Windows Vista's Backup and Restore Center
Computers can store a great deal of information, and over time your PC may hold
Computers can store a great deal of information, and over time your PC may hold a lot of important, private, irreplaceable data such as digital photogra phs and movies, financial documents, emails,
passwords and login details. It is of critical importance that you establish an appropriate method for regularly backing up this information, so that if your PC is stolen, damaged, or its data is corrupted or accidentally overwritten, that you do not lose all this valuable data permanently. Hence backing up is a vital and unavoidable part of sensible computing. In fact once you are sure that your system is completely free of malicious software, you should make at least one backup copy of all your important and irreplaceable documents before proceeding any further with this guide.
This chapter not only covers various backup strategies and tools, it also covers a range of useful data recovery methods you can use to regain valuable information which ha s been lost through forgetting passwords, accidental deletion of files, data corruption or damage to your Windows installation.
Windows Vista's Backup and Restore Center allows you to either create backups of particular files, or create a complete backup image of your hard drive(s), as well as a means of restoring these backups at a later date.
To access the Backup and Restore Center, go to Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools, or to Start>Search Box and type "backup restore" (without quotes) and press Enter. The Backup and Restore Center dialog box will open, giving you two main options for backing up (or restoring) your data: either as a range of files, or as an entire image of your hard drive(s). Each option is covered below:
This option backs up only particular files from your system. This takes up far less space than the 'Back Up Computer' option, and also allows you to selectively back up and restore certain file types. However it is still much less precise than a manual backup, typically including a lot of files you don't wish to back up. This is because Vista does not allow you to select the specific files and folders you want to back up, only files of a certain type. For example, if you want to back up all Pictures and Music and select these categories, then aside from any pictures and music you've created, saved or downloaded, it will also back up all image and music files from other folders such as those under the \Program Files directory (e.g. game music and image
files). This can obviously take up a great deal of additional space to backup, so I only recommend using this
option if you prefer its automated nature and don't mind its lack of control. A manual backup is the preferred method of backing up specific files/folders in a more efficient manner (see further below).
When you select the 'Back Up Files' button, Vista first asks you where you wish to backup the files to, either a CD, DVD or hard drive. I recommend that you back up your files to a CD or DVD regularly, even if you also backup to another hard drive as well. I don't recommend only backing up the files to another partition on your main Vista drive for example, unless you also keep backups of the data elsewhere. This is because if your main Vista drive fails, all partitions on it will also be lost. So on balance another hard drive and/or CD/DVDs are recommended.
Once you've made your selection, you will be prompted as to which hard drive(s) you wish to backup files from. Your current Vista drive will be selected automatically and cannot be unselected; select other drives if you wish. The next screen shows the specific types of files you may want to back up. As noted, a major drawback is that Vista does not allow you to select specific directories or files to back up, merely the category of files. By clicking on the name of each file type here you can see the kinds of files which will be backed up from your chosen drive(s). Files which will not be backed up regardless of the categories you choose include:
System files - The files that Windows needs to run.
Program files - Mainly .EXE and .DLL files; other portions of program files will be backed up depending
on their type.
Files stored on hard disks that are formatted using the FAT file system.
Web-based e-ma il that is not stored on your hard disk.
Files that are in the Recycle Bin.
Temporary files.
User profile settings.
Files that have been encrypted using the Encrypting File System (EFS).
Once you've selected the file types you want to ba ck up, Vista will assume you want to automa tically do this on a regular basis, and asks you to schedule a regular time for automatic backups each day, week or month.
Note that scheduling automatic backups is not possible in Vista Home Basic, though it will periodically remind you to back up manually. To turn off automatic backups, or indeed alter any backup files settings, open the Backup and Restore Center, click the 'Change settings' link below the 'Back up files' button. Then you ca n click the 'Turn Off' button at the bottom of the next screen to disable automatic backups, and/or if you want to change the backup settings you can click the 'Change Backup Settings' option. Note, to get back to this configuration screen quickly at any time, you can type "backup status" (without quotes) in the Start>Search Box and press Enter. If you want to permanently disable scheduled backups altogether, see
Task Scheduler under the Administrative Tools section of the Control Panel chapter.
Once done with the configuration, the 'Crea te a new, full backup' option should be ticked, now click the 'Save settings and start backup' button. You will be prompted to insert/format any disks required until the backup is completed. If you need to manually format a CD, DVD or hard drive at this point, open Windows Explorer, right click on the relevant optical drive letter or hard disk letter, select Format or 'Erase this Disk'.
If you attempt to create a backup which requires more disk space than you have available on your target drive (e.g. the backup requires 5 DVDs and you only have 4), then you can resume the backup process at a later date by running the 'Back up files' option and it will continue from where it left off. If an automatic backup fails due to lack of disk(s), it too can be resumed the sa me way.
The first time the Backup Files function runs, it automatically creates a full backup of all your selected file categories, this may time quite some time. Vista then starts keeping track of which of your selected file types
across your chosen drive(s) have been modified or newly created, and in future when you return to the 'Back
up files' option you will be given the option of creating another full backup, or simply creating an incremental backup of new/modified files only. You can also choose this by clicking on the 'Change settings' link, and either selecting 'Back Up Now' to find new/updated files to add to your backup, or 'Change backup settings' to alter the settings and/or create a new full backup. Using the incremental method makes backing up much faster and easier, so it is recommended.
When using Windows backup features, backup files are saved in a special format on your target drive/disk, in the form Drive Letter:\
If at any time you want to restore or simply view any files and folders backed up via the 'Back up files' option, then you should go to the Backup and Restore Center and click the 'Restore Files' button. You can then select to restore the file(s) from the latest backup you made, or from an older backup. I recommend clicking the 'Advanced restore' link instead as this provides additional options, including the ability to restore a backup of files made on another PC. On the next screen, click the 'Advanced Restore' option. If your backups were made on another PC, select the 'Files from a backup made on a different computer' item; if you've made several backups of the files on this PC but you want to restore an older version of a file, select the 'Files from an older backup...' option. Finally the most common option is to restore the latest version of the files which you've backed up by selecting the 'Files from the latest backup...' item. Click Next when done.
On the next screen, if you chose to restore an older backup you can select the date of the backup made and insert the appropriate disk if required before proceeding. If the files were backed up on a different computer, connect or insert the disk(s) required and then continue. If you're using the latest backup, make sure you insert the appropriate disk(s) if required.
To restore particular files or folders, select the 'Add Files' or 'Add Folders' option as appropriate and browse to the 'Backup' folder in the file browser on the left side of the dialog box. You should see the backed up drive letter shown with a listing of the files and folders which have been backed up onto this particular hard drive/CD/DVD. Highlight each of the particular files/folders you want to restore and click the Add button at the bottom of the box. If you want to restore the entire backup, tick the 'Restore everything in this backup'
box at the top of the screen instead. Once done, click the Next button and nominate a location to restore the file to. You can either have the backed up version of the file overwrite the current version on your Vista drive (not recommended), or you can restore it to another location to prevent it overwriting the existing version - this is the option I recommend just to play it safe, in case you restore the wrong backup or the backup itself is somehow corrupt or infected. Restore it to another location, delete your current versions to the Recycle Bin, then move the newly restored files to their original location and see if they are fine.
Backing up specific file types is a useful but not foolproof way of making sure you don't lose valuable documents in case of a hard drive failure or severe malware infestation. It prevents total data loss but it is still time consuming to have to reinstall Windows and reconfigure everything back to the way you want it after a major problem. There fore Vista allows you to make a backup image of your entire computer, backing up every file and detail such that you can restore your PC to the exact same state at any time. Unfortunately this method does not allow you to selectively choose particular files or folders to backup or restore - you will
be backing up/restoring your entire PC in every way. If you have a dual boot arrangement,this also includes
the other version of Windows you're using as well, which can take up quite a bit of space. Note tha t this function is not available in Vista Home Basic or Vista Home Premium.
To start the process click the 'Back up Computer' button in the Backup and Restore Center, and as recommended, select another hard drive/partition to back up to. If you don't have any other hard drives, you can select DVDs though this can obviously require quite a number of them. Regardless of where you choose, on the next screen you will be given a rough estimate of the amount of space required, the drive(s) to be backed up, and you can then commence the process by clicking 'Start Backup'. Depending on the size of your
current Window installation(s) and all programs installed, this could take quite a while.
This method is only recommended in conjunction with other automatic or manual backups of your specific valuable files. This is because if you wish to restore your computer backup, it will completely overwrite your
current Vista install, and if you have a dual boot, it will also completely overwrite your other version of Windows as well, with the version you backed up earlier. Clearly this is overkill just to restore a single lost file, and also may mean you lose other data which was created or modified after your previous entire computer backup. So on balance this method is recommended more for recovering from a catastrophic failure like a total drive failure/corruption, or a severe malware infestation, and also requires that you regularly maintain the entire computer backup to keep it up to date.
For details of how to recover using this backup, and also for alternatives to Vista's drive imaging method, see further below.
section further below.
Remember, you cannot restore particular files or folders using this type of a backup, it only allows you to restore your entire computer setup to the state it was in when you last backed it up using the 'Back up computer' option. All the hard drives you ma de a backup of will be completely reformatted, losing all existing data on them, and the backups are then restored over them. If you had a dual boot arrangement, this will be restored, however once again that means that any other operating system you were using along with Vista will also be deleted and returned to the state it was in when you last backed up your entire computer.
Clearly this method is only recommended if you either have no other ba ckups of important information, you have suffered a catastrophic failure such as hardware failure or total drive corruption, or a severe malware infestation which has compromised a great deal of your current data . If this not the case then I recommend attempting other forms of system repair or recovery first, as covered further below.
Windows Vista attempts to ensure that you don't accidentally delete your files or have them unintentionally altered without some form of backup. To that end, Vista's System Protection features, enabled by default, automatically back up previous versions of your files regularly. These backups are known as Shadow Copies, and they are automatically created on a daily basis for files which have been altered, as well as being
created whenever you use the System Restore feature to create restore points, or when you use the automated Backup features of the Backup and Restore Center. To access the System Protection settings, go to Control Panel>System and click the System Protection link in the left pane, or go to Start>Search Box and type " systempropertiesprotection" (without quotes) and press Enter.
I recommend tha t all of these functions be enabled initially until you can get a better idea of the types of backup strategies you wish to use for your system. The use of these features primarily impacts on hard drive
space, and does not have a major performance impact. Given it may help prevent the loss of important documents and/or get you out of trouble if your have system issues, I believe on balance this makes them worth keeping enabled. There is some scope to customize these features, and we look at the various specific features of System Protection below.
System Restore is not a general backup and restore utility, and should not be mistaken as one. It does not back up or maintain any copies of your personal files, such as your emails, pictures, documents or music.
Instead it tries to track and save information specifically on system-level changes, such as Windows system files which are changed due to driver installations and alterations made to the Windows Registry by programs. It is thus most useful as a general system state backup and recovery tool. Enabled by default,
System Restore relies on 'Restore Points' which are a snapshot of your system state at a point in time. Restore points can be created manually by you, as well as being created automatically on a daily basis, and also just prior to major system events like the installation of drivers or Windows Update patches.
To open System Restore, go to System Protection and click the 'System Restore' button, or go to Start>Search Box and type "rstrui" (without quotes) and press Enter. On the main dialog box for the utility, you will be presented with an option to go to the System Protection screen if you want to manually create a restore point. I strongly recommend manually creating at least one restore point after you have installed Vista and prior to conducting any detailed tweaking. Go to System Protection and click the Create button, then give the restore point a suitable name and click Create.
To use a restore point to return your system state to the way it was when that point was created, follow these steps:
1. Open System Restore, and if any restore points exist, you will be able to click the Next button and view a
list of the restore points, and the date they were created.
2. Highlight the restore point and click Next. You will be shown the drive(s) to which the restore point applies, and you can then click Next, and on the next screen confirm that you wish to use that restore point.
3. Your system will restart and your system files will revert to the way they were at the time of the restore point. You will be notified if the restore was successful.
4. If you find that using the restore point was no help at all, or made things even worse, you can undo the use of the restore point by opening System Restore again, clicking Next to view the list of restore points, and selecting the 'Undo: Restore Operation' item, click Next and follow the prompts. Note that this option is not available if you use System Restore in safe mode.
If you wish to turn off System Restore, go to the System Protection screen and untick all the available drive(s) you wish to disable this functionality for, then click Apply. Note however that this also removes all existing restore points and turns off the general System Protection functionality. This is not recommended unless you are genuinely a very advanced user who does not experience system issues very often and you also regularly create backups of important files.
System Restore uses up to 15% of hard drive space on each hard drive it is enabled for, and requires a minimum of 300MB of free space to work properly. Over time System Restore will delete older restore points automatically so as not to exceed its size limit. However if you want to save disk space, you can manually delete all older restore points except the very latest one at any time by using the Disk Cleanup utility - see
the Cleaning Windows chapter for details.
Although System Restore does not restore copies of your personal files as part of a restore point, the System Protection feature ensures that Shadow Copies, also known as 'Previous Versions' are automatically created for most non-system files during the creation of restore points. As long as you keep System Protection enabled on a particular drive, then shadow copies will also be made of relevant files whenever they are altered. While shadow copies are not a substitute for taking proper backups of your important files, this is one of the added safety features in Vista to help prevent accidental deletion or alteration of important files,which is why it is again recommended that you do not disable System Protection on your main Vista drive.
Just to be clear: the main difference between System Restore and Previous Versions is that System Restore is used for backing up and restoring system-related files, while Previous Versions is for backing up and restoring personal and other non-system files. Previous Versions of Windows system files (e.g. those under the \Windows directories) are not kept.
To view and/or restore the existing Previous Versions of any file, do the following:
1. Open Windows Explorer and browse to the selected file.
2. Right-click on the file and select 'Restore previous versions', or alternatively right-click on the file, select
Properties and click on the 'Previous Versions' tab - both have the same effect.
3. Under the Previous Versions tab you will see all available previous versions listed in order of the date upon which the file was last modified, not the date it was saved. Note the Location field - if the file has been saved as part of a Shadow Copy on your drive, it will be listed as such; if it was backed up using the Backup and Restore Center, it will be listed as a Backup.
4. To restore a previous version, highlight the version you wish to restore and click the Restore button.
Shadow copies are stored on your main Vista drive and will be restored immediately, whereas Backup
copies will be stored on another medium such as CDs/DVDs or another hard drive and require you to have that particular medium connected or inserted in the drive before the restore can be completed.
5. If restoration is possible you will be asked to confirm the task, and if you agree, the file will be overwritten with the earlier version.
Again, while this is a very useful function, it is not a substitute for taking proper backups regularly of your irreplaceable personal files. Depending on the amount of drive space you have available and the number of files on your system, over time you will lose older previous versions.
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