How To Backup Files On Windows 8.1

Built-in Backup Tools Windows 8.1

While Windows seven and Vista had the Fill-in and Restore applet, Windows eight introducedFile History as the default backup pick. File History is a replacement for Previous Versions from Windows Vista and Windows 7. Unlike Windows 7, File History does allow backup to network shares for all versions of Windows 8 which is a good thing and makes the software far more useful. The downside is that scheduled System Backups have been removed from Windows viii and viii.1. Y'all can even so manually create a system backup, and you tin perform a system backup to a network share, but you can't schedule this to exist run. Also, File History only performs a backup of files in your libraries (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders), as well as any files saved locally from OneDrive. Still, the most important information on your computer is your files, so let's wait at how to enable this feature to protect them:

Windows 8.i adds the ability to enable File History from PC Settings, however the options are just to enable File History and to select a backup target, so these instructions volition focus on the Control Panel applet which offers more advanced options. To launch File History, right click the Start push and choose Command Panel. Adjacent expand System and Security and selectSave backup copies of your files with File History.

If File History has never been configured before, the organisation will browse for available disks that information technology can back up to. Y'all tin choose the disk, or use the linkSelect a network location to configure the disk.

Once configured, only click Turn On, and File History is enabled.

If you'd like to modify your File History settings, that can be washed in the File History applet. To exclude folders, chooseExclude Folders where y'all can select folders y'all wish to exclude from the fill-in. Unfortunately, y'all tin't add user defined folders here which you do want backed upwards. To add together folders to be backed up, you either take to add that binder to an existing library, or create a new library.

Advanced settings are likewise available in the File History applet, and these allow you to specify how often to run the File History backup (from ten minutes to daily) equally well equally specify how much of the PC'southward disk to use as an offline cache (2% to 20%) in the event you are travelling and not able to admission your backups, as well as to specify how many versions of files to go on.

Different Windows 7, File History's interface is all in the control panel. It's not as elegant as Previous Versions was, where you lot could right click whatever file or binder and meet a list of all versions, but the interface is adequately straightforward and does show you a list of all of the backups:

Launch File History by right clicking the Start push button and opening the Command Panel. Adjacent expand System and Security and selectRestore your files with File History.
The interface that opens up volition be a list of the locations you are backing upwardly. The most recent fill-in volition exist displayed by default. To restore a file, navigate to the folder information technology was in, select the file by clicking information technology, and so press the light-green Restore button to restore it to the original location.

If you'd like to restore it to a unlike location, right click the file and chooseRestore To and then browse to your path.
To navigate through your backups, you lot can utilise the skip buttons at the bottom of the page. The easiest way to sort though is to navigate to the folder where your file is (or was), and information technology will display only the backups that take changes in them. If a folder hasn't been modified since y'all enabled File History, there will only be one backup for it. This is an easier method than trying to effigy out which day you deleted a file.

Overall, File History is a decent congenital-in utility, but as is ofttimes the case, attempts to brand the process easier to use often upshot in a organization that is less powerful, and that'southward certainly the example with this. Windows 7 lacked network backup for some versions, but overall the Windows vii backup utility offered more features, specially with the automatic organisation backup. Previous Versions is also an easier mode to observe changes made to a file. File History as well lacks a method of backing up files outside of your libraries and OneDrive folders which is not platonic by whatever means. Windows 8.1 forces you to brand a system backup manually, and that can exist done as so:

Right click the Start button and open Control Panel. Aggrandize System and Security, and and so selectRelieve backup copies of your files with File Historywhich won't actually be used, just is the shortcut to the System image backup.
On the File History applet, click onSystem Image Backup in the bottom left corner.
Choose a location for your backup. If it's on a network share, y'all can optionally enter login credentials if required. Click Adjacent.

At present you lot volition exist prompted to confirm, and if you are happy click End. The confirmation dialog volition judge how much disk space volition be required, and warn you that only a single backup file will be kept. In other words, there is no versioning.

If yous are using File History as your backup method of choice, you lot should definitely create at least one system backup to let yous to restore to a new difficult drive or auto if necessary. If yous ever need to restore this, you can create a recovery drive by choosing the Recovery pick in the File History applet. If you don't take some other computer to create this on if needed, it's a good idea to create 1 ahead of fourth dimension.

It is possible to create full scheduled backups, merely only from the command line using wbadmin but this is not something I would recommend for the average user.

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