Win 10 file history

HoolyNI

Hello all,
Am trying to use the file history option to back up a few specific folders to an external drive but the thing insists on backing up my entire Desktop or my Google Drive neither of which I need to do....have tried formatting  the drive and removing the default back ups it offers but cannot seem to add specific folders for back up. What am I doing wrong?

Neil_Jones

Can you not just drag the folders/files you want to back up to the external drive?

grumpycrab

You need to add "exclude folders" to the file history set up.  Run file history -> click settings cog -> click set up file history -> click Exclude folders.  Add folders to exclude.  If this still doesn't work, show us a screenshot of your "excluded folders".
Then... add your specific folders.  It's worth the effort (in my opinion) especially if the drive is always connected (may be easier if the drive is connected to the USB port at the router?). 
And having a real-time (file) backup is nice.

victor2

HoolyNI said:

Hello all,
Am trying to use the file history option to back up a few specific folders to an external drive but the thing insists on backing up my entire Desktop or my Google Drive neither of which I need to do....have tried formatting  the drive and removing the default back ups it offers but cannot seem to add specific folders for back up. What am I doing wrong?

Some info here.

Alternatively, use a different backup system for which you can schedule jobs. I use Cobian for backing up to a NAS drive. You can select individual folders to be backed up to a combination of Full and Differential (or Incremental) rotas. It is free, old and no longer supported, takes quite a bit of configuring, but seems to work for the most part.

Alternatively, you could look at Macrium Reflect. The free version will only do image backups, does support differentials, and you can restore individual files, but not directly from a NAS drive, only a local one. Hence, I don't use it.

HoolyNI

Thanks for the replies. I had been removing the Google Drive folder which prevented the 4 folders I needed from being uploaded, this time I kept the GD folder but excluded everything bar the 4 folders and it has worked okay.