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Use File History in Windows 8

Edited by Clifford, Charmed, Eng

2 Parts:

There are times when an all-important file that we are going to use became corrupted or accidentally deleted. It would be blessing if the recycle bin hasn't been emptied yet as we could manage to restore it in its original directory., but that is not always the case. Luckily if we are using the new Windows operating system which is Windows 8, there is a neat little feature that we could use that is the File History feature. This feature takes periodic snapshot of your files as you work on them. If something happened on your file e.g. been corrupted of unusable then this tool could be used to restore or revert the file to its previous condition.

Instructions

1
This window option is turn off by default so you have to go to the start screen then type ad search backup, then select settings
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Then choose " Save backup copies of your file with File History, then select " turn ON".

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2
File History could save the file backups to an external drive or to another partition on your current drive
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To choose which drive you want to save your backups , you have to click "select drive" on the left hand side of the screen . then window will appear showing the drives connected to your computer. Just elect the drive and click "OK".

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3
Backing up your files to network drive is also simple
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Just click the "Select Drive" then click " Add network location " Click where you want to save , then " Select Folder" ( if you want to save it to a certain folder on your network drive).
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4
Excluding folders - While backing up all your files is a good practice, it could take a great chunk of your drive space
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So back up only the files that you feel is important to you. On the main screen, click the "exclude folders" option and then click " Add " to add folder you want to be excluded from your automatic backup.

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5
On the advance setting you could set how many times your files are to be copied and from a 10 minutes to once a day
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You could also set the size of the offline cache ( this limits how much space the File History will use) and how long the files are to be kept.[File:FORDY-2013-jun-14-009.jpg|center]]
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6
Run File History by clicking "Run now"
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When you have selected the drive where you want your backups to be save , it automatically starts backing up your files depending on the schedule you have set it. It will be saving your file every hour if you have leave it on its defaults setting.

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7
To restore the previous version of your file, if it happened to be deleted or corrupted , just open File History then select " Restore personal files" from the left side of the screen
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You can then select previous version of the files and restore them to it previous state.
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8
Always make sure that you are always protected by turning on this feature
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If you happen to have multiple Windows 8 PC / devices and they are all on the same network or Home Group you could tick the option " recommend this drive" in the advance setting of File History.

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