File History and restore to another PC

I have the same problem. tried in the ways that are mentioned here but went no use. it says "file history is closing. sending report." and quitting the application. that is all I am getting. I should have approached a third party software for my backup. now this is becoming difficult to restore to my system. Anyone from Microsoft please help!!!

thanks.

PTJam's instructions don't seem to work. I have no idea what "clicking on the settings icon" was suposed to do when the instructins were original written. PTJAam doesn't say. In current versions of Windows 10 it doesn't seem to take you antywhere useful. 

My result: "No files found" for the default list of libraries, despite the fact that there are 400gb of backed up files on the drive in two default libraries, and one additional library created specifically to capture source code files that weren't stored in the documents directory. And there doesn't seem to be any way to mount the old history without simultaneously appending current files to the backup.  Attempting to access the files before the first backup on the new machine occurs produces an error message saying "file history is not enabled". And now the old file history is no longer functional on the original machine (also produces "No files found" when attempting to restore).

Utterly bizarre.

35 years on Windows and DOS before that, but I'm pretty much done.

Thank you this is working.  This information should be promoted to the head of this issue

I have the same problem.

I had to reinstall windows 10, since my computer had stopped working correctly. My external drive, where I keep my windows history, had been connected up until the day before the crash, so I should have most of my files there.

After windows 10 had been reinstalled, I reconnected my external drive, and started up windows history configuration. The list of available drives was shown, containing only my external drive. When I selected it, no old history was shown, and no option to select an old backup was presented. This might have been because I had already started the new history. Another reason may have been that my computer name has been changed in the process (from KROISOS to DESKTOP-6A09HVD) and my user name was changed from BOUDEWIJN to WAIJERS. By now, I changed the computer name back to KROISOS.

Anyway, the path to the configuration directory on my backup device was: E:/FileHistory/Boudewijn/KROISOS/Configuration. The previously backup'ed files are in E:/FileHistory/Boudewijn/KROISOS/Data/C/Users/Boudewijn. Since I had already started backing up the history again, there is now also a directory E:/FileHistory/Boudewijn/KROISOS/Data/C/Users/Waijers, which contains my current file history (empty, but for the directories, since I have no files on my reinstalled pc yet). As noted, the files in Waijers are visible in the windows history backup overview, but alas, the files in Boudewijn are not.

In the catalog directory, all four files (config1.xml, config2.xml, catalog1.edb and catalog2.edb) have been overwritten, since I already started my new history. I have no copy of the original four files.

Is there any way to edit the names of the directories and/or the content of the xml files, in order to be able to have file history see the old file history, and restore it?

The content of the config1.xml file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<DataProtectionUserConfig SchemaVersion="1">

  <UserName>Waijers</UserName>

  <FriendlyName>Waijers</FriendlyName>

  <PCName>DESKTOP-6A09HVD</PCName>

  <UserId>7b9e03b0-d31c-4087-8967-0f391d2c687f</UserId>

  <Library>

    <LibraryName>*2112ab0a-c86a-4ffe-a368-0de96e47012e</LibraryName>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\Music</Folder>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\OneDrive\Muziek</Folder>

  </Library>

  <Library>

    <LibraryName>Opgeslagen afbeeldingen</LibraryName>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\Pictures\Saved Pictures</Folder>

  </Library>

  <Library>

    <LibraryName>*491e922f-5643-4af4-a7eb-4e7a138d8174</LibraryName>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\Videos</Folder>

  </Library>

  <Library>

    <LibraryName>Camera-album</LibraryName>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\Pictures\Camera Roll</Folder>

  </Library>

  <Library>

    <LibraryName>*7b0db17d-9cd2-4a93-9733-46cc89022e7c</LibraryName>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\Documents</Folder>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\OneDrive\Documenten</Folder>

  </Library>

  <Library>

    <LibraryName>*a990ae9f-a03b-4e80-94bc-9912d7504104</LibraryName>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\Pictures</Folder>

    <Folder>C:\Users\Waijers\OneDrive\Afbeeldingen</Folder>

  </Library>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Searches</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Desktop</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\OneDrive</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Contacts</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Pictures</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Favorites</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Videos</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Music</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Downloads</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Documents</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Links</UserFolder>

  <UserFolder>C:\Users\Waijers\Saved Games</UserFolder>

  <LocalCatalogPath1>C:\Users\Waijers\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Catalog1.edb</LocalCatalogPath1>

  <LocalCatalogPath2>C:\Users\Waijers\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\Catalog2.edb</LocalCatalogPath2>

  <StagingArea>

    <StagingAreaPath>C:\Users\Waijers\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Data</StagingAreaPath>

    <StagingAreaMaximumCapacity>2497566453</StagingAreaMaximumCapacity>

    <StagingAreaWarningThreshold>1873174839</StagingAreaWarningThreshold>

  </StagingArea>

  <AvailabilityPolicies>

    <TargetAbsenceTime>5</TargetAbsenceTime>

    <TimeInUnprotectedState>3</TimeInUnprotectedState>

  </AvailabilityPolicies>

  <RetentionPolicies>

    <RetentionPolicyType>DISABLED</RetentionPolicyType>

    <MinimumRetentionAge>365</MinimumRetentionAge>

  </RetentionPolicies>

  <DPFrequency>3600</DPFrequency>

  <DPStatus>ENABLED</DPStatus>

  <Target>

    <TargetName>Backup drive I</TargetName>

    <TargetUrl>E:&lt;/TargetUrl>

    <TargetVolumePath>\?\Volume{98f03193-0000-0000-0000-100000000000}&lt;/TargetVolumePath>

    <TargetDriveType>FIXED</TargetDriveType>

    <TargetConfigPath1>Boudewijn\KROISOS\Configuration\Config1.xml</TargetConfigPath1>

    <TargetConfigPath2>Boudewijn\KROISOS\Configuration\Config2.xml</TargetConfigPath2>

    <TargetCatalogPath1>Boudewijn\KROISOS\Configuration\Catalog1.edb</TargetCatalogPath1>

    <TargetCatalogPath2>Boudewijn\KROISOS\Configuration\Catalog2.edb</TargetCatalogPath2>

    <TargetBackupStorePath>Boudewijn\KROISOS\Data</TargetBackupStorePath>

    <TargetWarningThreshold>98</TargetWarningThreshold>

  </Target>

</DataProtectionUserConfig>

The number of files in my old history is over 155,551, and just copying the whole tree to my newly installed computer, followed by deleting the files that have multiple versions, and finally renaming them to their old names would be unfeasible.

Perhaps someone knows of some third party tool that does the trick of searching through these files to sift out the files that have multiple copies (save for the timestamp)?

Or would it help to create a new user account 'Boudewijn' and then starting windows history again, hoping that windows history will then see the correct backup?

Or am I too late anyway, and is the fact that my catalog.edb files have been overwritten reason enough to stop hoping. Whithout these two files, is restoration in any automated way still possible, at all?

Thanks in advance for your advice!