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Windows provides the following backup tools:

• File backup: Windows Backup allows you to make copies of data files. You can let Windows choose what to back up or you can select the individual folders, libraries, and drives that you want to back up. By default, your backups are created on a regular schedule. You can change the schedule and you can manually create a backup at any time. Once you set up Windows Backup, Windows keeps track of the files and folders that are new or modified and adds them to your backup. To set up file backup, see the following backup steps

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In my entry titled “How to backup your Microsoft Office 2007 Outlook in its entirety (Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7)” I described how to backup the Microsoft Outlook 2007 data file together with that part of the Windows registry that stores within it the email accounts from where Outlook retrieves emails or via which emails are sent out. Today I discuss how to use that backed up information to either recover a failed computer or to transfer the settings from one computer to another. The former may happen if the hard disk fails or as a result of a malware attack while the latter would apply if you are upgrading your computer or operating system.

On your freshly formatted computer you need to install Microsoft Outlook. Accept all the defaults. After the installer completes, run Microsoft Outlook for the first time. You will be asked a number of questions. Enter anything that will allow you to proceed to the end of this process. Do not enter valid email account details because Outlook will attempt to download mail after you complete the process and since this is not the database you will be using, you do not want any messages to end up here (this can be fixed but why create a problem that will need fixing).

 

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Many people use Microsoft Outlook to download mail from their POP3 or IMAP server. While some may only link their Outlook to one particular email, many today have multiple email accounts all pouring into the same data file. Backing up Microsoft Outlook consists essentially of backing up two different components; the pst file that stores messages (or in the case of IMAP a cached version of the server) together with the registry entry that stores all the different email accounts that are being processed by Outlook.

Backing up the data file

The folk who decided on the default location of the Outlook data file chose a location that is difficult to figure out.  Also when installing Outlook (or when running it for the first time) there is no way to specify a different folder.

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Last 3 posts by George

• Microsoft Windows 7 backup tools - March 7th, 2010
• Example of a data backup policy and procedure - March 1st, 2010
• Remote backup management consoles - February 15th, 2010

System protection in Windows 7 is a very important mechanism that enables the saving of information related to system files and settings, saving previous versions of files that were modified, and creates restore points every 7 days and prior to significant systems changes. System protection is automatically enabled for the system drive only (Windows 7 installation location) but can be manually enabled for other drives given that they are formatted with the NTFS file system.

Important Note - a drive needs to have system protection enabled in order to be included in a restore point and in order to have the previous copies of files and folders functionality!

You launch the System Protection box from the control panel: (Click Start\Control Panel)

1. In the Control Panel Click System and Security
2. In the System and Security window click System
3. In the System window click System Protection – now you have the System Properties window open with the System Protection tab selected

  4.   Select the drive you want to set and click Configure
  5.   After you make the required settings click OK

Required settings:

Restore system settings and previous versions of files

This is the default setting for the system drive or volume. Do not change this default setting, since restore points here hold system information and user files that are present in the user profile. Disk Space Usage depends on how much space is used for user files. If your files reside in this drive or volume then 20% to 40% should be ok. If the drive is set to hold just system files then 10% should be enough.

Only restore previous versions of files

You normally use this option on drives or volumes that contain user files only such as, a second disk drive for data storage. A value of 40% of Disk space usage would give you a large number of previous versions of your files.

Turn off system protection

This would be the setting for external backup drives or USB disks that hold backup file sets. The main problem with USB drives is that they are normally formatted using the FAT file system. Remember that System Protection works only with NTFS formatted drives!

Last but crucial point is that old previous versions of files that were overwritten due to a low Disk Space Usage setting will not become available by increasing the Disk Space Usage percentage! Then, you need to revert to a restore process from a backup set!

Last 3 posts by George

• Microsoft Windows 7 backup tools - March 7th, 2010
• Example of a data backup policy and procedure - March 1st, 2010
• Remote backup management consoles - February 15th, 2010

Using the Backup and Restore console to restore files is very easy

You can restore files to their original location or to a different location. There is another file recovery option and this is the restore from a shadow copy! Shadow copies are copies of files and folders that Windows 7 automatically saves when it creates a restore point. This feature may give you more flexibility when restoring files but such explanation is found in the Shadow Copies article.

To restore a file or folder follow these simple steps:

1. Open the Backup and Restore console – type backup in the search box Start/Search programs and files and click the Backup & Restore Icon
2. Click Restore My Files – assuming one or more backups have been done previously
3.  The Restore Files window shows the latest backup as default but you can click on the Choose A different Date to select an older backup
4. Click the Browse for Files button – click Browse for Folders button to restore a complete folder
5. Search for the file you wish to restore and click the Add File button – repeat for more files or folders (use the CTRL button to add multiple files)

    6.  Click the Next button
    7.  Specify the restore location
    8.  Click Restore – make sure when overwriting current files with older ones, that the older file is the one you want!

Finally, click Finish

Shadow copies are previous versions of files or folders and are created at the same time as a restore point. However, the system protection feature must be enabled! By defaut, Windows 7 creates Restore Points and Shadow copies for the system drive or partition only (Ex. C:). So, make sure that you set the Restore Settings for each and every drive you intend to save valuable data. Shadow copies are managed by the Volume Shadow Copy Service. Therefore, it is very important that this service is never disabled as all backup operations rely on it. Although, its startup state is manual, the service starts as needed by the different applications.

To restore a file or folder you simply right-click the file or folder (in windows explorer) and select the Restore previous versions option.
If the Restore previous versions is not available then your file structure must have been changed. Also, note that the restore operation is not reversible!

From the Restore previous versions window select the date of the desired restore point. If no previous dates are available, the selected file or folder has not been modified.

You have three options. You can Open the file (Open button) and view its contents and save it to an alternate location, you can Copy the file (Copy button) to an alternate location or you can just restore the file by clicking the Restore button.

Remember, that if you cannot find previous copies of files, then you have system protection disabled for that drive. Also, shadow copies are unavailble for Offline files and system files that are used by the Windows 7.

The windows 7 Backup and Restore console do not allow you to schedule Image backups  On the other hand, ad hoc manual Image backups can be performed!

However, in Windows 7 you can use the Wbadmin command-line utility to perform scheduled clones (snapshots) of your PC!  The normal backup rules need to be observed before using this utility and these are:

• The destination location should be a second internal hard drive, an external hard drive, a network shared drive or multiple DVDs – not recommended/feasible
• The destination drive should be formatted with NTFS file system – windows 7 default
• Adequate space is available on the destination drive – equal to the source data size (Actually, even less than that!)
• The utility needs administrative privilegese

Now, let’s see how easy it is to create an automated task that initiates a System Image backup of the c: drive and saves it to another drive Assuming your system volume or drive is the c: and your destination drive is f: (where f: can be a second hard drive or a network share). Save the following text in a file with an extension .bat Ex: SystemSnapshot.bat

wbadmin start backup -backuptarget:e: -include:c: -allCritical -quiet

This wbadmin utility will start an image backup of your c: drive and system/boot volumes if not specified while it saves it to the f: drive.

As with any script, you can then create a schedule job using SCHTASKS ( Windows Task Scheduler command) as follows:

SCHTASKS /Create /SC weekly /D sun /TN “Imagebkup” /TR c:\scripts\SystemSnapshot.bat /ST 22:00 /IT

where the task scheduler will run the Image backup script every Sunday on weekly basis at 22:00 hours. Assuming the user is logged on and have administrative rights! However, I do recommend to use the native Windows 7 Task Scheduler Utility to set a schedule as this utility is much improved in this new OS Check for errors if any in the history tab of your scheduled task. An error return code of O means ok!

A folder structure is created on the destination drive together with a number of files. The most important file is the .vhd one where in Windows 7 Enterprise and Ultimate editions, you can restore all your data and applications. How to mount this image and restore your computer will be explained in a future article

1. Open Backup and Restore utility  – Start / Control Panel / System and Maintenance, and finally click Backup and Restore. Alternatively, you can type backup in the search box (Start – Search) and then click the backup and restore
2.  If this is the first time, click Set up backup, and follow the wizard.  You may need to enter your administrator password.
3. Manually create a new backup by clicking Back up now.  You may need to enter your administrator password.
4. Choose where to save your backed up files. It is highly recommended to use an external drive or CD/DVD media

 5.  Choose the files and/or folders that you want to backup or better use the default option if your not sure - Let windows choose.

6.  Set up a backup schedule from the Change schedule link.

7.  Finally click Save settings and run backup.

 If you’ve created a backup before, you can wait for your regularly scheduled backup to occur, or you can manually create a new backup by clicking Back up now.

1. Open the Control Panel Home window from Start / Settings / Control Panel
2. Click Backup and Restore Center
3. Click Back up files button
4. Select location where you want to save your backed up files
5. Select disks that you want to include in the backup
6. Select type of files to include in your backup
7. Create a backup schedule
8. Click the Save settings and start backup button

Alternatively, you can create a complete backup of your entire computer by clicking the Back up computer button and follow the simple wizard