Something that everyone should do periodically is a backup of the most important files. This is an important security practice to minimize the loss of relevant information in the event of a possible failure. We are going to explain how you can make a backup. backup and subsequently restore it using the File history.
The File History feature is a legacy feature available in Windows 11 and 10. This feature allows us to create a backup copy of our files on an external or network drive so that we can recover them in the event of a problem.
You should know that File History has limited capabilities, as it only allows you to backup the Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, and Desktop folders. The problem is that if we want to add other folders, this feature is no longer available.
We are going to explain to you, step by step, how you can make a backup of the mentioned folders. Simply, we must store the files in one of these folders and that’s it.
Setting up backup to an external drive
The process to perform the backup using this function is the same in Windows 11 and Windows 10. Therefore, no matter what version of the operating system you have, you can use it. The steps to follow are as follows:
- Type in the Windows search engine, type “Control Panel.”
- Once the window opens, go to “System and Security.”
- Now, you need to go into “File History”.
- Inside you will see that the external storage unit appears.
- Next, we must click on the “Activate” button.
- If you have multiple units connected, the “Select unit” option will appear among the options on the right.
- Now we are going to optimize the configuration to suit our needs. To do this you must enter the “Advanced Configuration” section. Here we can:
- Save file copies: This is used to indicate the frequency of backups. It offers options ranging from every 10 minutes to daily. We can choose the one that best suits our needs.
- Keep versions saved: allows you to set whether you want old backups to be deleted or not. If you want them to be deleted, you can automate the process by indicating how often they can be deleted. You can choose between months or years or simply when there is no more space for more backups.
- This system offers us the option of “Excluding folders” in case we do not use any of them and they do not contain relevant information.
As you can see, the configuration is very simple and you forget about having to copy that new file to several drives, the system does it automatically. Note that the first time this process is extremely slow, it does not depend on the transfer speed of the drive or anything like that.
Restore backup with File History
Ok, now that we know how to make the backup, if something happens, we will need to restore these files. The process is really simple and you just need to follow these steps:
- Type in the Windows search engine, type “Control Panel.”
- Once the window opens, go to “System and Security.”
- Now, you need to go into “File History”.
- You will see that the first option is “Restore personal files.”
- You can use the navigation buttons to move between the files that have been saved in the automated process.
- Select the content you want to recover.
- After selection, click the green circle to restore the file to the original location.
If you want to restore the files to another location, you will see a cogwheel at the top right of the new window. From there you can set a new path to upload the file again.