found a tool in Windows: File History

[Thorin]

I'm on Windows 8.1 on my work laptop.  I've set Windows Update to notify me but not to auto-install, as I sometimes am in the middle of debugging code over multiple days and don't want the computer to reboot.

So I got a notification today that there's updates waiting.  I did as the computer told me, and started up PC Settings.  That's where Windows Update is located these days.  There's also something there called File History.  Apparently it lets you back up files from one hard drive to another, if you have two in your system (it backs up Documents, Desktop, Music, Pictures, Video).

I think this is a wonderful little built-in tool.  I know, I know, it's probably kinda clunky, I've never used it, but someone was thinking about the poor user and hard drive failure when they added this tool in.

So, has anyone here actually used it yet?  I wonder how well it works...

[Melbosa]

It leverages the VSS on the file system and can be very handy.  Personally I use Cloud Storage or Redirected Folders for most things, but yeah I've set it up for Clients on home systems whom don't have a NAS and/or do not trust/want to pay for Cloud Storage.

[Mr. Analog]

File History has been in Windows a long time now, I have used it and it can be useful for some things but it does have a performance impact on the directory / files you set for versioning. Not to mention that now you are going to be retaining multiple versions of a file and so disk will appear utilized but it isn't super visible as to why (so if you forget you have a large number of files versioned you might wonder why you're low on disk.)

An alternative to this is to maintain your own versioning system for important files, I used to run SVN at home to manage commission artwork, that way you know what's what, why it was versioned, where it lives, comments, history, merges, etc