Windows 8 File History backup creates duplicates

Anonymous
2013-02-05T16:18:46+00:00

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.

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w8itprogeneral/thread/14cedd95-b3b0-4830-be00-da793dda9e27/

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?

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-11-08T09:25:48+00:00

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-18T16:20:43+00:00

    I've been working with MS products since the early 90s and the one piece of advice that I can give is never rely on the backup technologies within MS products. Get an external tool, there are plenty of them and 100% more reliable. File history has tried to dumb down the need to understand backing up important data but it violates some of the basic principles of good software design the most important of these is feedback: you simply can't tell when it has backed everything up successfully so you have to blindly trust that it works.

    You wouldn't buy AV from MS, it should be no different with utilities that keep your most precious data safe.

    Sumpty

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-05T07:33:48+00:00

    Not really the sky drive or sky cloud seams to get it right  only backs up a couple of things. Maybe your left hand should have a talk with the right. Just a suggestion.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-05T07:41:59+00:00

    Thank you this was the best advice so far.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-05-18T23:07:32+00:00

    This is very different for me as I normally run a backup once a month. So far, the best solution I have found is to plug the drive in when I want to run a backup, and set it to keep versions until it runs out of space on the drive.

    You could always do a backup the old fashioned way: manually copy your files to the drive. At least this way you get your files the exact way you want them. It just takes longer.

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