{"id":9515,"date":"2015-05-18T18:22:43","date_gmt":"2015-05-18T22:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=9515"},"modified":"2015-05-18T18:22:43","modified_gmt":"2015-05-18T22:22:43","slug":"not-exactly-a-file-and-folder-backup-but-darn-near-as-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/not-exactly-a-file-and-folder-backup-but-darn-near-as-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Exactly a File and Folder Backup But Darn Near As Good"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Word About Windows 8x and Windows 10 File History<\/strong><\/h1>\n

One of our favorite features in Windows 8 is File History. File History is an automatic update service in Windows 8 that can back up your personal files and folders to an external hard drive, and lets you selectively restore personal files and folders whenever needed.\u00a0Because it requires a second hard drive (either internal or external) File History\u00a0is not turned on by default. That means you have to turn it on to use it. AND REMEMBER … to use File History, you MUST\u00a0have a second internal \u00a0hard drive or an external hard drive.<\/p>\n

First things first. As we said up there, you need to turn on File History to use it.<\/p>\n

Here’s how to turn on File History:<\/p>\n

Open the File History control panel applet. Connect an external drive, (or select a second internal drive – i.e. a drive other than the one with Windows on it and click Turn on. If the drive you want to use for File History back up to is not selected, you can change drives by clicking the \u201cSelect a drive\u201d link. Now File History will automatically backup and update your personal files automatically — you won’t have to give it a second thought. In the File History dialog, you also can restore files by clicking \u201cRestore personal files\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Cloudeight<\/p>\n

So what exactly is File History and what does it do? File History is a backup application that continuously protects your personal files stored in Libraries, on your Desktop, in your Favorites and Contacts folders. It periodically (by default every hour) scans the file system for changes and then copies changed files to the selected location. Every time any of your personal files has changed, a copy will be stored on your external drive. As time goes by, File History builds a complete history of changes made to any personal file.<\/p>\n

Why File History? We all know that we should back up our computers, but less than 10% of us do. We wish we had a dollar for every email we have from someone saying “my computer crashed and I lost everything….” File History makes protecting your data extremely easy — and automatic. You don’t need any special computer skills to use it beyond clicking the “Turn on” button in the File History dialog.<\/p>\n

File History may make an adequate replacement for a file and folder backup – but File History isn’t an image backup, What’s good about it is , that once you turn it on, it is\u00a0automatic and it will protect your personal files\u00a0and folders from the ravages of Windows, the Internet and all the other icky stuff that can happen to your files and folders as a matter of course as you float down the stream of computer life.\u00a0We can always reinstall software programs and set-up mail accounts again, but if we lose those precious documents, photos, videos, etc. they can’t be replaced – so you’ll do well to take this piece of advice from your OLD Uncle TC and Auntie EB and back-up baby, back-up.<\/p>\n

File History is better than nothing and it will protect your irreplaceable files and folders. And since File History is automatic and all you need is an external hard drive (or second internal hard drive, either a logical or physical one) and the ten seconds it takes to turn it on, there is no excuse not to use it!<\/p>\n

And another hint. Don’t be unplugging and plugging in your external hard drive like it was a media card! Leave it plugged in and running. Not only will it extend its life, (unplugging it and plugging it back shortens its life), if you set up File History to back up your personal files and folders to an external drive and it isn’t plugged in, woe is you. Not only won’t the auto backup take place, you’ll get error warnings, some which may be arcane. As you know by now, Windows just can’t give you a regular English warning they have be geeky like:<\/p>\n

Windows was unable to complete the user-assigned task because the selected media was\u00a0not accessible. Please make sure the selected media is accessible. Try again? Cancel?<\/em><\/p>\n

Why can’t Windows say:<\/p>\n

Look, you big dummy, how in the heck can we backup your important files and folders when you keep unplugging the darn external hard drive you told us you wanted to keep you backups on? THIMK!\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Take it from Uncle TC and Auntie EB – turn on File History and forget about it. And do not keep unplugging those external drives, we tells ya!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Word About Windows 8x and Windows 10 File History One of our favorite features in Windows 8 is File History. File History is an automatic update service in Windows 8 that can back up your personal files and folders to an external hard drive, and lets you selectively restore personal files and folders whenever needed.\u00a0Because it requires\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9515"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9516,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9515\/revisions\/9516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}