Keeping your personal files safe from accidental deletion, corruption, or hardware failure is essential in today’s digital world. Fortunately, Windows 10 comes with a built-in tool called File History that allows users to back up important files regularly and restore them with ease. This guide will walk you through how to enable backups using File History in Windows 10, ensuring that your data is always secure and recoverable.
What is File History?
File History is a backup feature in Windows 10 designed to automatically save copies of your personal files. Unlike a full system backup, File History focuses on documents, pictures, videos, music, and desktop files stored in your user account. It runs silently in the background, creating incremental backups on a regular basis, so you can roll back to a previous version of a file if needed.
Why Use File History?
- Automatic backups of personal files
- Quick and easy file recovery
- Multiple versions of files stored
- Simple setup and maintenance
- Lightweight and doesn’t impact system performance
Prerequisites
To enable File History, you’ll need an external drive, secondary internal drive, or a network location to store the backups. This ensures that your backup files are safe even if your primary drive fails.
How to Enable File History Windows 10
Before we start we need an external hard drive (a secondary internal hard drive can also be used).
Step 1. Click the Windows “Start” button. Then, go to “Settings > Update & Security”. Or Press Windows Key + i to bring up the Windows Settings App. In the search box type backup and then click on Backup settings.
Step 2. Click Add a drive and then select the hard drive to which you wish to backup files.
Step 3. Click on Back-up options and click Back up now
Step 4. On the Back-up options screen you are able to add additional folders to be backed up up, i.e. If you have a folder outside your User Directory.
Step 5. You are also able to add folders you wish to exclude from the backup. This is handy if you have folders containing large amounts of data and need to split your File History backups over multiple drives.
Restoring Files Using File History
If you accidentally delete or change a file, restoring it is simple:
- In the search bar, type Restore your files with File History and select the matching result.
- Browse through the available versions of your files or folders.
- Select the file version you want to restore and click the Restore button.
You can also right-click a file or folder in File Explorer, choose Restore previous versions, and pick from the available backups.
Tips for Managing File History
- Regularly check the status of your backups.
- Ensure your backup drive has enough free space.
- Consider rotating between two drives for added safety.
- Use the Cleanup versions tool (found in Control Panel > File History > Advanced Settings) to remove older backups and save space.
Conclusion
Enabling backups using File History in Windows 10 is a simple yet powerful way to ensure your important documents and media files are never lost. With its automatic versioning and easy restoration features, File History provides a set-and-forget backup solution suitable for both casual and power users alike.
