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File History Backup Win 10
I have read many articles over the last 10 years extolling the use of the built in Windows File History facility. Many years ago whilst using Windows 7 I became suspicious of its value as an effective file backup regime when I could not find a few files in the history backup. I firmly believe that it has a limitation that is not well known and possibly someone will now hopefully disprove me on this one.
File History adds 26 characters to each file name as it backs up. The maximum total full path length of any file that it backs up for me is 210 characters, including these 26 characters. Thus any original file with a full path length of 185 or more characters is ignored.
I have checked this previously in Windows 7, 8, 8.1 and now 10. My latest checks today across 14,590 data files shows this to be still correct.
I check the full path file length using a programme 'Too Long Path Detector' TLPD_x64.exe
I have always been under the impression that Microsoft have said in the past that the maximum allowed is 255 characters but I believe that this is untrue. I do not trust it as a reliable file backup programme.