This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
I would like to use the File History feature of Windows 8 and so far it has been working fine. However, I have come across a scenario and need input on practicality for the following:
2. System crashes and new HDD required
4. Time to use File History for restore.... BUT
From what I understand you cannot "point" the new Windows 8 machine to use the external drive with previous File History. You will need to do a manual copy and paste from the external USB (by selecting the appropriate file in the File History directory on the USB drive).
The problem is, File History appends the date and time stamp, thus the file name changes. For example, MYDOC.DOC become MYDOC.DOC ((2013_04_04 18_27_46 UTC).
How do you remove the parenthesis from the file name when copying the file back to its original location or is File History not a "system restore" type utility. Whilst the parenthesis will not stop applications working (like WORD, OUTLOOK etc), it looks horrible and creates these long file names that is unwanted.
Thoughts/suggestions/comments?
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.
I just had to try to do this, and I was able to (on a new Win8 machine) point at the previous backup by clicking Drives and then selecting my backup drive (a network share in my case). Then I was able to check "I want to use a previous backup on this File History drive" and it displayed my existing backups on that drive. Finally, I was able to do the regular (if not very intuitive) restore files by clicking the settings icon in the upper right of File History.
Hope that helps,
Glenn Gailey
Didn't work for me either. I can see them all on the drive, but due to the timestamps, they are useless to copy without a lot of extra work. But there are several copies of all the pictures, so that would be a pain to clean up also. I agree, I am not impressed with this as a backup solution.
This didn't work for me either. The initial file history set up is not intuitive. In order to restore you have to set it up and then the computer only recognizes the new file history and not the old one. They are both on the same external drive and are named differently but I still can't see the history with my old files. I can't manually copy over 10000 files and change the names, not to mention the music and video files that require correct licensing that's embedded somewhere in the software.
Does anyone have a solution yet? I've been searching for weeks with no success.
Didn't work for me either. I can see them all on the drive, but due to the timestamps, they are useless to copy without a lot of extra work. But there are several copies of all the pictures, so that would be a pain to clean up also. I agree, I am not impressed with this as a backup solution.
MrTaiwan,
I'm confused. It seemed PTJam explained the process of attaching an existing file history drive from the previous machine to the new machine and restoring the backed up files with no need to rename anything. Did it not work for you?
I'm replying because I'm curious if there is any problems in PTJams comment, since I'm trusting that it will work.
Eugene
The "PTJam" solution has NOT worked for me. When I attach the old drive and select it in File History, no previous backups are visible (and yet I can see them when I browse the external drive using File Manager).
I suspect the problem is I had to do a "clean" reinstall (because all my attempts at a "repair" failed, seems to be a known problem). I gave the newly installed PC the same name as the old one but probably that's not enough to convince File History that it's the same machine.
Fortunately I have another (non Microsoft) backup but it's disappointing that none of the Windows restore options work.
The damage was done already and the "solution" I posted was what I did to "fix" it. I stand by my comments and frustration - backing up should be easier - waiting and hoping for a solution from a bulletin board, while sometimes necessary, is frustrating and so I came up with (and shared) my solution. Just my 2 cents worth.
