Microsoft Details Windows 8 File History Feature
This new feature allows users to backup and restore individual files
Microsoft on Tuesday explained a new feature in Windows 8 called File History. It's defined as a backup application that continuously protects personal files located in Libraries, Desktop, Favorites, and Contacts folders. By default, it periodically scans the file system for changes and copies changed files to another location every hour.
"Every time any of your personal files has changed, its copy will be stored on a dedicated, external storage device selected by you. Over time, File History builds a complete history of changes made to any personal file," the company said on the Building Windows 8 blog. "It’s a feature introduced in Windows 8 that offers a new way to protect files for consumers. It supersedes the existing Windows Backup and Restore features of Windows 7."
The idea behind Fire History, according to Microsoft, was to turn backup into an automatic, silent service that does the hard work of protecting user files in the background without any user interaction. The company also set out to offer a simple, engaging restore experience that makes finding, previewing and restoring versions of personal files much easier.
In addition to saving files located in the four main folders, end-users can set up File History to backup files contained in other locations. Setting up the service seems rather simple: merely open the File History control panel applet, choose an external source (network drive, USB drive etc), and then tap/click Turn on. Users can also set up a drive in Autoplay by connecting to the PC and then tapping/clicking the notification that appears on the screen.
As for restoring files, Microsoft set out to make this an incredibly simple task. "We designed the restore application for wide screen displays and to offer a unique, engaging and convenient way of finding a specific version of a file by looking at its preview," the company reports. "The search [for a specific restore file] starts right in Windows Explorer. You can browse to a specific location and click or tap on the History button in the explorer ribbon in order to see all versions of the selected library, folder or an individual file."
Microsoft said File History doesn't use brute force in order to check for changes in directories. Instead, it takes advantage of the NTFS journals which records any changes made to any file stored on an NTFS volume. Thus, instead of taking the brute force approach of scanning the entire volume, File History scans the NTFS journals for changes, and then creates a list of files that have changed and need to be copied.
"File History was designed to be easily interrupted and to quickly resume," Microsoft reports. "This way, File History can resume its operation, without the need to start over when a system goes into sleep mode, a user logs off, the system gets too busy and needs more CPU cycles to complete foreground operations, or the network connection is lost or saturated."
To get the full scoop on File History in Windows 8, read the full Microsoft blog here.
I guess now we're going to claim that Apple invented the backup, right?
:rolleyes:
yup, sounds exactly like Apple's Time Machine.... even the backup interval every hour.
I guess now we're going to claim that Apple invented the backup, right?
:rolleyes:
I'll have to "listen" to you guys and the press for a few months after Windows 8's release and decide which, if any, of my machines I'm going to infect with it.
I'd put it in the same category as the "Windows 8 refresh" functionality built into the WIndows 8 repair. It's like doing a repair install on XP (fresh OS install without without deleting any of your files/folders). I used it not long ago when changing work PC's and migrating from an AMD box to an Intel box and it worked well enough and didn't require an extra medium.
File history can be set to save to any drive you want. This removes the issues with SSD performance degrading(at least if you have another drive in or attached to the system).
Hourly incremental backups and a interface that lets you browse through all previous versions of a particular file or folder and restore them with one click.... that's exactly the same thing as Time Machine.
No idea if somebody else did the same thing before Apple, but it's definitely not Microsoft who came up with it.
Shadow copy is much more complicated, and NOBODY knows about it, so it is unused. It will not destory SSD performance as it merely scans for changes in the journal, not the whole drive, and it requires you to store information on an external device, or at least a different drive, from the information being backed up
To others who down voted the apple fan, he is actually right, this is a nearly identical feature to Time Machine.
As this scans NTFS journals, does this mean no backup for FAT devices like flash drives? Because I would love to have that backed up.
I think this settles it, looks like I will be jumping on the $40 upgrade to win8pro, and finally building my 6TB server (still not sure if win home server, or FreeNAS though). I have been in need of a good central backup service for my files, and this looks to be it.
... If I were to point this to my video editing drive I wonder how fast it would fill up a 6TB server...
Which sounds like Shadow Copies which Microsoft had LONG before Time Machine ever came out.
I'm not digging the MS Office-style tabbed UI they are using for explorer though. Looks WAY over complicated .
Love statements like this, I don't know the answer to this but it couldn't be Microsoft (facepalm). Microsoft has had shadow copies for a very long time, right click, select previous version and click restore. The button is now on the ribbon which makes it easier.
Shadow copy is NOT a backup utility. It only saves CHANGES, which allows you to restore previous versions of a file, but it does not create a complete copy of the file.
If your drive goes bad, your data is gone.
That is both true and not true, I think the reasons are obvious. The way SC works off knowledge of previous versions is an asset in many ways. Having a copy in another location is a good addition for sure, and something that has always been there in MS backup, another part of the OS.