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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
This is ridiculous. Microsoft completely redid the Back-up feature on Windows 8 but then failed to test if you can actually restore the damn files to a new hard drive????? I just upgraded to a new ssd and installed a fresh copy of windows 8 figuring I could use file history to restore my old files. It refuses to see the back ups and restore. I have to manually locate and copy paste all the files and now they have all have these huge date/time stamps added to the file names. Even if my original hard drive had failed and I used the file history as a back up it would have failed.
Now I have to go back to my old hard drive and manually copy paste everything so I don't have huge file names.
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Did you ever figure out how to delete the time stamp you showed in the example? Mine is the same way and really drives me crazy.
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).
This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.
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