Windows 7 : Creating Backups and Preparing for Problems (part 2) - Scheduling and Managing Automated Backups

2. Configuring Previous Versions

Using System Restore to restore files and settings does not affect personal data. You can recover your computer to a restore point without affecting your application data, cached files, or documents. System Restore doesn’t write any information to any of your personal document folders, either. However, as a new feature in Windows 7, restore points include previous versions of your data. Because of this, you should enable System Protection for all disks on your computer that store system and program data as well as disks that store personal data. If you’ve configured System Protection only for the System disk, you should update the configuration to include any disks that store personal data as well. 

3. Scheduling and Managing Automated Backups

Windows 7 is capable of automatically backing up your personal data and optionally your computer’s system data. You use personal data backups to create periodic backups of pictures, music, videos, email, documents, and other types of important files. You use system image backups to create periodic backups of the files needed to recover the operating system and the programs you’ve installed. You can write your automated backups to internal or external disks, CD/DVD drives, and network locations.

When you are working with automated backups, keep the following in mind:

• The computer must be turned on at the scheduled runtime for automated backups to work. By default, scheduled backups are created every Sunday at 7:00 p.m.

• Although you cannot save backups to the system disk, the boot disk, or tape, you can now save backups to USB flash drives, CD/DVD drives, external FireWire or USB drives, and network locations, as long as they are formatted with NTFS.

• When you use CD/DVD drives, make sure that you remove the CD or DVD from the previous backup and insert a new CD or DVD prior to the scheduled backup. For best results, keep in mind the size of the data you are backing up and use the appropriate media. Most CDs can store up to 700 MB of data, and most single-sided single-layered DVDs can store 4.7 GB of data. If the backup doesn’t fit on one disk, you’ll need to be available to insert disks when prompted to do so.

• You might need a system repair disc to restore a system image. Additionally, only one system image per computer can be stored in a particular backup location. Therefore, if you wanted to keep multiple system image backups, you’d need to select different backup locations for each.

If you haven’t previously configured automated backups, you can do so by following these steps:

Figure 3. Setting the backup location

1. In the Control Panel, under the System and Security heading, click the “Back up your computer” link. This opens the Backup and Restore page in the Control Panel.

2. On the Backup and Restore page, click “Set up backup.”

3. On the “Select where you want to save your backup” page, shown in Figure 3, use the options provided to specify a backup location on a local disk, a CD/DVD drive, or USB flash drive and then click Next.

   Alternatively, to back up to a network location, click Save On a Network. On the “Select a network location” page, type the UNC path to the network share or click Browse to use the Browse for Folder dialog box to select a network share. Enter the network credentials required to access this location in the Username and Password text boxes and then click OK. The wizard will then validate the network location and ensure the credentials you’ve specified are correct. If you entered invalid credentials, you’ll need to reenter the credentials and then click OK again. When you are ready to continue, click Next.

4. On the “What do you want to back up?” page, select Let Windows Choose if you want to backup all personal data in user profile folders and libraries and also create a system image or select Let Me Choose if you want to select personal and system data to backup. Click Next.

5. If you select Let Windows Choose, data files that are saved in local library files, on the desktop and in default Windows folders for all users are backed up. Library files on a different computer, on the same drive as the one being used for the backup, or on a non-NTFS drive are not included in the backup. Default Windows folders that are backed up include AppData, Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, Favorites, Links, Saved Games and Searches. System images include all your programs, any files used by the operating system, all drivers and registry settings.

Figure 4. Choosing the data to back up

1. If you selected Let Me Choose, use the options provided to select personal data to back up (see Figure 4). You can expand the Data Files and Computer nodes and subnodes to select specific folders and libraries. After making your selections and clearing unwanted options, click Next. Note the following:

   • Files in known system folders as well as files for installed programs will not be backed up even if you select the folder they are stored in.

   • Typically, the “Include a system image of drives” checkbox is selected by default to ensure that system image backups are created (which is what you’ll usually want to do). If selected, the system image will include all your programs, any files used by the operating system, all drivers, and registry settings.

2. On the “Review your backup settings” page, shown in Figure 5, review what will be included in your automated backups as well as any warnings being displayed. Click the Back button if you want to change the backup settings.

Figure 5. Reviewing the backup settings

1. Click Change Schedule. On the “How often do you want to create a backup?” page, shown in Figure 6, use the options provided to set the desired backup schedule. The “How often” selection list lets you choose Daily, Weekly, or Monthly as the run schedule. If you choose a weekly or monthly run schedule, you’ll need to set the day of the week or day of the month using the “What day” selection list. Finally, the “What time” selection list lets you set the time of the day when automated backup should occur. Be sure to pick a time when your computer will typically be on, and a time that the backup process will cause the least disruption to your work.

Figure 6. Setting how often backups should be created

1. If you are creating the initial backup, click “Save settings and run backup” to save your settings and then have Windows create the initial backup. If you’ve already created the initial backup for the computer, you’ll have the “Save settings and exit” option instead.

2. As shown in Figure 7, you can track the backup progress on the Backup and Restore page. You’ll also see any errors that are generated as a result of this backup or future backups. If an error occurs, you’ll have troubleshooting options. For example, if the backup fails because there is not enough free space, you’ll see a related error and will be able to click the Troubleshoot button to display troubleshooting options, which should include an option to try to run the backup again and an option to change the backup settings.

NOTE

Insufficient storage space is one of the most common errors you’ll see. You’ll see this error if the backup device you’ve selected doesn’t have enough free space to either start or complete the backup. For example, although the backup program will let you use a device with removable storage as a backup location, the device might not have enough free space to start or complete the backup.

Figure 7. Tracking the backup progress

To modify the backup schedule or configuration, follow these steps:

1. In Control Panel, under the System and Security heading, click the “Back up your computer” link.

2. On the Backup and Restore page, click “Change settings” and then complete steps 3–9 of the previous procedure.

Once you’ve configured automated backups, you can run a backup manually to add new or updated files to your backup. To do this, complete the following steps:

1. In Control Panel, under the System and Security heading, click the “Back up your computer” link.

2. On the Backup and Restore page, click “Back up now.”

To manually create a system image backup, follow these steps:

1. In Control Panel, under the System and Security heading, click the “Back up your computer” link.

2. On the Backup and Restore page, click “Create a system image” in the left pane.

3. On the “Where do you want to save the backup?” page, use the options provided to specify a backup location. Click Next.

4. On the “Which drives do you want to include in the backup?” page, the computer’s system drive is selected by default. You cannot change this selection, but you can add other drives to the backup image by selecting the related checkboxes. Click Next to continue.

5. Click Start Backup to start the backup.

You can turn automated backups on and off by following these steps:

1. In Control Panel, under the System and Security heading, click the “Back up your computer” link.

2. If automated backups are on and you want to turn them off, click the “Turn off schedule” in the left pane. To protect your personal data, you’ll need to create backups manually or reenable automated backups.

3. If automated backups are off and you want to turn them on, click the “Turn on schedule” option next to the Schedule entry. The settings you configured previously are used for automated backups.

When you are using automated backups, you can always view the status of the last backup by clicking the “Manage space” option on the Backup and Restore page. Clicking “Manage space” opens the “Manage Windows Backup disk space” dialog box, shown in Figure 8. This dialog box allows you to do the following:

• View the space usage summary for the backup location, including used, available and total disk space

• Browse the backup location by clicking the Browse link

• Manage data files by clicking View Backups and then selecting backup sets to delete

• Change settings for system image backup to save space

Figure 8. Reviewing and managing backups