Question Help me out with File History pls

[punkncat]

Some time ago I had an extra 500GB HDD laying around. I hooked it up to my main PC and set it up to be the backup and file history drive. I did not set parameters to limit the size of it. I really did it more as a mess around and find out than so much needing it as usually I am very thorough about backing things up (elsewhere) that I need. The drive got pretty full and the last couple of days prior to this last weekend it kept throwing errors that it couldn't back up to that location. So, NP I discovered that the backup location could be a mapped network drive to my NAS, so I set that up and set a few parameters so it doesn't just fill it up by way of deletion after it gets "X" old (3 months). Unfortunately for me, I had a text document that was a build list that I need for a PC I built for someone else, I had moved that file off this PC and onto the NAS but apparently something unexpected happened, and I cannot find it.

I currently have the file history going to the NAS as described above. If I go into file history and browse the items I wish to restore it will only look at the NAS location, not to the external drive when plugged up. My concern here is that IF I chose to switch back to the portable drive is it going to completely redo the backup, or will it resume in place just missing a couple of days? As mentioned above I think the drive is too full to actually get another back up but I would like to know if there is a way I can select the portable drive and look back through it to see if that file is in there say a month or so ago.
My other concern in relation to this is, when you move something it just updates the backup to that specific day forward, correct? In other words if I went to the day before I moved it, the file should reside where it was previously?

With all that said, this isn't a critical thing, more of a learning experience as I can personally go to the person's house and find the information I want there, just wish to know a bit more about the abilities and limitations of this particular app. Thanks

 

[Darkbreeze]

Get out of here. This area is only for non-veterans, of the website. Clearly, been here since 2018, which means 6 years, so a veteran. LOL. JK.

Really though, I think you are not going to have much success finding this if the system has been told to forget about it, whether overridden with zeros or simply discarded from the file structure. Probably anybody else would have better explanations than me, but if it's not being detected, even with reason specific software like, well, even Windows file recovery, which is kind of a last of the line defense, then I'm guessing it's just been overridden. But, obviously I can't say that without looking at the drive personally.

 

[punkncat]

Lol, I know right?

I think I am going to just give it a try. It isn't backing up anything I actually need this moment (aside from that non-critical parts list) so really wouldn't be hurting myself to do it and see.

edit- it isn't looking good so far. I turned off File History, plugged in the external and moved the save location. It says it is backing things up, again. I am of the feeling it may be over-writing the older saves. Find out in a little while I guess.

 

[punkncat]

Well, that was no bueno.

 

[punkncat]

To explain a little more in depth and hopefully help "the next guy" in case this comes up.

Once you swap the drive location the FM program will write to the new location. When this happens and if the other drive is still there it will prompt you mentioning there is 'another' File History and do you wish to bring it over. I did not think I wanted to in this case since I was attempting to hook up the old location and view the files there. The new location didn't have the file.

The moment that you hook up it then over-writes the old files and the history is gone. I would have had to have known the first time that I changed the save location to bring that data over as well in order to be able to access it. Once you tell it "no" and even with an intact save on the other drive I was not able to figure out a way to access it.