Backed Up Files Have UTC Timestamp

[Craicken]

I have recently backed up all of my files to an external HDD in order to upgrade my PC with an SSD for boot and wipe and repartition the original drive, however all of the backed up files now have a UTC timestamp. I'm afraid I've reached the limit of my expertise and am unsure of how to restore the files from the external drive to the original drive in a way that it removes this stamp. Searches have yielded results about using Windows file history to restore the files but I can't seem to make it work, any input would be appreciated.

 

[USAFRet]

1. How did you backup these files? A simple copy/paste would result in the files on the external having a new timestamp.
Those are "new" files.

2. Why does the timestamp matter?

3. Have you considered a clone operation to the new SSD?

 

[Craicken]

Hi,

1. They were backed up using Windows own service, not copy/paste or third party.

2. I think this is mostly an issue for my steam games which take up a good 1.5tb of space. When steam suddenly finds that all the files don't have the names it expects it thinks they dont exist and tries to reinstall them making duplicates of everything without my save data. I'd rather have the backup restore properly first time than reinstall terabytes of games without my progress.

3. Not sure what you mean here, if you mean clone the backed up files that's not really an option as the backup is 2tb and the SSD is only 250gb. I'm specifically trying to put these files onto the 2tb HDD. If possible im trying to find a restoration service which grabs the files from the external and plops them all onto the HDD without the timestamp.

 

[USAFRet]

The file names have been replaced by a timestamp?

For your SteamApps folder, you just have to do a copy paste to the external drive. Windows Backup will screw things up.

 

[Craicken]

The file names are thankfully all in place, theyve just all been appended with the timestamp. Sadly I no longer have the original files to try again as I wiped the drive, just the backed up ones that all have the timestamp. All I'm trying to find out is if there's anything that will let me transfer those backed up files from the external to the HDD sans timestamp instead of reinstalling lots of data.

 

[USAFRet]

The file names are thankfully all in place, theyve just all been appended with the timestamp. Sadly I no longer have the original files to try again as I wiped the drive, just the backed up ones that all have the timestamp. All I'm trying to find out is if there's anything that will let me transfer those backed up files from the external to the HDD sans timestamp instead of reinstalling lots of data.

I'm thinking that added timestamp is part of the backup process.
Steam and your games won't recognize them in that state.

 

[Craicken]

I know, that's precisely the problem. I'm looking for a way to get rid of these time stamps en masse, ideally through a piece of software, so that I can keep all of my game files as they are and not have to reinstall everything. No doubt it's a part of the process I just need it gone if possible as there's not really any telling how many programs could now end up breaking due to file name discrepancies. In all honesty I don't even care about the other programs, if I could isolate save files from the backup and just paste them into a fresh game install that would do it, im just searching to see if I can get rid of the timestamp before I resort to that.

As I said in the original post searching seemed to hint towards Windows file history service to grab all the backed up files and restore them without the stamp but I couldn't figure out how to get it to read from the backup onto my HDD

 

[Craicken]

I was able to restore the backed up files using Windows File History. By right clicking the green restore arrow in this service you can also select another installed drive for the data to go to, which was a part of my original problem.