File History and restore to another PC

Anonymous

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:

File History working well and keeping 3 month of file versions on external USB drive

2. System crashes and new HDD required

New Windows 8 system loaded on to HDD and all is up and running

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?

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Anonymous

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

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61 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-04-26T17:10:03+00:00

Hi,

Interesting discussion (I wanted to know how File History would behave when "migrating" to a new device), so I had to try to duplicate the issue and post.

I can duplicate the issue, but I think there is a missing piece to the puzzle.

Successfully integrated my File History from a Windows 8.1 machine in to a new Windows 8.1 machine and then re-enabled it back into the old machine. * I know you posted while using Windows 8 and probably have fixed this issue already but thought I would try it.

When checking the data using "File Explorer" I noticed the files names were very long with the appended date and time, but when using "File History's Restore Function" the file names appeared normal and everything was sorted by timeline.

Is it possible that you are (or were) using File Explorer to view and manage the File History data?

If so, then try using the File History "Restore personal files" option to open its special browser which shows things in a timeline fashion. From there you can right click on the file to restore your stuff without the appended file names.

You can also just double click the file to view its contents.

Here is a screen shot of that "special" File History Browser:

Here is a screenshot of the "standard" File Explorer when browsing my File History data store (note the appended file names as you were talking about).

Of course your post is nearly two years old and you mentioned using Windows 8, and I'm working with 8.1 so maybe your problem is with 8 and not a browser mix up.

Hope this helps someone.
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Anonymous

2015-08-10T16:15:02+00:00
I was able to complete this by modifying the config.xml files. Here are the steps that I completed to go from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10 as a clean install and recover files through file history when the computer did not recognize a previous history.

Add external drive to computer and try attempts to have it recognize the previous backup. If this fails, then try the steps below.
1. Turn on file history to the same drive. Let it backup up files, then stop it and turn it off.
2. Browse the drive through windows explorer and you will find a path:
  
  ..\FileHistory{username}{ComputerName_Old}\
  
  Nested in that folder is a ‘Configuration’ folder - copy and paste there to save a backup
  
  ..\FileHistory{username}{ComputerName_New}\
  
  Nested in that folder is a ‘Configuration’ folder - copy and paste there to save a backup
3. In these configuration folders there should be 2 xml files (maybe 1 or maybe more).
  
  Config1.xml
  
  Config2.xml
4. Need to copy values from the configuration files in the Old to the New. Make sure that you copy from old_1 to new_1 and old_2 to new_2.
  
  PCName
  
  UserID
  
  Change the PC Name in the Configuration path for
  
  TargetConfigPath1
  
  TargetConfigPath2
  
  TargetCatalogPath1
  
  TargetCatalogPath2
After all of these steps have been completed, then when you go back to turn on file history, there will be a box to check to add a previous history. This will then allow you to restore items from the file history.
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Anonymous

2015-08-11T19:56:52+00:00

Any chance this got fixed in Windows 10? After my laptop died I bought a new one, upgraded to Windows 10, tried to Restore files from USB (File History) I was using on my old laptop. There does not seem to be a way to get files FROM usb drive TO new PC. Certainly, my scenario is one of the obvious uses of File History, there must be a way to Restore and I just don't know what it is. Someone please help.
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Anonymous

2015-08-11T23:38:31+00:00

Try the directions above - that is what I did when going from W8.1 to W10.
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