Figure 21-19. Advanced Settings Dialog Box Enabling You to Specify
Additional Options Related to How File History Keeps Copies of Your Files
Step 8. Select from the following options as desired:
• Save Copies of Files: Specify the interval at which File History saves copies of file. You can select options from every 10 minutes to daily (every hour by default).
• Keep Saved Versions: By default, File History keeps saved versions
forever. You can choose several options from 1 month to 2 years, or you can choose the Until Space Is Needed option to limit the number of older saved versions of files.
• Clean Up Versions: To delete older versions of files and folders, click Clean Up Versions. This deletes files older than a specified age (one year by default), except the most recent version of a file or folder that has not
changed within the interval chosen. Select a desired interval (or select the All but the Latest One option to keep only the most recent version of files) and then click Clean Up to proceed or Cancel to exit.
• HomeGroup: If your computer is part of a homegroup, you receive an option to recommend the drive to other homegroup members. Select the check box provided to do so. If your computer is not part of a homegroup, you receive an option to create or join a homegroup. Click Create or Join a Homegroup to specify a homegroup that will be recommended to other computers on the homegroup. This displays the Share with Other Home Computers dialog box previously shown in Figure 14-21 in Chapter 14 that enables you to create a new homegroup or join an existing one. We discussed homegroups in Chapter 14.
• Event logs: Click Open File History Event Logs to View Recent Events or Errors to open Event Viewer to a sublocation under Applications and Services Logs where errors, warnings, or informative messages are logged.
We discussed Event Viewer in Chapter 19, "Monitoring and Managing Windows."
Step 9. When finished, click Save Changes to return to the File History applet.
Step 10. Click Run Now to create the backup copies. File History records the status of saving copies of your files and displays the date and time files were copied when it finishes.
Tip
You can also access File History from the modern settings screens. Click
Start > Settings, then click Update & Security and select an option under Back Up Using File History. From here you can add a drive to File History, and select the More Options link to receive the page shown in Figure 21-20, which enables you to Back Up Now, change the backup schedule, select a different drive to be used, and other options.
Figure 21-20. File History Start Screen App Enabling You to Turn File History on, Select a Drive, and Perform a Backup
Adding Additional Folders to File History
If you want to add a folder that is not located in one of the default locations used by File History, you can perform one of the following actions:
• Add It to an Existing Library: From a File Explorer window, right-click the desired folder and choose Include in Library, and then specify the desired library.
• Create a New Library: From the context menu displayed, choose Create New Library. This automatically creates a new library named after the
selected folder and displays this library in the list displayed on the left side of the File Explorer window.
• Manually Add the Folder to File History: From the modern settings screen shown in Figure 21-20, use the Add a Folder button to select any folder on your computer and add it to File History backup.
Note
For additional information on using the File History feature, refer the Windows Help topic “Back Up and Restore Your Files” at
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/17143/windows-10-back-up-your- files.
Restoring Files Using File History
Having backed up files and folders with File History, you can recover
previous versions of files should problems such as data corruption, deletion, or improper modification occur. Use the following procedure:
Step 1. Open File History using any of the procedures given previously.
Step 2. From the options provided on the left side of the File History applet, click Restore Personal Files. You receive the Home–File History dialog box shown in Figure 21-21.
Figure 21-21. Home–File History Dialog Box Displaying the File Folders and Libraries Being Backed Up with File History
Step 3. Double-click the desired folder and library to see its contents.
Step 4. If necessary, double-click a subfolder to access the desired file. You see a window similar to the one in Figure 21-22.
Figure 21-22. File History Displays Files Available for Recovery
Step 5. Select the desired file and click the large green button to restore it.
Step 6. If the file already exists, you receive the Replace or Skip Files dialog box shown in Figure 21-23 providing options to replace, skip, or compare the files.
Figure 21-23. Options for Replacing or Skipping an Existing File
Step 7. Repeat these steps to recover additional files if necessary.
File History does not require system protection to work; however, it does not back up files in all locations on the hard drive, but only those in the libraries folders, or in contacts, favorites, on the desktop, or in your OneDrive folder.
Note that as shown in Figure 21-21, only files in certain folders are available in your File History. As described earlier in this chapter, you need to
configure File History to back up files in other locations by adding folders to your libraries or adding folders using the modern settings page for File
History.
Tip
You can use the Restore function to restore multiple previous versions of a file; for example, if you need to track changes to a document that have been made by several individuals. From the File History dialog box, select a file, right-click the Restore button, choose the Restore To option, and use the File Explorer dialog to create a folder to which you want to copy the
document. Repeat this process as often as required, creating new folders with descriptive names for each previous version you want to restore. You can also rename each previous version with an appropriate descriptive name as you restore it, so that you do not need to create multiple folders.
Creating a System Image
The File History applet provides an option to create a system image, which enables you to fully restore your computer in the event of a hardware failure.
You can also use this procedure to back up your data at the same time. Use the following procedure:
Step 1. From the bottom-left corner of the File History applet (refer to Figure 21-16), click System Image Backup. If you receive a UAC prompt, click Yes. On the Backup and Restore page, click the Create a System image link.
Step 2. The Where Do You Want to Save the Backup? screen shown in Figure 21-24 enables you to save the backup to a hard disk or to one or more DVDs. Make a selection and then click Next.
Figure 21-24. Saving a System Image Backup to a Hard Drive, a Set of DVDs, or a Network Location
Step 3. The Confirm Your Backup Settings page shows which disks will be
backed up, and to what location. Verify that these are correct and then click Start Backup to perform the backup.
Step 4. Windows displays a progress chart as the backup is performed. When you are informed that the backup is completed, click Close.
Step 5. The Create a System Image applet now displays the date and time that the complete system image backup was performed.
Note
You can also use the Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset (DaRT) to perform system and data backup and recovery on Windows 10 computers.
DaRT is a component of the Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack (MDOP), which is available through Software Assurance or Microsoft Volume
Licensing. As an advanced tool available only through these premium sources, DaRT is beyond the scope of the 70-697 and 70-698 exams. For more information, refer to "Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset10" at https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/itpro/mdop/dart-v10/index.
Caution
Creation of shadow copies, which is required for File History to back up open files, requires that the Volume Shadow Copy service be started. By default this service is set for Manual startup, which means that the service will be started as required. If the service is set to Disabled, shadow copies will not be created. If the service is not started, Windows will not create File History for any open files.
Recovering Files from OneDrive
We introduced Microsoft OneDrive in Chapter 9, “Managing User Data.”
OneDrive is free cloud storage for your Windows 10 devices that integrates seamlessly with other local and network storage available in Windows.
OneDrive and the Recycle Bin
The Microsoft OneDrive includes a Recycle Bin that can be used to recover any deleted files. You should be aware of the retention policies for your OneDrive Recycle Bin:
• Deleted files are kept for a maximum of 30 days. That means that no more than 30 days after the file is deleted, it will be removed.
• If the Recycle Bin reaches 10% of the total space for the OneDrive (which is 0.7 GB for the free 7 GB storage), files are deleted after 3 days, oldest files first, until the Recycle Bin storage reaches less than 10% of the total space.
In Windows 10, the local PC’s Recycle Bin is also used for OneDrive. If you delete a file in OneDrive storage, it is moved to the PC’s Recycle Bin for easy recovery. This works regardless of whether the files are online only or available offline.
You can recover deleted files from either the local PC Recycle Bin or the OneDrive.com Recycle Bin. If you empty the Recycle Bin on your local PC, you may still be able to recover your files from OneDrive.com using the following procedure:
Step 1. From a web browser, sign in to your OneDrive account at OneDrive.com.
Step 2. In the left menu, find the Recycle Bin link and click it. Any deleted files in your OneDrive Recycle Bin will show up in the list, as shown in Figure 21-25.
Figure 21-25. Deleted Files in the OneDrive Recycle Bin
Step 3. To restore all the files, select the Restore All Items link at the top of the page. Or, enable the check box to the left of each file by clicking it and then select Restore.
Step 4. Check your OneDrive storage on Windows. The files should be restored there as well. It may take a few minutes for your OneDrive storage to sync if you are using a slow network connection. Note that you can also choose which files to sync with your computer, so make sure that you have not excluded files from synchronizing.
OneDrive Version History
Similar to the File History in Windows 10, OneDrive maintains multiple versions of your Office documents automatically. Each time you edit a document from OneDrive, whether directly from the OneDrive storage or OneDrive.com, a new version of the document is created. OneDrive will keep track of up to 25 previous versions of each file. Note that the previous
versions can be accessed only from OneDrive.com.
To access prior versions, sign in to your OneDrive.com account, locate your document, and right-click it. If changes have been made to the document since it was first added to that OneDrive folder, you will see a version history selection, as shown in Figure 21-26. Select the menu item to open the current document and view the previous versions.
Figure 21-26. OneDrive Maintains Version History of Office Documents
Older versions of the document are displayed on the screen, along with the date and time each version was saved. When you select a previous version, OneDrive will display the person that made the change (in case the file is shared with others). You will also have the option to restore the file to the previous version, or download the version to save on your PC.
Note
Version history works only for MS Office files such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations. Version history is not maintained for other file types such as images and text files.
Exam Preparation Tasks Review All the Key Topics
Review the most important topics in the chapter, noted with the Key Topics icon in the outer margin of the page. Table 21-2 lists a reference of these key topics and the page numbers on which each is found.
Table 21-2. Key Topics for Chapter 21
Key Topic Description Page
Element Number
Step List How to set up Backup and Restore (Windows 7)
Figure 21-5 Choosing items to backup in Backup and Restore
Figure 21-7 Managing backup disk space used by the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) utility
Figure 21-
10 Troubleshooting backup issues
Figure 21-
13 Selecting files to restore from a Windows backup
Step List Shows you how to set up File History
Figure 21- 19
File History provides several advanced options that specify how copies of files are retained
Step List Restoring files from File History
Figure 21-
25 Recovering files from OneDrive
Definitions of Key Terms
Define the following key terms from this chapter, and check your answers in the glossary.
backup, File History, OneDrive, shadow copies, wbadmin, Windows 7 Backup and Restore applet