File History Choose Drive Issue after Anniversary Upgrade

Dirty Butter · 27 Aug 2016

Before upgrading to the Anniversary build I was using a Backup+ Seagate USB Drive for File History on I: (It was connected when I made the upgrade)

After upgrading I could not get the computer to recognize the Backup+ at all. But it DOES recognize an old GoFlex USB drive. (It was NOT connected when I made the upgrade) with Drive Letter M:

I can use Macrium to backup images to the GoFlex M drive.

File History does NOT work, however. It still shows that it's trying to backup to the old I: drive. When I try to change to the new M drive, nothing changes - my choice is not saved.

I also tried changing the drive letter on the GoFlex to I, thinking Windows would see it as the correct I volume, but it still does not.

regedit still has references to the Backup+ drive in the Portable Drive Section.

Any suggestions for how to get the File History reference to I: out of the registry?

dalchina · 27 Aug 2016

Hi, assuming this is a problem with the upgrade and without having either searched the forum (which you're encouraged to do) or the web (both of which I would normally do) I thought I'd let you have at least the relevant registry keys.

The attached shows the changes that occurred when I enabled File History to backup to drive R: for the first time.

Not all keys are relevant of course- there are about 4 designated File History.

I suppose you could try turning File History off and deleting the equivalent of these in your registry, taking due precautions to create a restore point/export the relevant keys.

File History.zip

Dirty Butter · 27 Aug 2016

Thanks!! Hopefully this will help me get the ghost of the old drive out of the registry.

Dirty Butter · 27 Aug 2016

After looking at all those keys and trembling at fiddling with any of them, I decided to try deleting from File Explorer, based on one of the keys you have highlighted.

C:\Users\name\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\FileHistory

I deleted the config values there and restarted. NOW FileHistory shows the M drive as a possible FileHistory destination! The bad I volume is GONE. Keeping my fingers crossed.

dalchina · 27 Aug 2016

Good so far..

Dirty Butter · 27 Aug 2016

Now it's saying "The specified service does not exist as an installed service" when I try to turn File History on. So now I need help finding the name of the Service that controls File History!

Dirty Butter · 27 Aug 2016

I had renamed a few parts of the fhsvc in the registry, rather than delete them, when I was attempting to fix this on my own. I named them back to what they were originally and it seems to be working now!!

dalchina · 27 Aug 2016

Good.. always best to keep a record of changes, and appropriate backups..

It would be interesting to know if anyone else is experiencing this.. perhaps you could do a web search.. if so, could be yet another happy anniversary bug

N.B. a very useful trick to make sure a particular external drive is always allocated the same drive letter when connected is to reallocate its letter to the one you wish to use in Disk Management, e.g. to R (far away from anything you're likely to use) so there's no conflict.

Useful for disk imaging, backups etc.

Dirty Butter · 27 Aug 2016

Thanks for your help!! I didn't fix it via the registry, but what you listed as changing in the registry helped me find the right place in the user folder to wipe out the ghost info. File History is now happily saving all my Libraries!!

PS I did lots of searching among the Anniversary posts on here dealing with external drives, but couldn't find anyone else who had my specific problem.

dalchina · 27 Aug 2016

Good- guess your problem's.. history..