Backup & Restore in Windows 7?

Answer 1

Many of us have our work and personal lives tied up in the data that we store on our computers. A complete loss of data due to system failure is unthinkable and unacceptable. Therefore, in order to prevent this kind of loss, many of us have turned to ghosting our hard drives (disk imaging) or file-based backup solutions.

However, as the need for this protection became more prevalent among PC users, Microsoft began to integrate the features directly into the operating system. The first example of this is the restore functionality that has been included in the OS since Windows 98. Starting with Windows 7, the restore functionality is now a fully realized PC backup implementation that meets all but the most sophisticated needs.

In order to set up backup in Windows 7, access Computer in the Windows menu. Then right click on whichever local drive you wish to set automatic backup for, and select Properties. On the Tools tab, click the “Back up now…’ button, and it will take you to Windows 7 Backup & Restore control center. You can perform a handful of different backup operations from this panel.

“Create a system image’ allows you to ghost the drive just like Norton Ghost and other imaging software does. In simple terms, this creates a single-file snapshot of your drive. You can then use that snapshot at any time to restore the drive to the moment that you took the snapshot. Note that image files are as big as the drive you are imaging, so this is not always a feasible backup solution.

Click on “Set up backup’, and you will find a backup system that is far more flexible. An image of a 100GB HDD is a waste if all you need preserved is 1GB worth of data. This is what the backup feature does automatically once set up. For best effect, you will want to have it back up to a secondary drive. Then, once you have made that first backup, you will be able to restore to that point at any time.

A great aspect of this new system is that you can dictate the interval at which it automatically updates. However, the neatest feature is that you can delve into the internals, and set exactly which files and the types of files that Windows will add to your backup. Windows is very smart about knowing which files to backup, but this is a nice feature for the control nuts.