[tip] File History and gig files

File History is a Windows feature that backs up versions of your files in Libraries (Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos) and Desktop folders. Therefore, this can be a great asset to keep versions of our gig files. :slight_smile:

  • In Windows 10 you can also select an optional, custom folder where you keep gig files.
  • In Windows 11 they removed this feature to add a custom folderā€¦ :angry:

Why is this a neat feature?

  • Over time, youā€™ll have a complete history of your files. You can easily revert the version that you (say) worked on yesterday (or a month ago!).
  • If you accidentally delete your gig files or they appear to be damaged (perhaps a bad sector on a HDD) you can restore them.
  • If your PC gets infected with ransomware, there is a chance to save your work!

You can use an external drive (thumb drive or external HDD/SSD) or a network drive. But this is not the option, in my opinion: you can easily lose your thumb drives, and perhaps you build your gigs outside your home network (home NAS). I wanted to have this feature on one of my local drives. So what to do?

Hereā€™s a workaround that works very well ā†’ weā€™ll use a virtual hard disk (VHDX file).


This is how I did it:


[1] I created a new folder ā€œFileHistoryā€ on the D:\ partition

[2] Windows Key + X and select Disk Management. Click on the Action menu and select Create VHD.

[3] Select the parameters as on the screenshot:

Create-VHDX-drive

[4] Right click on the new disk and select Initialize disk. Select the GPT partition table.

[5] OK, now the disk is initialized, online, but not formatted. Right click on Unallocated and select New Simple Volume. Follow the wizard and assign it a drive letter (e.g. X), select NTFS as file the system and volume label ā€œFile Historyā€. Hereā€™s the result:

Disk-Management-File-History-Windows11

[6] Now that you have a removable drive (you can access it from ā€œThis PCā€), you can use it with File History, so click Start and type in File History. Open the application.

[7] Configure File History:

  • Click Select drive and select the File History (X:)
  • I excluded all folders (Pictures, Saved Pictures, Videos, Music, Camera Roll) and left only Documents and Desktop
  • In Advanced settings, I selected that every 10 minutes it saves copies and saves them Until space is needed.

After the backup process finishes, youā€™ll be able to see your versions of files stored in Documents and Desktop folders.

Hereā€™s an example:

Simply right click on a file and under Previous Versions I can see a version of a gig file from yesterday.

~

Of course, you can Turn off this feature whenever you want (i.e. before a gig), just click Turn Off.

Enjoy! :slight_smile:

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T Is exactly what Iā€™m looking for. Thanks

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Excellent! Will try ASAP.

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I need to only save certain files that are scattered on my drive, how do you set that up without having to exclude nearly every folder etc.
Eg I want to save presets that have been saved in various folders to save to a removable drive so I can access them from a different pc

Although this tool works great, itā€™s limited to only what Microsoft thinks is good for you. Therefore, you have to put your files in one of the supported folders.

On Windows 10 you can set a custom folder for monitoring and on Windows 11 they removed that optionā€¦

I assume that Microsoft decided to force OneDrive on Windows 11 instead.

Thanks for reply

Alternatively, check out this solution: https://community.gigperformer.com/t/autosave-backup/14257/41?u=npudar