Windows 10 Backup “No Usable Drives Found” | 3 Quick Solutions

The issue: Windows 10 Backup “No Usable Drives Found”

Trying to use the Backup feature but "No usable drives found"

“I have a fairly new Seagate 3TB USB3.0 drive that I've been using as a data backup on my desktop. I've been just copying stuff over to the drive once a month or so, but decided that I may as well use the backup feature in windows 10. However, I'm running into an issue. The drive is usable and I can drag/drop files over to it. I've tried "Include in Library" both my data drive and my backup drives, but that doesn't seem to work. I've tried searching the forum but didn't find anything. Any suggestions?”

- Question from Windows Ten Forums

Windows 10 comes with two backup features - Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and File History. File History automatically creates incremental backups of files stored in Libraries, Desktop, Contacts, and user-specified folders to a different storage device (such as another internal or external hard drive, Storage Space, or network share) on a regular basis.

“No usable drives found” is one of the Windows 10 File History not working problems. When some users want to use the File History of Windows 10 for data backup, they find that the list of usable drives is empty and states "No usable drives were found”. How to fix this error easily? Next, I will provide you with three different solutions.

Solutions to “No Usable Drives Found” in Windows 10 Backup

Solution 1: Turn on File History

▶ Steps to Turn on File History

Sometimes, you will get this error when the file history is unintentionally closed or the file history drive is manually deleted. Now, please turn on the file history first:

Step 1. Input Control Panel in Windows Search box, select it and find System and Security, then click Save backup copies of your files with File History.

Step 2. Click Turn on button to restart File history to backup your personal files.

✿ Tip: Or you could go Start -> Settings -> Update & Security -> Backup -> turn on automatically back up my files in Back up using File History section.

▶ Check If the Error Solved

How do you check if the file history is working? Steps are as follows.

Step 1. Click Advanced settings in File History.

Step 2. Click Open File History event logs to view recent events or errors (Event Viewer) in Event logs section.

Step 3. Then you will see all specific details about what happened in File History.

✿ Tip: Besides, it is apparently running with File History is saving copies of your files message.

Solution 2: Reconnect Your File History Drive or Select Another Drive

To reconnect your file history drive to Windows 10, or select another hard drive to fix “No usable drives found” error and save the Windows 10 file history backup, refer to the guide:

Step 1. Connect your hard drive and choose Select Drive at the left panel in File History.

Step 2. Tap the original file history drive or another hard drive, and click Next. If you would like to backup to network drive, click Add network location.

Then the file history stopped working error may be solved. If not, try the third solution.

Solution 3: Use the Best Free File History Alternative —AOMEI Backupper

If you have tried both of the above methods but the problem is still not resolved, I think this powerful free backup software – AOMEI Backupper Standard can help you. As we all know, when we use Windows built-in backup tools, various problems may occur. The solutions to these problems are different. Fixing all issues is troublesome and annoying. But once you use AOMEI Backupper, these problems will not bother you again. It enables you to:

✧ Perform file level backup suitable for personal files backup. And you can also backup disks/partitions/volumes in block level to improve backup efficiency.
✧ Create incremental and differential backup to save backup time and storage space.
✧ Create backups to different storages, such as cloud, NAS, local disk, or external hard drive, USB/DVD/CD, etc. If you have an AOMEI account, you are allowed to backup files to AOMEI Cloud. 
✧ Backup for Windows PC operating systems (Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP). If you want to backup Windows Server 2008, 2012, 2016, 2019, etc., try server backup tools.

Next, I will explain in detail how to easily back up files or folders to an external drive with AOMEI Backupper Standard. Firstly, download this free software.

Step 1. Connect external hard drive to your computer, run AOMEI Backupper Standard and select Backup -> File Backup.

Step 2. Click Add Folder or Add File to add the files that you would like to backup.

Step 3. Select the external hard drive connected before as the destination path to save the Windows 10 file backup image file.

Tips✍:
✿ Options: Here, you can write comments, modify the compression level of your backups. And if you want to encrypt your backups, please upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional edition.
✿ Schedule: In the General tab, you can set the backup frequency, including daily/weekly/monthly/Event triggers/USB plug in (the last two are available in higher edition). In the Advanced tab, you can choose a way to perform the scheduled backup, the default setting is Incremental Backup. Full Backup and Differential Backup are also provided.
✿ Scheme: It will automatically delete backup image files based on the type of scheme you choose, which is quite helpful in saving disk space as well as keeping all backups up to date (available in paid version).

Step 4. Press Start Backup button to create Windows 10 file backup.

Summary

The above are the three quick solutions provided to solve this Windows 10 Backup “No usable drives found” problem. However, this is just one of the problems with Windows 10 backup not working properly. If each time a different problem occurs, we have to search for the corresponding solution. So, I strongly recommend that you use AOMEI Backupper as your primary backup software.

The operation of AOMEI Backupper Standard is very simple, and the interface is also very user-friendly. It is embedded with backup, restore, sync, clone and other powerful features. Whether you are looking for software to migrate data to Kingston SSD, or you want to restore data from Synology NAS, this software can help you with just a few clicks. Try it now!