My wife and I have two WIN 8.1 laptops (both x64). I have File History running happily with storage to a share on our ReadyNas network drive. I thought I would set the wife's machine up to do the same and switch on file history.

Not so fast... its not that easy...

I went to control panel>File History.  - No useable drives were found.

Selected Add Network location and navigated and selected folder on network share (identical to the one I use). Folder now appears in file history window. Try to switch on File History

"Cannot enable file history" The service cannot be started either because it is disabled or beause it has no enabled devices associated with it.

If I close the control panel window then open it again the folder I selected is no longer there.

I can start the file history service (Control panel>Administrative tools> Services. But this doesn't allow me to start file history and if I look again the file history service has stopped.

If I look in the selected network drive target there is a new folder with the usernameof the account under which i am trying to set this up and in that a series (7) of folders with the computer name. These folders all have sub-folders Data and Configuration all of which are empty

This would suggest to me that the process is starting but falls over for some reason.

I have checked other posts but haven't found a solution at present

Your thoughts would be appreciated as ever.

Doug

Hi Doug,

Make sure the file history and its dependencies service(DCOM Server Process Launcher and RPC Endpoint Mapper) startup type is "Automatic" and work fine.

Then select another network location or another local disk drive and turn on File history to see if it could work.

If I could work fine, it indicates the file history feature in your computer is without problem. The root should be your location keep a history of your files problem.