External Drives & File History —
Set It Up

One copy is a hope. Two copies is a plan.

Here's the plain truth about computers: every hard drive eventually fails. Not might — will. Usually after many good years, sometimes without warning. Add in spills, drops, theft, and our own fingers saving over the good version of a letter, and the question isn't whether your computer will someday quit — it's whether your files are somewhere else when it does.

The fix doesn't require being “good with computers.” You plug a small drive into a USB port, make sure it's formatted the way Windows wants, and switch on File History — which then copies your Documents, Pictures, Desktop, and more to that drive every hour, automatically, forever. Set it up once, check it monthly. That's the whole job, and this page walks you through it.

Which drive should you buy?

• A 2-terabyte portable hard drive — about $70 as of mid-2026 — is the right answer for most homes. Seagate and Western Digital (WD) are the names I install most.
• Portable SSDs are tougher and faster but cost two to three times more right now, thanks to a worldwide memory-chip shortage. For a drive that copies files once an hour on a desk, the boring hard drive is the smart buy.
• Skip thumb drives for this job — too small, too easy to lose.
• Skip the “backup software” advertised on the box. File History is free, built in, and better behaved.

exFAT vs. NTFS, in plain English

Every drive is organized in a “format” — the filing system it uses. NTFS is Windows' own format, and it's what File History requires on your backup drive. exFAT is the friendly traveler both Windows and Macs can read — great for shuttling photos to family, but File History won't back up to it. Many new drives come from the factory as exFAT. The check takes five seconds: in File Explorer, right-click the drive under This PC, choose Properties, and read the “File system” line. If it says exFAT, a one-time reformat to NTFS fixes it — right-click the drive, choose Format, pick NTFS, and click Start. One warning: formatting erases everything on that drive, so it's for new or empty drives only.

Turn on File History, click by click

1. Plug in your NTFS-formatted drive.
2. Click Start and type File History.
3. Click File History (Control Panel) in the results.
4. File History usually spots your drive by name. If it picked the wrong one, click Select drive on the left and choose yours.
5. Click the big Turn on button. Windows starts copying your files — often an hour or two the first time, and you can keep using the computer.
6. Come back tomorrow: the window will say “Files last copied on…” with a fresh date. That line is your two-second health check forever.

The schedule — and the one setting worth changing

• By default File History copies changed files every hour and keeps old versions forever. Hourly is fine — leave it.
• “Forever” eventually fills any drive. In File History, click Advanced settings and change “Keep saved versions” to Until space is needed — the drive then manages itself.
• Desktop computer? Leave the drive plugged in and forget it. Laptop? Plug it in once a week and let File History catch up — it patiently remembers everything that changed while the drive was away.

Getting a file back — the payoff

1. Click Start, type restore your files, and open Restore your files with File History.
2. Double-click into the folder where the file lived.
3. Use the ◀ ▶ arrows at the bottom to page back through time — each screen is a snapshot from a past date.
4. Click the file, then click the big green button. It returns to its original home.
5. Shortcut for a file you saved over: right-click the file, choose Properties, then the Previous Versions tab. Tuesday's good draft is sitting right there.
6. Practice this once on a throwaway file while nothing is wrong. Two minutes, and you'll never doubt the system again.

Unplugging the right way

• Click the little USB icon near the clock (click the ^ to show hidden icons), choose Eject, and wait for “safe to remove hardware.” Or right-click the drive in This PC and click Eject — same thing.
• Honest fine print: modern Windows uses “quick removal,” so an idle drive usually survives being unplugged without ceremony. But never pull the cable while the drive's light is blinking or a backup is running — that's the exact moment damage happens. The five-second eject habit is cheap insurance.

Where this fits the bigger backup picture

Backup folks follow a rule called 3-2-1: three copies, two devices, one away from home. This drive is copy two — it guards against a dead computer, spills, and deleted files. For the away-from-home copy that guards against fire or a burglary that takes computer and drive together, see my “3-2-1 Backup Plan” and “Photo Backup” guides — and my “Backing Up a Windows PC — No Jargon” guide if you want the whole map. None of that is urgent today. This drive is the big leap; make it first.

What's in the 27-page PDF

• Why one copy of your files isn't enough — calmly, without the scare talk
• The 60-second version: the whole setup in six checkboxes
• Which drive to buy — hard drive vs. SSD vs. thumb drive, with honest mid-2026 prices
• How much room you need, and how to check what your PC actually uses
• The first plug-in: what the chime, the pop-up, and the drive letter mean
• exFAT vs. NTFS in plain terms — and the five-minute reformat, step by step
• Turning on File History, click by click, plus the two settings worth changing
• What File History protects, what it doesn't, and the one-sentence rule to remember
• Getting files back: the green-button restore and the Previous Versions shortcut
• Safe ejection, drive care, and the leave-it-plugged-in question answered
• A tape-to-the-refrigerator monthly check, plus the “your files are at risk!” scams to ignore
• Kitchen-table Q&A, a plain-English glossary, and a fill-in cheat sheet

Why I wrote this

I see the aftermath of dead hard drives all over Portage County — and the saddest sentence in my line of work is “I thought it was backing up.” The fix costs about $70 and one afternoon, and the software is already inside Windows, free. So I wrote the whole thing down the way I'd walk a customer through it at the kitchen table: which drive to buy, the formatting question in plain English, every click of File History, and the two-minute monthly check that turns “I hope” into “I know.” Print it, tape page 18 to the refrigerator, and if you'd rather hand the whole job off, that's exactly what a first visit is for. — Bill