File History is a Windows built-in backup utility that provides you with an effective way of maintaining data security. But you may wonder: Does File History back up everything? If no, what does Windows File History back up? Here this post on MiniTool shows you the answers.

Does File History Back up Everything

What Is File History

File History is a powerful feature in Windows 10/11 that allows you to back up your files and folders to another disk or network location. It creates a FileHistory folder in the drive you selected as the destination disk and makes a copy of the selected files/folders for backup.

Besides, you can choose how often you want to save copies of your files and how long to keep the saved backup versions. And, you are allowed to delete versions of files/folders older than a certain age, except the most recent version of a file/folder.

Does File History back up everything?

Unfortunately, the answer is NO. See details below.

What Does Windows File History Back Up

Although File History is a good option for data backup, it does not back up all files on your computer. What it can back up is the specific folders under your user account, including Documents, Pictures, Videos, Music, Downloads, Desktop, Contacts, Links, Favorites, offline OneDrive files, etc.

It cannot back up your installed programs, configured Windows settings, and the Windows operating system.

Moreover, if you do not want to back up a specific folder, you can remove it from your backup source. To configure the File History backup source, you can go to Windows Settings > Update & Security > Backup. Then click More options under Back up using File History. In the new window, you can add folders to back up or exclude folders.

exclude folders
Tips:
If you need to recover deleted files without a File History backup, you can use MiniTool Power Data Recovery. This reliable file recovery software excels at not only internal hard drive data recovery, but also USB drive file recovery, SD card recovery, external hard drive restoration, etc.

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How Long Does File History Backup Take

There is no exact answer to how long it takes to back up files/folders using File History. The time required for File History backup may be related to computer hardware condition, data transfer speed, the amount of backup source, and so on.

Based on user experience, File History may last a few hours to days especially when it is the first time you use it.

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A Better Way to Back up Files

Although File History can fulfill basic data backup needs, it has apparent shortcomings. For example, it only makes copies of files/folders under the user account, and the File History backups take up a lot of space on your drive because the copies are not compressed. Moreover, it generally takes a long time to complete the entire backup process.

Here, MiniTool ShadowMaker is highly recommended for file backup. It is a professional data backup software that not only can back up files/folders, but also can back up Windows, partitions, and the entire disks.

More exciting still, this software offers you a 30-day free trial that allows you to enjoy most of its features for free within 30 days.

Now click the button below to download and install MiniTool ShadowMaker to give it a try.

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Bottom Line

Does File History back up everything? As mentioned above, of course not. If you want to break this limitation and back up all your files, you can use MiniTool ShadowMaker.

If you have any questions about this article or MiniTool software, feel free to send us messages via [email protected].

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