undo
    Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 16:49
  • Why the downvote? Did I include false info?
    – user446730
    Commented Dec 22, 2016 at 22:24
  • 1
    The "recover from 15 minutes ago" feature is what I really want in filehistory. I'm thinking of trying the "Keep My Backups Until …" options instead: I finally figured that backups going back 2 years is only useful if I really think I might want to recover something that I deleted 2 years ago and didn't miss in all that time.
    – Chris F Carroll
    Commented Nov 4, 2017 at 18:48

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