You now need to decide how to back up your files. This is just as important of a question as what files to back up. If you decide to use an online backup solution, be sure the solution you choose has software that you can use to automate your backups. If not, you may want to find out why not – if you’re paying for online storage only, that’s one thing. Nevertheless, if you’re paying for a service, a solid backup software solution should be a part of it.

 

Regardless of the type of backup you are doing, I would strongly recommend closing all applications while your backup is running, such as the Microsoft Outlook or Windows Mail client. It will ensure that the backup utility has full access to your files and the memory that the applications use will be freed up for the backup utility to use if necessary. 

 

The key to the next couple of chapters is going to be that both the files that need to be backed up, as well as the destination that the files will be backed up to, are shown as drives or network shares on your computer. This can be found by looking in “Computer” (found by default on the “Start” menu).

 

Please note that if you are using certain types of backup solutions (such as some online solutions), this may not apply. Some backup solutions may just let you choose what to back up and then it handles the destination information on its own. However, the next few chapters will be dealing specifically with the built-in Windows Vista OS backup utilities.

 

Windows Backup

 

Different versions of Windows Backup have been built into the Windows operating system for many years now. While there are many critics that will disagree with my thinking, I have a tendency to like things that are built right in by Microsoft because if a problem occurs with the built-in program, it’s usually easier to troubleshoot what the cause is. For instance, if we were using a third-party backup utility and started having problems backing things up, the software vendor might start you off in the direction of asking you if you experience the same problem backing things up with Windows Backup. That’s because some vendors will build their backup software based off the capabilities of Windows Backup. You’re then stuck troubleshooting an extra layer.

 

The new version of Windows Backup has been completely rebuilt in the Windows Vista operating system. It’s now more user-friendly to help ensure that backups are set up quickly and correctly. It also gives you more choices of what devices to back up to than what was available in previous versions of the Windows OS. Here’s how to configure a Windows Backup in the Windows Vista OS…

 

Please note that you must be logged in with an administrator account in order to be able to configure backups in the Windows Vista OS.

 

To open Windows Backup, click on the “Start” button, then go to “Programs” or “All Programs” (depending on how your “Start” menu is set up), then go to “Accessories,” “System Tools,” and then select “Backup Status and Configuration.”

 

The main screen for backups and restores is shown. If this is the first time you’re using the program, it will look like this…

 

 

You now have a couple of options for backing up your computer…

 

“Complete PC Backup” Versus “Back Up Files”

 

If you have plenty of capacity (like a large external hard drive), I would strongly recommend that you first select “Complete PC Backup” to perform an initial backup. The “Complete PC Backup” option will do just that – it will create a backup of your entire computer. In the event of a serious Windows problem, you can boot from the Windows Vista operating system DVD (or from the restore partition in some cases) and restore the last good backup without the need to do an entire reinstall of Windows. When you perform your first backup as a Complete PC Backup, it will back up everything on your computer. The good news is that if you later perform another Complete PC Backup, it will just be backing up changes. Because of that, the size of this next backup (and all subsequent backups) will likely be a lot smaller. This will help save some disk space.

 

In addition to the above benefits, the Complete PC Backup gives you the ability to actually perform the entire restore (Windows OS and all) to another computer… something that could be used to migrate to a new computer.

 

Please keep in mind that Complete PC Backup is not available in Windows Vista Home Basic or Windows Vista Home Premium. It also does not provide a “wizard” to schedule the backup directly from in the backup program. I will, however, show you a method to schedule them to run automatically in a different manner in “Chapter 21 – Scheduling a Complete PC Backup Image.”

 

The “Back Up Files” option is more like a traditional backup. It will allow you to choose what types of files to back up, which should help save on drive space. This type of backup allows you to be able to restore specific files if needed later. Unfortunately, however, if the Windows operating system has a major meltdown, a reinstallation of the operating system would probably need to be performed first, then each application would need to be reinstalled, followed by the restore of your backed up files. It will likely be a very long ordeal, but it should still get the job done.

 

In general, I would recommend that if you have a version of Windows Vista that allows the Complete PC Backup, then perform at least an initial backup using this feature. Then set up a regularly scheduled “Back Up Files” backup to ensure that changes to files are being backed up on a regular basis. Finally, I recommend that you look at scheduling Complete PC Backup images to run weekly – or even daily. That way if your hard drive were to crash or you had a major Windows issue, you could restore your latest Complete PC Backup image to get you back up and running in the least amount of time and then be able to restore necessary data files from your latest “Back Up Files” backup.

 

In either case, you have some options of what kind of devices you can back up to. Here are some available choices in the Windows Backup and my thoughts:

·        Back up to another logical partition on your computer. This is like a division of your physical hard drive. Maybe you have one 80GB hard drive… it may logically partitioned to look like a 20 GB “C” drive and a 60 GB “D” drive. In this example then, you could back up your “C” drive to the “D” drive.

Pros:    Easy to access and back up to… it’s always there.

Cons:  All your eggs are in one basket. If your hard drive has physical hardware problems and dies, you not only lost your computer data, but also the backup itself!

·        Back up to CD’s or DVD’s.

Pros:    Keeps your backups on separate media. If the CD’s or DVD’s of your last backup had problems (like major scratches), you could at least go back to the CD’s or DVD’s from the backup before.

Cons:  Let's say you are able to pull off just needing one CD or DVD for one backup of your data. That’s at bare minimum… so you’ll need at least 52 CD’s or DVD’s to do a year’s worth of backups on a weekly basis. Sure, they can usually be found at inexpensive prices, but that’s a lot of CD’s or DVD’s you’re going to quickly start accumulating. It also means you’ll need to remember to change out the CD’s or DVD’s between backups and possibly during the backup if more than one disc is required.

·        Back up to another internal hard drive.

Pros:    Easy to access and back up to… it’s always there. Keeps your backups on a separate location, so if your main hard drive dies, your backups are stored on another drive. You can generally get a large enough drive to cover your backup needs for an inexpensive price.

Cons:  You need to install the other hard drive in your computer (or have someone do it for you) – not a difficult task, but if you shudder at the thought at opening up your computer, then this may be a problem for you. Additionally, if you have a laptop, this may not be an option. Finally, if your computer is involved in something like a fire, you’re probably losing both your main hard drive and your “backups” hard drive.

·        Back up to an external hard drive (i.e. USB or FireWire).

Pros:    These have become inexpensive and are a snap to connect or disconnect from your computer. Keeps your backups in a separate location, so if your main hard drive was to die, your backups are still stored on another drive. You can generally get a large enough drive to cover your backup needs for an inexpensive price.

Cons:  Unless you disconnect and take the external drive offsite on a regular basis, if your computer is involved in a something like a fire, you’re probably losing both your main hard drive and your “backups” hard drive.

·        Back up to another computer or server. If you have a network in place, you can back up to another computer.

Pros:    Keeps your backups in separate location. Once set up, you are limited only to the drive space on the other computer.

Cons:  You may not have a home network in place. Once again, if your computer is involved in a fire, for instance, there's still a chance you're going to lose both your main hard drive and the computer with your “backups.”

 

Honestly, I would recommend backing up to an external hard drive. You can get a considerably large external USB hard drive that should be able to hold your computer backups fairly inexpensively. An up-front cost of $100 or so will seem well worth it when your computer does crash and you can get it back up and running within an hour or so instead of an agonizing day or so. If the thought of keeping your data by your computer is a concern for you, you could always look at getting multiple drives, synchronizing them periodically to ensure the backups are on both drives, and then taking one elsewhere away from your home.

 

The next couple of chapters will look at creating backups with the Complete PC Backup and then scheduling a Complete PC Backup with the “Task Scheduler.” After that, I'll show you how to create and schedule backups with the “Back Up Files” option.