With Windows Vista, Microsoft has finally given users pervasive and reliable backup and restore solutions for both data files and the entire computer. You can use the File and Folder Backup Wizard to copy your important files and folders to a safe location, the Complete PC Backup tool to create a system image that can be used later to restore a broken PC, and the Windows Backup Utility to enable automatic data backups or restore data backups or system images. There’s even a cool new feature borrowed from Windows Server that will help you recover old versions of data files if you save the wrong version, and an updated version of System Restore that can help your PC “go back in time” and remove bad drivers or applications. You may never need to turn to a third-party backup and restore utility ever again.
Different Backups, Different Goals
Now that you’ve moved to digital storage for your most valuable data, it’s time to start thinking about creating backups, which are copies of your original data that should be kept elsewhere for safe keeping. Many people don’t even consider backing up until the unthinkable happens: A hard drive breaks down, literally taking all the data with it, or there’s a fire or theft. However it happens, you should be prepared for the worst. This is all the more important because many people now manage both their professional and private lives on their PCs. It’s one thing to lose this week’s meeting agenda, but what will you do when a hard drive crash takes away the only copies you had of five years’ worth of digital photos?
Given the almost complete lack of decent backup solutions in previous Windows versions, you may be surprised to discover that Windows Vista offers an almost mind-boggling suite of backup and restore solutions, each aimed at a different need. Best of all, Vista also includes a friendly front end to all these capabilities, so that even the most non-technical person can get up to speed quickly. Before we get into that, however, let’s examine the various types of data safety facilities that Windows Vista supports.
Data Backup
If you think of your Documents folder as the center of your data universe, and keep an elaborate series of folders and files there, then you’ll understand the necessity of backing up these crucial files on a regular basis. To this end, Windows Vista supports both automatic and manual data backup options, 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.
Complete PC Backup
There’s nothing worse than discovering that you need to reinstall Windows for some reason. Not only do you have to take the time and effort to get the operating system installed, but then you have to make sure you have drivers for all your hardware, find and reinstall all the applications you use regularly, reload all your personal data, and reconfigure all of the system’s options so that it’s exactly the way you used to have it. Rather than go through this rigmarole, you can use a new Windows Vista feature called Complete PC Backup to create what’s called a system image or snapshot. This image contains the entire contents of your PC, as it was the day you created the image. If you need to recover your entire PC, you can simply restore the system image and get right back to work.
File Recovery
Windows Vista offers the following two excellent ways to recover lost files:
Different Backups, Different Goals
Now that you’ve moved to digital storage for your most valuable data, it’s time to start thinking about creating backups, which are copies of your original data that should be kept elsewhere for safe keeping. Many people don’t even consider backing up until the unthinkable happens: A hard drive breaks down, literally taking all the data with it, or there’s a fire or theft. However it happens, you should be prepared for the worst. This is all the more important because many people now manage both their professional and private lives on their PCs. It’s one thing to lose this week’s meeting agenda, but what will you do when a hard drive crash takes away the only copies you had of five years’ worth of digital photos?
Given the almost complete lack of decent backup solutions in previous Windows versions, you may be surprised to discover that Windows Vista offers an almost mind-boggling suite of backup and restore solutions, each aimed at a different need. Best of all, Vista also includes a friendly front end to all these capabilities, so that even the most non-technical person can get up to speed quickly. Before we get into that, however, let’s examine the various types of data safety facilities that Windows Vista supports.
Data Backup
If you think of your Documents folder as the center of your data universe, and keep an elaborate series of folders and files there, then you’ll understand the necessity of backing up these crucial files on a regular basis. To this end, Windows Vista supports both automatic and manual data backup options, 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.
Complete PC Backup
There’s nothing worse than discovering that you need to reinstall Windows for some reason. Not only do you have to take the time and effort to get the operating system installed, but then you have to make sure you have drivers for all your hardware, find and reinstall all the applications you use regularly, reload all your personal data, and reconfigure all of the system’s options so that it’s exactly the way you used to have it. Rather than go through this rigmarole, you can use a new Windows Vista feature called Complete PC Backup to create what’s called a system image or snapshot. This image contains the entire contents of your PC, as it was the day you created the image. If you need to recover your entire PC, you can simply restore the system image and get right back to work.
File Recovery
Windows Vista offers the following two excellent ways to recover lost files:
- Volume Shadow Copy: If you want to recover an older version of a document, perhaps because you made an edit in error and then saved it, you can use this feature to access previous versions of the file.
- System Restore: If you make a change to your system that renders the PC unstable, such as installing a bad driver, you can use this feature to return to a previous time period, or restore point. When you reboot, none of your data has been changed, but the rest of your system configuration returns to that of the day and time the restore point was first made.
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