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Told to "Select a different File History drive" (after several months of use)

I have been using File History with an external drive since getting my Windows 8 laptop at Christmas. Today I get the message:

 

Select a different File History Drive - File History can't save copies of all of your files because of limitations with your File History drive's file system. Tap or click to select a different drive.

 

The external drive has 40GB free out of 330GB total. I know that it uses the FAT32 file system, and have a couple of ISO images that are over 4Gb, so I have deleted those but still get the problem. Are there any error logs I can look at to see if this is a particular file/long directory path? Any other ideas?

 

Thanks,

 

Chris

 

 
Answer
Answer

Hi Chris,

 

Try converting the file system of the external drive to NTFS and check if the issue persists.

 

These are the ways of Converting to NTFS

 

 

Method 1:

Converting to NTFS Using Convert.exe

 

a) Type Command Prompt on the start screen, from the search results right click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator

b) In the command window, type help convert and then press ENTER. Information about converting FAT volumes to NTFS is made available as shown below.

 

 

 

Method 2: To convert a volume to NTFS from the command prompt try these steps:

a) Type Command Prompt on the start screen, from the search results right click Command Prompt and select Run as Administrator.

b) In the command prompt window, type: convert drive_letter: /fs:ntfs

For example, typing convert D: /fs:ntfs would format drive D: with the ntfs format. You can convert FAT or FAT32 volumes to NTFS with this command.

 

Important Once you convert a drive or partition to NTFS, you cannot simply convert it back to FAT or FAT32. You will need to reformat the drive or partition which will erase all data, including programs and personal files, on the partition.

 

 

You may refer to Check your File History drive for errors

 

 

You may also try the troubleshooting steps from:

What if something goes wrong in File History?

 

 

Please post with the issue status.

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Question Info

Last updated April 9, 2023 Views 4,643 Applies to: