Restore Files Using File History in Windows 8

Introduction

File History is a completely new feature of Windows 8. Like Time Machine on a Mac, File History gives us the option to restore the previous version of any file. It helps us to avoid the hassle of using a third party backup software. Read this article on how to back up Files. File History offers a multitude of features that are not available in any simple backup software. File History on Windows 8 is very easy to use and configure and everyone can use it to protect their data that has been lost. File History automatically backs up everything in your libraries, desktop, Favorites, and contacts. File History can advertise its location to other users and PCs in your local home group, creating a centralized spot for these backups. So you might use your desktop PC with its sample storage as the central location for File History-based backups for all the PCs in your home group. Restoring File History from a backup is very straightforward which are as follows.

Step 1: 

Open File History from Control Panel and click on Save backup copies of your files with File History. Make sure Control Panel is set on View by Category:

 control-panel-in-windows8.gif

Step 2:

Now connect an external storage drive such as a USB pen drive or any external hard drive to your computer and Select Restore personal files:

 file-history-in-windows8.gif

Note:

File History will not work and you will not be able to turn on this feature on your system. If your external drive is not recognized by Windows or you just added a new drive, click on the Change drive option from the panel on the left side and choose a new location.

Step 3:

Select restore all or selected folders to their original or other different location. For restoring or selecting a folder to their original locations, right-click to select all folders or use Ctrl and left mouse for selecting an individual folder. Now click the button at the bottom of the Dialog box.

 home-file-history-in-windows8.gif

Note: 

If you want to restore a selected folder to a different location then select the folder first then right-click to the restore button, click on restore so.you can select a new location to restore the files to.

 restore-file-history-in-windows8.gif

Some of the useful resources are:

Save and Restore Setings of a .NET Form using XML

How to Save "Backup Records and Dump File" Into Text File in MySQL

SaveFileDialog in C#

Next Recommended Readings