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Backup in Windows 7

In Windows 7, the backup system has been improved with more user control over what is backed up. Users can now select specific files and folders to backup rather than having to backup the entire system or documents folder. The backup system also allows for scheduling backups and managing backup space usage on external drives. While not as full-featured as third party backup utilities, the built-in Windows 7 backup provides a workable solution for basic backups of user files and folders.

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Shrey Gupta
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295 views13 pages

Backup in Windows 7

In Windows 7, the backup system has been improved with more user control over what is backed up. Users can now select specific files and folders to backup rather than having to backup the entire system or documents folder. The backup system also allows for scheduling backups and managing backup space usage on external drives. While not as full-featured as third party backup utilities, the built-in Windows 7 backup provides a workable solution for basic backups of user files and folders.

Uploaded by

Shrey Gupta
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Backup much improved in Windows 7

As many of you are aware although the backup in Windows Vista was easy to use - it had no control
over exactly what you wanted backup. The only controls were things like pictures, documents,
recorded TV etc, and of course if you've got lots of php files and things like that in your documents
folder you had to select the other files option, which would pretty much backup everything on the
system - resulting in extremely large backup files.

Using NT Backup on older systems my backups would work out at about 15GB, with Windows Vista
60 or 70GB wouldn't be uncommon, times that by 3 machines and that soon fills your hard disks.
Luckily I didn't have to put up with this for very long, as Windows Home Server came out in the same
year which handles backups brilliantly.

In Windows 7 however the team responsible for backup have clearly listened to feedback and added
much more control back over backup, without making it too complicated for people to actually use.
Then if you want more control over it you can, by including or excluding locations and specific file
types.
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First Look at Windows 7's Backup and Restore Center

It may have been


a while since you considered using Windows' built-in tools for backing up your data, but for the average user
with media and crucial file needs, Windows 7's default backup features look promising.

Windows Vista was the first version of Windows to introduce a consolidated Backup and Restore Center, and
Windows 7's own backup center builds on it.

The strengths of Windows' own system are its ability to leverage the built-in "Shadow Copy" features to restore
previous versions of individual files or folders, and make only iterative backups when necessary—if only part of
a massive file has changed, only that part has to be transferred and copied over. It also supports backup to
shared network space and external drives, but you'd hope any backup utility worth its salt would do so. In a
pretty real way, this backup system is kind of like Leopard's Time Machine—but without all the eye candy.

Let's take a walk through the basics of Windows 7's backup system, and highlight the changes since Vista:

The first screen is pretty self-explanatory, but less tech-inclined users get a link to best practices for external
backups (how they got to this screen in the first place is somewhat impressive, though):
Hit the "Add Network Location" button below that listing of non-internal drives, and you get a straight-forward
directory and user/pass input dialog.
Vista asked backup users whether they wanted to back up "files or your entire computer." To those looking for
simplicity, that's a pretty wide disparity to choose between—the entire barn or your selection of individual hay
straws. Windows 7 breaks your options down into whether or not you want a restore-friendly system image, any
particular data folders you want to save, and if you want to leave the system stuff to Windows' discretion or your
own box-checking whims:
If you take the "Let me choose" route, you get to pick the folders and whether you want a system image for
restoring:

If you opt for "Let Windows choose," you're told that every user gets their file backed up, and a system image is
thrown in by default:
Either way you roll, you're asked to set up a regular schedule for your backups—daily, weekly, or monthly, at
whatever hour you wish:
That's the end of the settings-fiddling, at least for now. Now onto the Backup and Restore Center, which is easy
to get to from a start menu search or the Control Panel. It shows you the drive you've selected to be your
backup receptacle, how much space is left on it, how much space is being used by Windows Backup, and, if
you're currently running a backup, how far into the process you are. There's also some plain English about your
last backup and what it had in it, but Windows 7 refused to believe my external drive had a backup finished not
20 minutes ago (did I need to set up a schedule to force recognition?)

The breakdown in space usage, accessed by choosing "Manage Space" from the main Backup and Restore
window, is just about my favorite aspect of Windows-based backups. Unless you bought an external hard drive
for the sole purpose of clean, conservative backups, you probably use it for all kinds of other stuff as well—
downloads, media sharing/streaming, file transfers, and the like. Windows 7's backup gives you access to your
previous system image files for deletion, shows exactly how much space is used by each of its backup
components, and, knowing that it's only going to copy the new bits of files after a first backup, a pretty decent
picture of what space you'll need to keep open for it:
None of this is to say that Windows' baked-in backup center is a substitute for a smart, powerful backup utility,
of course. But for the relatives you're obliged to provide tech support for, and anyone who really just has their
standard folders and not much else, it's a workable solution. For those looking for something with a bit more
juice and extensibility, check out our readers' picks for the five best Windows backup tools and file syncing
tools.

What do you wish the built-in backup system in Windows 7, or farther ahead, could do on its own? Have you
been getting by with Backup and Restore in Vista just fine? Tell us about it in the comments

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