Before you begin. This procedure is general reference information, not professional advice. Equipment varies by manufacturer, model, and year. Always follow the documentation supplied with your equipment — where it differs from this page, follow the manufacturer. Verify that you have the tools, the working conditions, and the ability to do this task safely. If anything is unclear, if the equipment is damaged, or if the task exceeds your experience, stop and use a qualified professional. You are responsible for your own safety and for the outcome. This site accepts no liability for any loss, damage, or injury arising from the use of this information.
Specifications marked unverified could not be traced to a manufacturer source. Do not rely on them — obtain the value from your equipment documentation.
File History is the backup that comes with Windows and copies your own files — documents, pictures, videos, music — to an external drive on a schedule, keeping older versions so you can go back to the file as it was last Tuesday. It is not the only backup Microsoft ships, and the difference matters: Windows Backup, the newer app, syncs your folders to OneDrive and your settings to your Microsoft account, which is a different thing solving a different problem. This page does the local-drive one.
It follows Microsoft's own consumer documentation as it stood on 29 July 2026, for Windows 11 and Windows 10, and it stays in the Control Panel and File Explorer because that is where Microsoft's instructions live. Three things it is careful about. File History copies your libraries, not your whole disk, so it will not rebuild a broken Windows. Microsoft's own page names the default folders twice and the two lists do not quite match, so this page sends you to read the list on your own PC rather than repeating either one. And restoring a file replaces the current one in a way Microsoft says cannot be undone, so the last section shows you the route that does not overwrite anything.
READ THE WINDOWS VERSION ON YOUR PC FIRST.
Menu names change with a Windows update. This page follows the Microsoft documentation for Windows 11 and Windows 10.
FILE HISTORY COPIES YOUR OWN FILES ONLY.
It does not copy Windows and it does not copy your installed apps. A damaged Windows needs a new installation, and File History cannot do that.
| Item | Note |
|---|---|
| Windows PC | Sign in to the PC with your own account. |
| External drive | Keep this drive connected to the PC after the setup. |
| Pen and paper | Make a record of the Windows version and the drive letter. |
Estimated 2 min
Source: Backup and restore with File History · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
Source: Deprecated features for Windows client · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
Estimated 2 min
No tier-1 source was found for this value. Take it from the documentation supplied with your equipment.
KEEP THE EXTERNAL DRIVE CONNECTED TO THE PC.
File History makes no backup without the drive. Select a drive that can stay connected.
Estimated 3 min to 7 min
Estimated 3 min to 8 min
No tier-1 source was found for this value. Take it from the documentation supplied with your equipment.
READ THE LIST OF FOLDERS IN THE FILE HISTORY WINDOW.
The Microsoft documentation gives two different lists of the default folders. Only the list on your own PC is correct for your PC.
Estimated 2 min to 8 min
Estimated 4 min to 8 min
Source: Backup and restore with File History · tier 1 · accessed 2026-07-29
A RESTORE REPLACES THE CURRENT FILE ON YOUR PC.
Microsoft gives no method to reverse that replacement. To keep the current file, use the alternative location in the last two steps.
This page uses one term for each item and holds it throughout, as ASD-STE100 requires. Equipment sellers and other guides use the names below for the same parts.
Stop if an employer or a school controls your PC. A policy on a controlled PC can lock File History or can forbid a backup to a removable drive. Speak to your IT administrator.
Stop if your PC cannot find the external drive after the setup. Do not repeat the setup. Speak to Microsoft Support or to the drive manufacturer. Give them the Windows version and the OS build from the first section.
Stop if you must recover a Windows installation, and not only your files. File History does not copy Windows. Microsoft documents a different method for that, and it needs a different tool.
Stop if the file that you want is absent from each version in the list. An absent file can mean that its folder was outside the backup. Read the list of folders again.
This page does not give the steps for a backup to OneDrive with the Windows Backup app. That is a different Microsoft product with a different result, and it needs a personal Microsoft account.
They solve different problems and Windows ships both. File History copies your own files to a drive you own, keeps older versions of them, and works offline — that is what this page sets up. Windows Backup is the newer app: it syncs your chosen folders to OneDrive and stores your settings, themes, installed-app list and Wi-Fi information against your Microsoft account, so a new PC can be set up by signing in. Microsoft is explicit that Windows Backup is focused on consumer devices signed in with a personal Microsoft account, and that work or school accounts will not work with it. So if you want your files on a drive in your house, you want File History; if you want a smooth move to your next PC, you want Windows Backup. Wanting both is reasonable.
Read the list in the File History window on your own PC, and here is the honest reason why. Microsoft's own article names the default set twice and the two lists differ: the opening description says default libraries like Documents, Pictures, Videos and Music, and the configuration section says essential folders like Documents, Pictures, Videos and Desktop. Both use the word 'like', so neither is presented as exhaustive. We are not going to pick one and print it as fact, and we are not going to average them. The window on your machine is the authority, it takes ten seconds to read, and anything missing from it can be added by putting the folder into a library.
No, and this is the most important limit to understand before you rely on it. File History backs up your personal files and folders — it does not copy Windows itself and it does not copy your installed applications. If the operating system is damaged you would reinstall Windows and then bring your files back, not restore the machine from File History in one move. If a full-disk image is what you actually want, note that Microsoft deprecated its own System Image Backup — the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) control panel — back at Windows 10 version 1709, and its published guidance is to look for a third-party product from another software publisher.
Not according to Microsoft, as of 29 July 2026. We checked its deprecated features list for Windows client on that date and File History does not appear on it. The feature people often confuse with it does: System Image Backup, also known as the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) legacy control panel, has been on the deprecated list since Windows 10 version 1709. This is a negative finding rather than a promise, so it is the kind of thing worth re-checking rather than assuming — a feature can be added to that list at any time, and this page carries a review date for exactly that reason.
In practice, yes. File History backs up on a schedule, and a schedule cannot run against a drive that is not there — a drive you plug in occasionally gives you a backup that is as old as the last time you remembered. If you would rather not leave a drive attached to a laptop, Microsoft also supports a network location as the File History destination, which gets you the same automatic behaviour without a dangling cable. Whichever you choose, the useful habit is the same: check now and then that File History is still on and still pointing at the drive you think it is.
Yes, by default, and Microsoft's own warning on this is blunt: the file or folder replaces the current version on your computer, and the replacement can't be undone. That is why the last two steps here take the other route. Instead of clicking Restore, expand it and choose Restore to, then pick a different folder — you get the old version alongside the current one and you can compare them before deciding. It costs one extra click and it removes the only genuinely irreversible action in this whole procedure.
Microsoft does not publish a minimum, and we are not going to invent one. What determines the answer is not just how much data you have but how much history you want to keep, because File History stores older versions of files as well as current ones and the drive fills up with those over time. A drive smaller than the data you are backing up obviously cannot work; beyond that, more space buys you more history rather than more safety. If a specific drive is what you are after, that question belongs to the drive manufacturer and to how much you are actually storing, not to a number on a page that has never seen your PC.
Because that is where Microsoft's own instructions send you. Its current consumer article for File History gives the route as Control Panel, then System and Security, then the File History entry, and this page follows it rather than guessing at a Settings equivalent. Plenty of Windows features now live in both places with slightly different options, and following the documented route is what makes a step checkable against a source. If your Control Panel looks different from the description, read your Windows version and build first — that is the first section here for exactly this reason.
Every specification on this page is traced to one of these sources. Tier 1 is a manufacturer document, a published standard, or a government safety authority. See Standards for the full tiering rule.
Current version 1 · updated 2026-07-29 · next review due 2027-07-29
Corrections to this page are listed in the public corrections log. Reports that are credible and not yet verified are listed in the public errata register, and an open one renders above the step it concerns.
Found an error? A correction with a manufacturer source is applied and logged publicly. You can also write to corrections@fixchecklist.com.
Every step above carries its own report control, which tags the report with that step so a correction reaches the right place. For anything about the procedure as a whole — the order of the sections, a step that is missing, something that did not match your equipment — use this: report something about this whole procedure.