Solved file history on an internal drive

Dear all,
I'm struggling to make the 'file history' feature work. I keep getting the 'No usable drives were found' message along with a recommendation to use an external hard drive. My PC rig has a 240GB SSD (C drive) and a 1TB HDD (D drive) - both internal obviously - but I don't quite understand why there's no way to use the D drive to make a complete backup copy of both the system and the Documents folder, etc. that are on the C drive. I clicked here and there and somehow ended up creating a backup copy (a folder called "WindowsImageBackup") on the D drive but that seems to be a copy of the Windows system only and excludes the Documents folder. Any idea as to how to make the file history work so as to make the complete backup on the D drive?
Thanks

I used this only yesterday for the first time. I have a 500GB sata HDD sitting in a dock, and switched it on - then file history came 'awake'. It had seen the added drive and activated so I turned it on and selected the drive, FH then statred and coped all my files to the docked drive.

Until I activated the dock, the FH buttons were greyed out.

Hi @elbmek,

Thank you for your reply. This won't probably work for me, because my HDD is inside the PC, rather than in an external dock, so I assume there's no way to turn it on or off.

I would have thought that it would show the extra drive in FH, but I am no techie. Be patient, someone will have the answer shortly.

Hello Tomas, and welcome to Eight Forums.

File history will not be a complete backup.
A system image would be instead. The "WindowsImageBackup" folder would be where a created system image is saved to.
Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

Thank you Shawn for your reply. The second link to "How to create a system image" indeed looks familiar to me, that's most probably what I did just before I created the "WindowsImageBackup" folder.

At any rate, if you don't mind me asking two questions then - why do I get the „No usable drivers were found" message (due to which apparently it says "File History is off" and I can't get into the "File History in on" state) and how do I make an automatic copy of other than the system only? I specifically want the "Documents" folder to be backed up automatically and a few times a day at least.

Brink said:

Hello Tomas, and welcome to Eight Forums.

File history will not be a complete backup.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2484-file-history-how-use-windows-8-a.html​

A system image would be instead. The "WindowsImageBackup" folder would be where a created system image is saved to.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/8956-system-image-create-windows-8-a.html​

Hope this helps for now,
Shawn

Click to expand...

While using the File History tutorial above, go ahead and post screenshots showing anything that you see different to see if it may help to ID the issue.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2598-screenshots-files-upload-post-eight-forums.html

Thank you for your help Shawn, but I think I fixed it. The problem lay in that I'd moved the "Pictures" from C: (SSD) to D: (HDD) drive yesterday. So what I did now was download and run the appropriate reg file from here User Folders - Restore Default Location - Windows 7 Help Forums This put the Pictures folder back to the C drive and enabled the File History.

I have another question though. Before I'd turned the File History on and made the back-up (and right after I made the system image backup) I deleted the "WindowsImageBackup file of over 20GB, yet it didn't free up any space on the D drive. Why is that?

Thanks!

Brink said:

While using the File History tutorial above, go ahead and post screenshots showing anything that you see different to see if it may help to ID the issue.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/2598-screenshots-files-upload-post-eight-forums.html

Click to expand...

Ah, ok. That would have been why then. Moving the user folder to D: made D considered a system drive by Windows, and File History doesn't use system drives.

My bad, I should've realized that before. Now, do you have any idea as to why the WindowsImageBackup folder that I've deleted continues to take up space on the drive? How long is the folder kept in the system and where can I change that? The 'File History / Advanced Settings' applies to files, rather than the system, I think.

Brink said:

Ah, ok. That would have been why then. Moving the user folder to D: made D considered a system drive by Windows, and File History doesn't use system drives.

Click to expand...

Correct, File History isn't related to the WindowsImageBackup folder.

If you deleted the WindowsImageBackup folder, then I'm not sure what you mean by it still taking up space on the drive. Please give more details to see what it may be.

Okay, I'll do my best to explain the things as clearly as possible.

Strange as it may sound, I created the WindowsImageBackup folder (of close to 30GB), right-clicked on it and deleted it only to find that the amount of free space on the drive remained the same as before deleting it. Needless to say, nothing was added to the recycle bin.

Then I made another WindowsImageBackup folder and a File History folder as well as put two more folders on the drive. These four folders have just over 35GB in total, yet the used space is 66.6GB. The discrepancy is due to the deleted WindowsImageBackup folder, which despite having been deleted obviously remains somewhere. I've used CCleaner, defragmentation, clean disk etc. but the file continues to take space despite being nowhere to be found

Brink said:

Correct, File History isn't related to the WindowsImageBackup folder.

If you deleted the WindowsImageBackup folder, then I'm not sure what you mean by it still taking up space on the drive. Please give more details to see what it may be.

Click to expand...

Does the space show the same in Disk Management?

Might also restart the PC to see if it may just be a glitch.

I've restarted the PC like five times since then, but to no avail.

Yes, it does show exactly the same numbers via Disk Management, I'm at my wits' end really.

Brink said:

Does the space show the same in Disk Management?

Might also restart the PC to see if it may just be a glitch.

Click to expand...

I was under the impression the FH only saved my files and folders, not system??

elbmek said:

I was under the impression the FH only saved my files and folders, not system??

Click to expand...

That's correct. Tomas also created a system image.

Tomas said:

I've restarted the PC like five times since then, but to no avail.

Yes, it does show exactly the same numbers via Disk Management, I'm at my wits' end really.

Brink said:

Does the space show the same in Disk Management?

Might also restart the PC to see if it may just be a glitch.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I'm not sure what why a deleted item would still show as using up the space.

Check using the free program WinDirStat to see if it may be able to help ID what may be using the space on the drive.

Brink said:

elbmek said:

I was under the impression the FH only saved my files and folders, not system??

Click to expand...

That's correct. Tomas also created a system image.

Click to expand...

danke much

elbmek said:

Brink said:

elbmek said:

I was under the impression the FH only saved my files and folders, not system??

Click to expand...

That's correct. Tomas also created a system image.

Click to expand...

danke much

Click to expand...

De nada. Hopefully we'll find out why the old deleted WindowsImageBackup folder or what is still taking up the space.

Thanks a lot guys, I'll try that WinDirStat thing as soon as I get back home from work later today.

Brink said:

elbmek said:

Brink said:

That's correct. Tomas also created a system image.

Click to expand...

danke much

Click to expand...

De nada. Hopefully we'll find out why the old deleted WindowsImageBackup folder or what is still taking up the space.

Click to expand...