How Do I Remove the UTC Timestamp from files backed up by FileHistory?

Anonymous

Since I was having so many problems with Windows 8.1 on my ASUS Vivobook x202e, I backed up my files with Windows File History onto an external hard drive and restored the machine to factory settings so I could start using Windows 8 again, with which I have had no issues.

I record a lot of audio with a freeware recording studio called Audacity, which saves thousands of sound files for each audio project. Because the File History renamed all the files with the UTC timestamp, Audacity does not recognize these thousands of files unless I rename them by deleting the timestamp. I have about 7 audio projects I need to access -- it would take many tedious days to rename all the files.

For example, the original file name was:

e0000d79.au

On my external hard drive, the file appears as:

e0000d79 (2013_11_24 01_59_07 UTC).au

Is there a way to somehow restore these files to their original file name without the timestamp? I looked in File History but was unable to find an option like that.

Thank you,

James

EDIT: I figured it might take some kind of software running a script to do this for me. I found this Powershell script for removing 8 digits that come after an underscore in any file name:

from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16064268/powershell-remove-timestamp-from-filename

Get-ChildItem *.txt | Where {$.Name -match '\d{8}.txt' } | Rename-Item -NewName {$.Name -replace '\d{8}'}

I had to use Powershell to fix an issue with Windows 8.1 not too long ago, but I am not familiar with how it works. Is there some similar script I could run? For example, deleting anything that comes after a beginning parenthesis would work, as there are no parentheses in the names of the files I need cleaned up.

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Anonymous

As I had suspected, File History offers a feature to "restore" your files to your PC which will remove the timestamp, whereas copying and pasting your files from an external leaves the timestamp intact. There is absolutely no need for a complicated script or anything like that.

When I restored my computer to factory settings awhile back, I changed the name of my machine to something new, and I had since started a new File History for the restored machine's files -- in other words, I have two backups, which initially seemed to prevent me from using both, as the File History main screen only presented me with one option -- the current computer's File History.

However, this was not a problem when I found that you can visit File History to restore files from a previous backup as a feature.

Go to Control Panel
Under "System and Security," click "Save Backup Copies of your Files with File History"
Click "Select Drive" on the left
Choose the external drive. In my case, I had both backups on the same external.
When you click your drive, the "Select an existing backup" window appears.

I selected my old computer's file history, located the files on which I was sick of having timestamps, and restored to a new folder on my Desktop. Now Audacity recognizes my projects again! No harm done.

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41 additional answers

Anonymous

2015-02-07T13:20:01+00:00

I thought I had an answer but I Still have the problem. All of my backups have the UTC timestamp that File History adds to backups. This includes my external drive backups. Your solution would have worked if I had a clean backup without the UTC timestamps.

I am a novice at this and am wondering if there is some sort of macro I can apply to my C: drive and remove these time stamps? This would give me a clean C: drive for the future.

My current status:

I am using windows 8.1

I recently started to use Carbonite's online backup for all my computer information. If I can remove these UTC timestamps from my C: drive, Carbonite will also automatically delete them within the next 30 days as they won't exist anymore when Carbonite continues to do my online backups. (I would also like to clean up my external drive backups with your solution)

Many of my picture folders have duplicate and triple copies of the original pictures with UTC timestamps on them as well as a copy with the normal timestamp. Maybe File history does not recognize the new copy with the UTC timestamp and makes a new one?

My Windows live mail is not effected by the UTC timestamp. (probably because file history does not copy them)

This problem has only developed since I started trying to use File History for my backups. Any help or suggestions would be helpful!! Thanks in advance.
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Anonymous

2015-02-07T14:30:33+00:00

Please note my problem with UTC timestamp in my reply to bewareofkow on Feb. 7th 2015

Thanks for any help you can give.
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Anonymous

2015-08-22T23:48:44+00:00

I have been able to remove the UTC timestamp. This is how I did it.

After going round and round in circles, phoning Microsoft and searching the web, I still came up with no answers on how to remove the UTC time stamp.

What happened with me was that I installed windows 10 over 32 bit windows 7 home premium. The newly installed windows 10 didn't respond well and so I took the decision to do a clean install of windows 10 and at the same time change from 32 bit to 64 bit. After making a backup I then installed (clean install through custom setup) windows 10 64 bit and I have to say it is fast and responsive with no glitches.

I then decided to restore from my file history backup but no matter how I tried it would not accept it. However I could see my files, (thousands of them) but they all had the long UTC time stamp in brackets. On manually moving these files over to my directory folders the UTC time stamp was still there. With no help from other sources I changed my search to apps that could modify file names. I came across the open source "Bulk Renaming Utility" the link is http://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/Main\_Intro.php

This is how it worked for me: Load up the "Bulk Renaming Utility and in the "Remove 5" box" tick R. In "Words box" enter the time code information with brackets that you can copy and paste from one of the file history files (it is the same for all of the files for that particular file history backup) In "Crop" enter with the drop down .. AFTER. Tick "Trim" (this will remove any gaps). Untick Add, Auto date Numbering.

Then select (Crtl A) as many files as you can and press "Rename" or Ctrl R. You should see all your selected files back to normal with the UTC time stamp removed. Repeat this for files in all folders.

Regards, Martin
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Anonymous

2015-12-22T16:17:05+00:00

Martin you are a life saver. I had my entire hard drive saved via file history (all had the time stamp) i did a clean install of windows 10. There was no way to select a different file on my external to restore from. This avoided the need to rename thousands of files.

The only extra tip I would add is if you are looking at renaming thousands of files in hundreds of folders and subfolders there is a option to select subfolders. On the bottom (box 12 "selections") tick include sub folders then ctrl+a to select all. It took seconds.

Why can't microsoft see this would be a problem if your computer crashes.

I need to look for a different back up method that I can schedule. This is unacceptable.
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