Here’s how to use Windows 7 Backup and Restore, Windows’ integrated backup utility shipped in any Windows 7 edition. This article additionally sheds a light on Windows imaging, used in conjunction with Windows 7 Backup and Restore or in the context of Windows system state snapshots.
The Backup and Restore Center in Windows 7 is located in Control Panel --> System and Security --> Back up your computer. The first time you go there you need to instruct Windows where to place your backup and what to back up by clicking Set up back up.
Microsoft recommends that you back up to an external hard drive, yet the Backup wizard lets you choose from any disk. Depending on your Windows 7 edition - please see Bright Hub’s article Backup: What is New in Windows 7? for detailed information - there can additionally be a button for backing up to a network path, which I consider the best option if applicable.
The next choice you are going to make is whether you let Windows decide what to back up (default), or you choose. The default includes data stored in local libraries as well as items found in the Windows folder plus all files and folders for any user’s desktop on the Windows 7 computer under consideration provided that your drive is formatted with the NTFS file system and if you do not create a backup onto the drive being backed up.
If you are going to make a backup onto an NTFS formatted drive which has enough free space your backup will also include a system image of your Windows 7 installation. Using such a system snapshot Windows 7 can restored to the system configuration it had a the point in time the system image was taken. This is useful if your system becomes unstable after an installation for example.
If you opt for Let me choose you can indicate the libraries or files and folders to be saved, and you can, of course, also make a system image if you choose to select what to back up. In any case will objects in the Recycle Bin and non-Microsoft program entries in the Registry not be saved. It is strongly recommended reading Microsoft’s Windows 7 Backup help file and testing your backup strategy.
When you need to make a file or folder restore you can choose between the options Restore my files, Restore all user’s files or Select another back up to restore files from. Using Restore my files lets you browse or search your backups for files or folders to restore to their latest version, or another point in time you specify. In the next step you can indicate whether or not to restore to the original location.
Please find Windows 7 Restore continued of page 2 of this article.