How to Back Up Your PC with Windows Backup & File History

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Ankit Kumar
Windows 11Data RecoveryFilesSecurity

The Problem

People call after the drive starts clicking, or after ransomware, asking to recover years of photos. By then the options are expensive and uncertain. Windows 11 includes backup tools most people never switch on—File History for documents and photos, and Windows Backup for settings and app lists. Ten minutes of setup beats a four-figure recovery attempt.

Already deleted something? Stop writing to that drive and read recover deleted files in Windows 11 first. Backup is for next time.

What Each Tool Actually Does

| Goal | Tool | Protects against | |---|---|---| | Hourly versions of Desktop, Documents, Pictures | File History to an external drive | Deletion, overwriting, drive failure | | Settings, Wi-Fi profiles, app list | Windows Backup to your Microsoft account | Getting a new PC set up | | Files available anywhere, versioned | OneDrive | Deletion, device loss | | A restorable copy of the whole system | System image or third-party imaging | Drive failure, needing the exact machine back |

None of these is a complete solution alone. File History does not restore Windows itself. A system image does not protect a file you deleted three weeks ago. OneDrive syncs a deletion straight to the cloud (though its Recycle Bin holds it for 30 days).

Step 1: Set Up File History

Get a drive

An external USB drive at least twice the size of the data you care about. Leave it connected at a desk, or plug it in weekly on a laptop.

Turn it on

  1. Press Win + R and run control /name Microsoft.FileHistory.
  2. Click Turn on and select the external drive.
  3. Click Advanced settings:
    • Save copies of files: Every hour is the default and is sensible.
    • Keep saved versions: Until space is needed, or 1–2 years if the drive is large.
  4. Click Exclude folders to leave out large, replaceable things—game libraries, video caches, virtual machine images.

By default File History covers your libraries: Desktop, Documents, Pictures, Music, Videos, Contacts, and Favourites. If you keep work in a folder elsewhere, add it to a library (right-click the folder → Show more options → Include in library) so File History picks it up.

Restoring a file

  • A single file: right-click the folder it lived in → Properties → Previous Versions → pick a date → Open, then drag the file out.
  • Browsing by date: open File History → Restore personal files, and use the arrows to move through time.

Copy the older version out rather than clicking Restore over a newer good copy.

Step 2: Turn On Windows Backup

This does not back up your files—it backs up the settings that make setting up a new PC painless.

  1. Settings → Accounts → Windows backup.
  2. Turn on Remember my apps and Remember my preferences.
  3. Under OneDrive folder syncing, choose which of Desktop, Documents, and Pictures sync to the cloud.

Be aware that the free OneDrive tier is 5 GB, and a Pictures folder will exhaust that quickly. Treat this as convenience, not as your backup.

Step 3: Add a System Image (Optional but Worthwhile)

For "restore this exact PC after the SSD dies":

  1. Control Panel → Backup and Restore (Windows 7) → Create a system image.
  2. Choose the external drive, confirm which partitions to include, and let it run—it can take hours.
  3. Also create a system repair disc or a Windows installation USB, since you need something to boot from to restore the image.
  4. Store the drive disconnected.

Microsoft has deprecated this tool, so for a machine you depend on, consider third-party imaging software (Macrium Reflect, Veeam Agent) which is actively maintained.

Step 4: Test the Restore

An untested backup is a hope, not a backup.

  • Restore one file from File History today and confirm it opens.
  • Once a year, check the external drive is actually still being written to—File History shows the date of the last backup run, and a drive that quietly stopped working in March is depressingly common.

The Rules That Actually Matter

3-2-1: three copies of anything you cannot lose, on two different media, with one off-site. In practice for a home PC: the original, an external drive, and a cloud copy.

One copy must be offline. Ransomware encrypts every drive it can reach, including a permanently connected backup drive. Rotating two USB drives, with one unplugged, defeats this entirely—see what to do if hit by ransomware.

Automate it. A backup you have to remember to run is a backup you will not have. See set up automatic backups so you never lose files.

Common Mistakes

  • RAID is not a backup. It protects against a drive failing, not against deletion, ransomware, or fire.
  • A synced cloud folder is only half a backup. A deletion or an encryption event syncs too. Version history is what saves you, so check your provider keeps it.
  • Backing up to a second partition of the same physical disk. When the disk fails, both go.
  • Never checking it. See Step 4.

No backup and a drive already failing? Scan it before giving up: RecoverPro can pull files off a partition that Windows can no longer read—install it to a different drive.

Related: organise and back up your important documents and, before selling a PC, run a final backup and verify it: wipe a PC before selling or donating.

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