If I've enabled File History, will it allow restoration of my files if the system hard drive fails, and I buy a new drive and re install Windows on it?
I backed up my files from the preview and upgraded to the full version of Windows 8 yesterday. I haven't been able to restore using the File History application, and I have thousands of files, so it would take too much time to remove the date tags from the filenames on my backup drive (as it's messing up all paths). Hopefully there's a fix!
Apparently the old backup utility exists under the name Windows 7 File Recovery. I really do like Windows, but I don't think "Windows Backup" and "File History" would have been problematic without the rename.
Maybe I am misunderstanding you, but File History is a different utility than Windows 7 File Recovery (which is the former Windows Backup) . You can access them both from within Control Panel.