How do I reconnect my file history drive in Windows 10?
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You’ll see this message if your File History drive has been disconnected for too long. If you’re backing up to an external drive (like a USB drive), make sure it’s connected to your PC. If you’re backing up to a network location, go to Settings > Update & security > Backup and reselect the network. After you’re reconnected, wait for the next scheduled backup or start a backup manually by
selecting Settings > Update & security > Backup > More options > Back up now. Open Backup Settings Need more help?The error: File History drive is disconnectedAlways keeping your important data backed up and updated is crucial. Thanks to File History, you can easily create backups for your files in Windows 8/8.1/10/11. But sometimes, you may find your File History drive is disconnected. The specific error message may be like: Reconnect your drive. Your File History drive is disconnected. Reconnect it and try again. Reconnect your drive. Your File History drive was disconnected for too long. Reconnect it and then tap or click to keep saving copies of your files. Your files will be temporarily copied to your hard drive until you reconnect your File History drive and run a backup. If your backup drive does not connect properly or something goes wrong, it will prompt you with such a message when the scheduled backup task is triggered. By default, File History saves copies of files every hour, so it may be quite annoying if you do not fix it, not to mention that your files are not protected as planned. Why is File History drive disconnected in Windows 11/10/8?Following are some possible reasons for the File History drive disconnected error:
Solutions to File History drive disconnectedHere are 5 solutions to “Your File History drive is disconnected” in Windows 11, 10, 8. Now let's get started: ▪ Solution 1: Reconnect File History drive and restart backup If all these solutions won't work, or you find it troublesome to try them one by one, you can use a free alternative instead to auto backup any folders you want to external/internal drive or even NAS, cloud drive. Solution 1: Reconnect File History drive and restart backupIf your external hard drive used for File History backup has been disconnected for too long, you will be asked to reconnect your drive. You need to manually reconnect the drive and then start the backup as the following: 1. Navigate to Settings > Update &Security > Backup. 2. Reselect the external hard drive or network drive. Solution 2: Change your File History backup drivechanging the File History backup drive is said to be effective for this problem. You can try this method with the following steps. 1. Open File History, under the Back up using File History section, click More options. 2. scroll down to the Back up to a different drive section, click the Stop using drive button.  3. Then, go back to File History and click Add a drive. All the available drives and network location will be listed here, select the drive you want to use. 4. Click More options to set File History settings and click Back up now at the top location. Solution 3: Check and fix hard drive errorsIf you doubt there might be some errors on your hard drive, then you can first check your hard drive for bad sectors. 1. In Windows 10, right-click on the Start menu and choose Command Prompt (Admin). In Windows 8/8.1, you can press Windows + R key and type in “CMD” in the Run window and press Enter. 2. In the Command Prompt window, type in chkdsk.exe /f H: and press Enter. You should replace the “H” with the drive letter of your backup disk. 3. It will take some time to finish checking and fixing hard disk errors.
Solution 4: Clean up File History configuration filesYou still can try to delete the configuration files and then reconnect them if the above ways are not working for your situation. ★ Note: This method will delete all the File History backups, so it is recommended to create another backup of your files before trying this method. 1. Make sure you are able to view hidden files. You can open File Explorer and go to the “View” tab on File Explorer’s ribbon. Then, do following things:
2. Navigate to the folder below and delete all the files in it: C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory\Configuration\ Tip: 3. Go back to File History and connect the drive again. Solution 5: Create a shared folder to save File History backupIf you only want a specific folder to save File History backup, you can create a shared folder on your external hard drive or internal drive and then use File History to back up files to this folder. Some users struggle to let File History backup to the internal drive, and this workaround definitely works. To do that, just follow these steps: 1. Create a new folder named File History Drive or whatever suits you. 2. Right-click on the newly created folder and select Properties. 3. Click on the “Sharing” tab and select Share... to create a shared folder. You need to add users you want to share with and set the Read/Write permission. 4. Open File History. Click Add a drive > Show all network locations. If the drive you want isn’t listed there, then click/tap on Add a network location and navigate to the shared folder you just created. Backup files with the best free File History alternativeBesides "Your File History is disconnected" error, you may be troubled by other problems, such as File History drive is full, File History Element not found, etc. To avoid these problems, you'd better use free file backup software as an alternative. Here I’d like to recommend you AOMEI Backupper Standard. Below are some helpful features of it:
How to backup files and folders with AOMEI Backupper: 1. Download, install and run this free backup software. 2. Click “Backup” tab, and choose “File Backup”. 3. In this screen, click “Add File” or “Add Folder” to include specific files and folders in the backup. 4. Choose a target location to save the backup image. Besides external hard drives, this tool allows you to backup to NAS device, network location, and local hard drives as well. 5. Click “Schedule Backup” to set a frequency for this file backup task if needed. To backup only changes, click "Backup Scheme" and select "Incremental Backup" under the Backup Method section. After that, click “Start Backup” to start backing up your files. Tip: ▶ Learn more from video tutorial: Reward Tip: Backup Files to AOMEI CloudNowadays, the trend of backing up files to cloud storage is becoming more and more popular. This is because backing up files to the cloud can effectively prevent the risks associated with physical damage and loss of hard drives. AOMEI offers its own cloud for users - AOMEI Cloud. After signing up for an AOMEI account, you can use 1TB of storage space for free for 15 days. ConclusionIf you constantly receive the error “Your File History drive is disconnected”, you can try the five solutions mentioned above to fix the error or use AOMEI Backupper as an alternative. You can choose backup solutions (file/system/disk/partition), set backup frequency (daily/weekly/monthly), or enable other useful features (eg: incremental backup). Apart from the backup and sync functions, AOMEI Backupper is embedded with the clone feature. You may use it to clone Dell laptop hard drive for disk upgrade. Don’t hesitate to give it a try! How do I fix file History drive was disconnected for too long?You'll see this message if your File History drive has been disconnected for too long. If you're backing up to an external drive (like a USB drive), make sure it's connected to your PC. If you're backing up to a network location, go to Settings > Update & security > Backup and reselect the network.
How do I reconnect file history on my computer?Solution 1: Reconnect File History drive and restart backup
1. Navigate to Settings > Update &Security > Backup. 2. Reselect the external hard drive or network drive.
How do I turn file history back on?File History in Windows. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. ... . Enter File History settings in the search box, and then select File History settings.. Select Select a drive, and choose the network or external drive you want to use.. Turn on File History.. How do I reselect your file history drive?To reselect your drive. Tap or click to open File History.. Tap or click Select drive.. On the Select a File History drive page, tap or click your current drive or network location, and then tap or click OK.. |
