I'm currently using Windows 8 new File History feature on one external HDD. I also use the old Backup And Restore on another external HDD, but it seems like it will be phased out by Microsoft soon. I don't understand why?

Both features do totally different things:

• File History - does versioning backups of my personal files (like the "Time Machine" for OS X.) This can be used to quickly recover some missing files.
  
• Backup And Restore - can create full backups of the system image. This can be used to restore my entire drive.

Note that having File History alone would not be enough to restore the system drive after a catastrophic failure of an entire drive, or if the Windows 8 fails to load!

So I thought I would use both, but somehow the File History didn't want to run when Backup And Restore was on in my Windows 8 desktop, so I had to set up File History first and then set up Backup And Restore. Only then they would run together.

So can someone tell me if it's OK if I set up both at the same time?

Hi,

As far as I know, these two feature does can't work together at the same time. May be both File History and Backup and Restore need some common resources or service, so we couldn't use them at the same time. This should be design by default. I doubt we have no way to change it.

Thanks for your understanding!