File History Drive -missing

[Ole Man River]

  Hi, does anyone know how I can find it? Tells me it's not there when it does the back up. Win8 - more nightmares than I can deal with!
I 've tried - tap  START then typed "File history drive" & there are no options.
I have Win8 on an ordinary screen. Don't use the tiles unless I have to. Still use my desktop mostly.
Can anyone tell me where it should be located on my computer to switch it back on.
  Thanks 

[Globetrotter]

There isnt one as such you have to set up an external drive, this may help.

Windows 8 includes a feature called File History that caches, or backs up, different versions of your documents and other data files, so you can "go back in time" and recover previous or deleted versions of those files. It's a great feature that builds on technology that's been in Windows since 2003—long before Apple copied it with Time Machine—and it works very well. The trouble is, File History is disabled by default in new installs of Windows 8. So you'll need to enable first.

I previously wrote about File History in Windows 8 Feature Focus: File History, so please refer to that article for a more comprehensive rundown of how this feature works. But the short version is that, once enabled, File History automatically backs up files in your desktop and libraries, contacts, IE Favorites, and Microsoft SkyDrive. If you delete, damage, or change a file stored in one of these locations, you can use File History to restore it to any stored version. In this sense, File History really does provide you with a "history" of your most important files.

File History is of course most easily found with Start Search. Since it's implemented as a classic control panel, you'll need to filter the search to Settings.

[Globetrotter]

Launch the classic control panel we are all used to in "category" view. To get to the File History settings, select the System and Security link.

If you look near the bottom of the list you will see an option that says File History, click on the link. This will bring up the settings for the File History feature.

You now will either need to plug in a USB Drive (this can be either a thumb drive or an external hard drive), or you can specify a network location. If you plug in a USB Drive the "turn on" button will immediately become available. However to cover all the methods we are going to opt to choose a network location. To do this, click on the "Change drive" link on the left hand side to bring up the dialog where you can select the "Add network location" button. When the window opens, you can select the PC on which you wish to save your File History.

Once you're done and you have clicked on the OK button, you will be taken back to the File History settings screen. Simply click the "turn on" button to activate File History.

When you click on the "turn on" button a message will pop up asking you if you wish to recommend the location that you used for File History to other users in your HomeGroup as a place to save their File History. If you have a HomeGroup and want to have a central location where all users in the HomeGroup can store their File History you will probably want to say yes, otherwise it's OK to choose no.

Once you have selected the option which pertains to your setup, File History will now be set up and working. The one thing you may want to configure is the option that allows you to take snapshots more regularly than every hour and you might also want to configure how long copies are kept for. To do this hit the "Advanced settings" link on the left hand side.

Once you have configured the settings to match your needs you are ready to go.

[Ole Man River]

Thanks globetrotter,
I have copied it to my USB & pasted it to my computer. Fingers crossed! Do you think that will be Ok?

[Globetrotter]

Yes that should be OK, then you will have 2 back ups, The only trouble with keeping a copy on your PC is that if anything seriously goes wrong with it and say you have to reformat your hard disk you will lose that copy, thats why the boffins suggest we all save to an independant source ie a memory stick or like, just keep doing it regularly say once a week.