How to backup files using File History in Windows 10

Staff Writer

Backups have been around for years and years now, some of us use them, most of us don’t. With this ever changing world we live in where our precious pictures of friends and family, videos of that crazy night out you are certain you didn’t record, whatever it may be, it’s best to keep them safe, should the worst happen and you find yourself with a fresh install of Windows 10 and no files, sad times. This is where File History steps in, an awesome and easy to use backup utility built right into Windows 10 and I’m going to show you how to get it set up!

Requirements

  • A spare hard drive – External or Internal – Depending on how many files you have, you might need to invest in a large hard drive.

Let’s get started

First we need to head into settings, go to the Start Menu and enter Settings.

Click Start then Settings
Click Start then Settings

Next, head into Update & security.

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Inside Update & security, head into Backup, it’s on the left hand side in the menu. Click onto Add a drive.

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We will have the option to select the drive we want to save that backups too, if you have a spare hard drive inside your machine or an external drive, it will be listed in the drop down menu. Go ahead a select the drive you want to use.

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Once Windows has done it’s thing, You’ll have this screen here, congratulations your files are now being backed up.

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What if you don’t want just the files in your User directory? (Pictures, Videos, ect.) Well, let’s head into the More options tab.

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In this window, we can go right ahead and start a backup right away, change the backup times and how frequently Windows will back up your files, we can also assign other folders to be backed up as well. Just click on Add a folder and select the folder you want included in the backup.

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In the same window, if you scroll down to the bottom, you’re presented with more options – From here, you can change the backup drive, Restore files from a current backup and Exclude user chosen folders from the backup.

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That’s pretty much it! Hope this How-To found you well and you enjoy backing up all your files! Any questions, hit us up down below.