Security & Maintenance notifications

Question

I keep receiving a notification from Security & Maintenance that my file drive was turned off for too long. How do I turn it back on?

Answer 1

Hi Lorna. I'm Greg, an installation specialist and 10 year Windows MVP here to help you.

See here how to fix this File History error:

https://www.ctrl.blog/entry/how-to-reconnect-fi...

But File History, Windows file and Image backup are dysfunctional and may be phased out in a future version. But they're not the best choices anyway because after ten years in forums I've seen countless times that files are lost trying to restore them, so feel obligated to recommend choices that work much better and are 100% reliable.

For example a simple common mistake during File History file recovery is to turn it on and set it up again which wipes out the files. See here to avoid this:

https://www.techrepublic.com/article/how-to-cor...

The safest and most reliable backup method is to sort your files into their User Folders (Documents, Desktop, Pictures, Downloads, etc) and periodically drag or copy them to external or another hard drive. See tips for copying large groups of files here: https://www.pcworld.com/article/2086566/the-man...

Then have one other Cloud backup so your files are safe from fire and theft and easily accessible via the internet just like email. Some suggestions to help ease into this habit:

You can drag or copy 5gb for free into OneDrive app to store in the cloud where they are safe from fire and theft. You can also choose to sync the Desktop, Pictures and Documents folders (only) in OneDrive app Settings > Autosave for real time backup.

If you install Google Drive, you can use their new Backup to choose ANY User folders (Documents, Pictures, etc.) to sync up to 15g for free to their cloud in real time. You can also drag/copy selected files into Drive folder.

Besides your files you should back up a System Image to use in place of reinstall in 20 minutes. The best free alternative is Macrium: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-ref....

There is an easy way to mount the System Image to extract files if needed. Some prefer to move their User folders off of C to make the image smaller and so they stay current if you need to re-image C. Here's how: http://www.dummies.com/computers/operating-syst...

This way if Windows ever becomes irreparable you can restore C in 20 minutes from recovery media, and your files will be current and safe in their own separate partition. If they are left on C they will be dated from when the image was taken.

The best free imaging app for saving the backup image externally is here:

https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/7363/macrium-re...

I hope this helps. Feel free to ask back any questions and keep me posted. If you'll wait to rate whether my post helped you, I will keep working with you until it's resolved.

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Answer 2

Hi Lorna

Do you use File History to backup your Files and if so, did you set that to another drive to store the backups?

Open the Settings App (gear icon on your Start Menu)

In the search box, type file history

That will give you to open File History in the old Control Panel, select that

Do you see an indication of the underlying problem on the resulting page?

Answer 3

Hi Lorna,

Is this message about file history disk? If yes, is it internal or external?