Windows 7 Backup and Restore
With Windows 7, Microsoft expands on the reliable backup and restore solutions for both data files and the entire computer that it introduced in Windows Vista, which can be used to copy your important files and folders to a safe location or create a system image that can be used later to restore a unreliable PC.
File Backup If you think of your Documents library as the centre of your data universe, and keep a series of folders and files there and in other libraries, then you'll understand the importance of backing up these files on a regular basis. Windows 7 supports both automatic and manual data backup, enabling you to choose which files to back up and when. You can then restore your backups at any time to recover previous versions of documents, or to replace a file you may have accidentally deleted.
System Image There's nothing worse than discovering that you need to reinstall Windows for some reason. You also have to ensure that you have drivers for all your hardware, reinstall the applications you use regularly, reload your data, and reconfigure all of the system, so that it's exactly the way you used to have it. Rather than go through this pain, you can use a Windows 7 feature called System Image Backup to create what is called a system image. This image, which is essentially a huge file, contains the entire contents of your PC as it existed when you backed up an image. You can simply restore the system image and get right back to work.
Window 7 also offers a way to access previous versions of data files or a previous state in time, or called a System Restore. These features are not part of Backup and Restore, but when you add it all up, what you have is the makings of a full-featured data recovery software suite like Ghost used for many years with Windows XP.
Backup Capabilities in Various Windows 7 Editions
All Windows 7 product editions get Backup and Restore with system image backup capabilities; the only exception is network-based backups: Only Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate support that capability.
One Tool to Rule Them All: Using Backup and Restore
Although various tools are available through the Windows 7 user interface. A single menu control panel menu option in System & Security, the Back UP & Restore menu option provides a front end.
Backing Up Documents, Pictures, and Other Data
If you want to create a data backup, you can use Windows Backup, which is available from Backup and Restore. To do so, launch Backup and Restore and click the Set up backup link. This launches Windows Backup's Setup up backup wizard
In the first step of the wizard, you must choose a location to store the backup. You can save a backup to an internal or external hard disk, a writeable CD or DVD, or a network share. (Network backup is only available in Windows 7 Ultimate, Enterprise & Professional. The amount of space you need, of course, depends on the amount of data you are backing up. Windows auto selects the local storage offering the most free space, but you can change this of course.
Microsoft does not allow you to back up to the disk or partition you are backing up, you cannot go from C: / to C: /
In the second step, you have two choices: Let Windows choose or Let me choose. If you choose the first option, Windows Backup will automatically backup data files saved in libraries, on the desktop, and in any folders founder in your user folder. Windows Backup will also create a system image if you choose this option, and then automatically make periodic backups on a schedule going forward.
If you choose Let me choose, Windows Backup will present a view of your file system. From this option, you can pick exactly what you want to backup. You can also optionally cause a system image to be made.
In the next step, review what you've chosen. Click the Change schedule link to change the default, which is to make a backup every Sunday night.
Click Save settings and run, as the backup begins, Backup and Restore displays its progress.
If you set up an automatic backup, Windows 7 will monitor your PC usage and prompt you to perform full backups over time.
A backup is in progress. This message will occur in the future; when Windows Backup runs in the background you can create multiple automatic backup schedules if you want. For example, you may want to back up different drives or file types at different times.
Managing Backups
Once you have created your first backup. First, Backup and Restore indicates that you've set a backup location and indicates when the last and next backups occur. You can also change the automatic backup settings and restore all of the files for the each user account.
When you click the Manage space, the Manage Windows Backup disk space window will indicate, information about the selected backup device, you can browse the file system of the backup location, view backups stored on that PC, and change settings configured with system image backups.
If you do click View backups, you can't actually get inside the backup folder you have made. From here, you can view the backups and delete them.
Go back to the previous window and click Browse. This will open Windows Explorer view, navigating the location of your backup. At this location, you will see Windows Backup icon and the name of your PC. If you try to double click this folder, a Windows Backup window will appear. Instead, right-click the folder and choose Open. Then, click Continue in the permission folder that appears. You'll will see a folder structure representing your various backups. A number of standard ZIP files. If you accidently lose everything, at least these files will always be accessible.
Restoring Files& Folders
Backup and Restore can also be used to restore files you have previously backed up. There are 3 file restore methods.
Restore my files. Restore your own files and folders.
Restore all users' files. Restore your own files and folders as well as those of other users.
Select another backup to restore files from. Perform more advanced restoration tasks, such as restoring files from a different PC.
You can follow these steps to trigger a restore of your own files or folders:
1. Open Backup and Restore and click the Restore my files button.
2. The Restore Files window appears.
From here, you have three options:
You can Search. If you know exactly what you're looking for, and only need one or a handful of files, you can use the Search button to Search your existing backup sets.
You can browse for files. If you'd like to manually browse around the backup set to find a file or any number of individual files, click Browse for files. You'll be presented with a modified File Open dialog, from which you can browse the various backups you've created, diving into the full backup or just the files in your user profile.
Recover entire folder
Whichever method you choose, you can mark a folder for restoration as you go and then continue looking for more.
3. When you're ready to go, click the Next button in the Restore Files window. Windows Backup will ask you to decide where you want to restore the files to; either to their original locations or to a new location.
Choose one and then click Restore. Windows Backup will begin restoring your files. If there any of the backup files will overwrite an existing file, you'll see the normal File Copy window shown below, which offers you a chance to overwrite, copy but keep both files, or don't copy.
When the restore is complete, Windows Backup will let you know that the files have been restored and list them.
Windows 7 System Image Backup
Backing up and restoring data files is important and should be on a regular basis, recently a new type of backup utility that backs up entire PC systems using system images has become quite available. These types of backups protect against a hard drive failure, virus infection or a major crash: If your you can use this system image to restore the PC to its previous state.
System imaging isn't new; companies have been using it for years such as Norton Ghost., Microsoft has created its own version, which it includes with Windows 7.
System imaging utilities typically compress the data on your hard drives to create a small image. Various solutions use different compression types, but you may be interested to know that Windows 7 uses VHD format that Microsoft also uses in its Windows Virtual PC software and its server-based Hyper-V virtualization solutions.
System images contain complete PC operating system files and user files & folders. You can't restore only parts of a system image, as you can with data backups. When you restore a system image, it restores the entire PC and overwrites any existing operating system. That means you should be careful before restoring a system image: Any data you have on the disk will be lost. Of course, remember to use automatic backups.
To create a system image, launch Backup and Restore menu and click the Create a system image on the left side bar at the top corner. This launches the Create a system image, shown below, which directs you through the steps to back up your whole PC. You can save system images to hard disks or DVDs, as well as network locations only in Windows 7 Professional, Enterprise, or Ultimate only. You can only write a system image to a hard disk that is formatted with the NTFS file system.
Click Next. The wizard will give you a chance to confirm the backup settings and remind you which partitions are being imaged. It will also provide an estimate of the amount of space needed to create a system image. The required storage space varies according to the size and usage of the hard disk on your PC. Click Start backup to begin the system image process.
Two file system locations must be included in the system image-what Microsoft refers to as the boot partition and the system partition. The boot partition is always C:\, whereas the system partition is the drive with the Windows 7 Windows directory. This is typically C: but if you installed Windows 7 in a dual-boot setup with a previous Windows version, the system partition might be in a different location. If you have other drives or partitions, you can optionally choose to include them in the system image as well. As the image is created, Windows Backup will provide an ongoing progress indicator.
This process could take some time, especially on a heavily used PC. When it's done, Windows Backup will prompt you to create a system repair disc. You should do so: While Windows 7 does install recovery files directly into the boot partition, in some cases; these files will not boot the PC. If that happens, you can use the system repair disc to boot your PC, a requirement for restoring the entire PC with the system image (as we'll see in the next section you can use any writeable DVD for a system repair disc.
If you have both 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 on different PCs, you cannot use the same system repair disc for each. Instead, you must create separate system repair discs for 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Restoring the Entire PC
If a major hardware or software failure has made your computer unusable, and you simply want to return to a system backup, you can use one of the system images you've previously created. Note, however, that you will typically need to boot your PC into the Windows Recovery to make this happen, using the boot repair disc that you created earlier. Note, too, that restoring your PC in this fashion will wipe your system and format your C drive partition.So this should not a last resort.
Follow these steps to restore your entire PC using a system image:
1. Reboot the computer.
2. If you are using a system repair disc, boot the PC with that. Otherwise, after your PC has finished its BIOS sequence, hold down the F8 key. Choose Repair Your Computer from the Advanced Boot Options screen (below) and tap Enter.
3. After the loading files screen, choose the correct language and keyboard input method and then click next.
4. If you booted from the hard drive, you will need to choose System Image Recovery from the System Recovery Options window that appears. Otherwise, System Recovery will examine the hard drives attached to your PC and look for Windows installs. When it's done, it will list the install(s) it found and give you the opportunity to use Windows 7's built-in recovery tools to fix problems with Windows or you can restore your PC to an earlier time using a system image. Choose that latter option and
Click Next.
5. The Re-imege your computer menu begins. In the 1st phase of this system, you choose the latest image available by default or you can select a different system image.
Click Next.
6. In the next step, you can choose to format the PC's hard drive or C: / generally.
Click Next to continue.
7. In the final phase of the menu, you can certify what you're doing and click
Finish continuing.
This can take some time depending on how large you backup is.
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