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I have run the Windows 8 file history since I installed W8 last October and each time I run it I get another duplicate set of documents, photos, video's, everything. After I accumulate 5-6 copies that amount to 45gb of space on my extended hard drive I delete the file history file and start over.
I'm using Windows 8 on a laptop and therefore do not have the HDD connected all the time. I run backups occasionally and whenever I run it all files are duplicated over and over again. By running it occasionally I mean sometimes daily, sometimes weekly. I've made all sorts of modifications but nothing works.
This is not a new problem and there are several complaints to Microsoft regarding people with this problem so I thought I'd ask the question on this forum.
My main question is, is there a different backup / restore application that will work besides the W8 File History? Does the old backup from Windows 7 still work?
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
FIX THE PROBLEM!!!
THE PROBLEM REMAINS ON WINDOWS 10 PREVIEW!
It re-appeared after I disconnected and reconnected my external hard drive for a couple of days! Or probably after launching the 'Movies & TV' Microsoft App.
WHATEVER THE CAUSE IS, THIS IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM!!
It cancels the functionality of 'History' since it forces us to remove old versions after re-writing everything twice and it also wears out the disk shortening its life and increasing the danger of data loss!!
I'm almost definitely sure that the problem is caused by file permission changes. File permissions changes can be made manually from the 'security' tab of each file or folder, or by other applications or services.
HomeGroup creation changes the file attributes as it allows network users to read some files.
I'm not sure if other programs can make similar changes. Another user in this forum had Nero 2014 installed before the problem appeared.
Other backup applications have similar problems too. Norton's backup feature does the same thing when it detects file permission changes, but it replaces the whole backup instead of making duplicates. Still the same problem though.
On the other hand, Microsoft's SyncToy, a very simple file synchronization utility that can be used for backing up files, is unaffected from this issue. The only actual disadvantaged of the application is that you need to run the backup manually, there is no schedule or automatic option.
I have a similar duplicates problem - it has stopped, but I still have old duplicates that I cannot clean. I'll explain further.
I plugged in my external drive and set up File History to use it. Before it had finished backing everything up I removed the drive, closed my laptop and went home. I then used my laptop without the drive attached and when I got into work the next day I plugged in the drive again - it seems that at this point the backup started again from scratch creating a duplicate of all the files it had created the first time - unfortunately I again disconnected the hard drive before all files had backed up and when I connected it again I got a third duplicate. This time however the backup finished, since then I have had no duplicates. However the two previous duplicates cannot be removed by the "Clean up versions" tool.
It seems like if you interrupt the first backup, then Windows forgets it is there, meaning the backup starts again and the old files cannot be cleaned out.
I'm about to try to delete all the old duplicate files manually by searching for the date string and hopefully then I'll be done.
Hello Prana, not sure if this will work, yet, have Win 8.1 General, Spent the last 3 hours, between answers& techNet, & finally you may have the solution, Thank you.
******@gmail.com Graham Clark
Has this been resolved? I would like to delete the file history folder because its ready at 1.46 TB! I just want to be sure that if I delete that folder I won't actually be deleting the original files.
Thanks!
