Build a complete Windows 7 safety net

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	TOP STORY Build a complete Windows 7 safety net
	By Fred Langa Every copy of Windows 7 includes a complete suite of backup tools. The suite contains everything you need to back up (and restore) your entire system. What’s more, after you’ve set up your initial backup, future backups happen automatically.

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The full text of this column is posted at windowssecrets.com/top-story/build-a-complete-windows-7-safety-net/ (opens in a new window/tab).

Columnists typically cannot reply to comments here, but do incorporate the best tips into future columns.[/td]

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Problem we found with Windows Backup is that users need to be a local administrator to remove old backups to free up space. This limits its usefulness, in my opinion, and prompts users to run as administrator all the time, which is of course bad practice. Any one know a workaround for this?

rshnz

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Problem we found with Windows Backup is that users need to be a local administrator to remove old backups to free up space. This limits its usefulness, in my opinion, and prompts users to run as administrator all the time, which is of course bad practice. Any one know a workaround for this?

rshnz

Yeah, it’s called Acronis True Image Home! 😉

-- rc primak

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There was no mention in this article of how to control the “Backup Period”. When space is needed you can only delete whole periods, not individual backups. I started Windows 7 in November 2009, early this year I needed to free up space. I could free up 11/09 to 12/09 which did not give me much, the next choice was 01/10 to 12/10, but as we had only just started 2011 I didn’t want to free up the whole year’s worth of backup. How do you make Windows start a new period every quarter instead of just once a year?

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One minor point….
The article mentions that a user can estimate the size of the backup by checking the properties of C:Usersusername. This will work if the user has not changed the default location of any files. If the user has their documents folder on another drive for example, it will not give them the correct size, only that which is in their username folder. However, the actual backup will backup the files, because they would be in the Libraries, but the size could be much larger than estimated.

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Is it necessary to create a bootable recovery disc if one possesses the Microsoft installation disc from which Win 7 was installed onto the system in question?

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My problem with these suggestions is that I could not find where Windows 7 backs up Windows Updates. My preferred backup is a system image at least weekly. I use other s/w for these system images.

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A few years ago, while using XP, I had a minor hardware failure, and had to swap mother boards. Windows was so brain dead that it was unable to recover from that, even after doing a Repair. The result was that I had to do a clean install even though I had an image backup.

While there could be situations in which an image backup is actually useful, what is REALLY useful is backing up your data. In fact, after the above fiasco, I simply backup my data now, and ignore system images.

Be careful that you do not expect too much from system image backups.

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April 29th edition of Computer America highlighted an issue I have come across several times and would appreciate guidance on.

When you restore an image sometimes all the software licences and media licences go crazy. Carey Holzman speculated this was because the image created using Acronis changed the SID of Windows. I guess Acronis do this because MS will prevent two machines on the same network having the same SID, however Acronis also seem to have no way of turning this off. If he CLONED the disc on the other hand, the software licences did not go crazy.

I’m aware that some software check the network card to see if they are being used on the same machine as they were first licensed under.

I would appreciate more discussion on ways to prevent all these licence issues happening. Big companies respond in good time, but some smaller ones can take a long time to recertify the installation after contacting.

Also, can you say when a clone is better than an image, apart from the SID issue?

Thanks.

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April 29th edition of Computer America highlighted an issue I have come across several times and would appreciate guidance on.

When you restore an image sometimes all the software licences and media licences go crazy. Carey Holzman speculated this was because the image created using Acronis changed the SID of Windows. I guess Acronis do this because MS will prevent two machines on the same network having the same SID, however Acronis also seem to have no way of turning this off. If he CLONED the disc on the other hand, the software licences did not go crazy.

It is often the case that installed software checks the hardware ID of the drive its installed on, to make sure it hasn’t been moved. When I have to restore from a cloned drive, I sometimes get warnings about invalid licenses, and have solved the problem by restoring the original drive, like this:

Pull out the problem drive.
Install the clone drive in its place.
Ensure that it’s working correctly (no viruses, etc.)
Re-format the problem drive.
Clone the clone drive back to the original drive.

Assuming that the cloning operation was carried out correctly, this will solve the problem. Of course, it also assumes that the “problem” drive was corrupted but not actually damaged in a permanent way.

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A few years ago, while using XP, I had a minor hardware failure, and had to swap mother boards. Windows was so brain dead that it was unable to recover from that, even after doing a Repair. The result was that I had to do a clean install even though I had an image backup.

While there could be situations in which an image backup is actually useful, what is REALLY useful is backing up your data. In fact, after the above fiasco, I simply backup my data now, and ignore system images.

Be careful that you do not expect too much from system image backups.

That may be so, but an image plus a recovery disk have saved my rear several times. On the other hand, my problems have not been due to a hardware failure, such as losing a motherboard!

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A few years ago, while using XP, I had a minor hardware failure, and had to swap mother boards. Windows was so brain dead that it was unable to recover from that, even after doing a Repair. The result was that I had to do a clean install even though I had an image backup.

While there could be situations in which an image backup is actually useful, what is REALLY useful is backing up your data. In fact, after the above fiasco, I simply backup my data now, and ignore system images.

Be careful that you do not expect too much from system image backups.

(1) If you had to swap out motherboards, I would not refer to that as a “minor” hardware failure.

(2) It is not the purpose of Image Backups to safeguard against motherboard failures. But hard drive failures, which are much more common, do not result in an inability to restore from an Image Backup.

(3) Just because you had a rare incident, do not paint all Image Backups as useless. Many of us have many times been able to roll back from bad upgrades, failed software experiments, and failed hard drives and had no problems at all continuing to use our computers as if nothing had ever happened. As a first or second line of defense (behind System Restore), Image backups have a pretty good track record, I’d say.

Maybe you forgot that since Windows 2000, Windows cannot be activated on dissimilar hardware without calling Microsoft and receiving a new Product Key. This service may be free if you can explain exactly what you did to cause the change.

If an Image is transferred into a new hardware environment (new motherboard, for example) one call to Microsoft may be all that is needed to get back up and running, without reinstalling Windows. You’d still need to install new drivers to match the new MOBO, so there’d still be a little extra work to do. But the Image would do exactly what the old installation could do, except for the need for new drivers and reactivation. Many third-party programs would also probably need to be reactivated, but new product keys would not be needed.

-- rc primak

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Is it necessary to create a bootable recovery disc if one possesses the Microsoft installation disc from which Win 7 was installed onto the system in question?

Either no one knows or they’re not interested in telling!

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Originally Posted by proteus
Is it necessary to create a bootable recovery disc if one possesses the Microsoft installation disc from which Win 7 was installed onto the system in question?

Either no one knows or they’re not interested in telling!

A bootable Recovery Disk offers a temporary interface when Windows will not boot at all. From this interface, one chooses one of several recovery options. A complete reinstall, a repair, or a recovery from a disk image or clone might be among the options presented, depending on the backup and recovery software being used.

An installation disk may include some recovery and repair options, but it does not offer the chance to try an image or a clone to restore the existing installation environment, complete with programs and changes to settings.

So, the two disks serve different purposes, and that’s why there are both kinds of disks.

-- rc primak

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A bootable Recovery Disk offers a temporary interface when Windows will not boot at all. From this interface, one chooses one of several recovery options. A complete reinstall, a repair, or a recovery from a disk image or clone might be among the options presented, depending on the backup and recovery software being used.

An installation disk may include some recovery and repair options, but it does not offer the chance to try an image or a clone to restore the existing installation environment, complete with programs and changes to settings.

So, the two disks serve different purposes, and that’s why there are both kinds of disks.

Thanks for the reply.

I had suspected that I had been misinformed by another source.

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These recommendations are great if you (1) didn’t have a backup method already, and (2) generally are not concerned about nightly backups and monthly images (which is my preferred method – monthly just before any Windows Updates on Patch Tuesday).

I just found a way to maybe do just that.

Use the Windows Backup Wizard for setting Daily backups and use the Task Manager and WBADMIN over at Windows Seven Forums here:

Davka

Windows 7 Home Premium
1 posts

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Try This
OK, I was looking for the same thing and read your post – once I figured it out, I decided to post the answer here as well.

In Task Scheduler, click Create Task. Click the Actions tab. Click the New button.

Leave Action on “Start a Program.” In the “Program/script” field, type in WBADMIN. Then under “add arguments,” type in:

START BACKUP -backupTarget:X: -include:c:

. . . where “X” is the drive letter of your backup drive, and “c” is your primary hard drive.

Set the triggers, settings, and conditions to whatever you like.

Image Backup does an incremental “ghost” of your HD, adding any changes since your last Image Backup, and keeping all previous backups available as well.

Thanks to the folks at microsoft and wikipedia for the info:

The Storage Team at Microsoft – File Cabinet Blog : Learn more about system image backup

Wbadmin – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What are your thoughts on this?

If it works well, this would be the ticket to have dissimilar schedules for system images (which generally you don’t need or actually want as often), and backups (which I prefer to be nightly).

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One annoying thing about Windows 7 Backup is I have not found a way to automatically purge older backups. It would be nice if you could tell it to only keep the two most recent sets or something similar. Is there an option for this that I’m missing?

I have several computers all configured to back up to a network drive. The space used on that drive gets out of control quickly if I don’t go around and purge the old stuff.

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Buy Acronis, it does full and/or incremental images, deleting the oldest ones.

One annoying thing about Windows 7 Backup is I have not found a way to automatically purge older backups. It would be nice if you could tell it to only keep the two most recent sets or something similar. Is there an option for this that I’m missing?

I have several computers all configured to back up to a network drive. The space used on that drive gets out of control quickly if I don’t go around and purge the old stuff.

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Excellent article, Fred. As usual.

A little wrinkle I have because of my 2TB external hard drive–I leave my 2TB HD disconnected because it sometimes seems to slow down my system–certainly when I am doing a search with Everything, but also, I seem to remember, it has a similar unwanted effect for the initialization process after booting, too, although I can’t remember the exact details. (I coudl check it out if anyone wants to know.) I wonder if anyone else has run into this? Anyway, it means that Windows cannot automatically refresh its backup every week since the backups are saved on this external drive. So I have to remember to connect the external HD and launch Backup myself. I miss out on the automatic backup feature.

Another wrinkle, since I have two internal hard drives divided into two partitions each, plus external drives, using Windows Backup is not quite as straightforward for me as I wish it were. My bad.

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Aha! Now I remember why I abandoned the Windows 7 backup program. I just tried it again . First, for me it takes a LONG time to do a backup–an overnight job. Second, the backup files are enormous in size. Third, I couldn’t make it do an incremental backup, so I kept doing these huge backups which were taking more and more space on my external hard drive. Fourth, I couldn’t see how to get rid of old backup files so as not to waste so much space. So I stopped using Windows 7 and went to Acronis True image, which is reasonably fast and creates files of a reasonable size. Hurray! (Now, if I could only remember to attach my big external HD more often and do my backups more regularly.)

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Is anyone else having a problem rating the usefulness of this article?

This is a nice article, but the newsletter links for rating this article seem to be broken. Whenever I attempt to rate it, I get a Windows Secrets Error 404 page that they have creatively titled “Whoops!”.

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Like some others, I just can’t imagine using the Windows 7 backup function as it exists today. It is just not workable. When I tried to create an image, the message I got was not enough space. The Win7 boot drive has 32 gig used on a 74 gig disk and the drive I wanted to use for the backup image has 160 gig free. To my dismay the backup included that 224 gig drive (with the 160 gig free) in the backup image and I can’t get it to exclude that drive. Since I have no control over what to include in creating the image, Win 7 backup doesn’t work.

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Windows 7 backup and system image is not pushed very much. Both of them need to be used. I have been asked many times to restore a computer that had a bad hard drive or a virus that could not be removed. It would have been great to have an image ready to reload. Other times I have been asked to recover files from a bad drive because the user had no backup. Sometimes I might get some of their files but often times I have to tell them that all is lost.
Windows 7 backup is greatly improved over Vista and XP. But with the improvements there are also a few problems. Maybe Microsoft will get it right in Windows 8. Anyone that has to restore a bad hard drive will tell you of the time it takes. If you are lucky to have the recovery disks it will take quite a few hours just to get the computer to the point where you bought it. You now have to update it, configure it, and install your programs. Many more hours will pass before you are where you can use the computer again. O yes, if you cannot do this you will be paying somebody a few bucks to get your computer back up and running. Here comes the advantage of the system image. Once you have your computer set up like you want it, you run a system image. It will take around 30 minutes. You save the file till it is needed. If you have a crashed hard drive, downloaded an unwanted file that messed up your system, or just start to have problems with your system, you pull out the file and run it. Your computer will be up and running in about 30 minutes. The great part about this is it is free and easily to do.
The data backup is great in the ability to choose what files you want to back up. It is easy to set up and if you do not have any other back up plan it is a free solution. Windows 7 includes Robocopy.exe that was not in the article and it is another free backup program.
As great as these programs are they do have a few problems. The biggest one is the UAC access. I can see it for the system image. But why have the UAC on the data backup? How can users who store their files not have access to the program that backs up their files? One other problem I have with the backup program is that the size of the file will grow unless you edit the older files. Unlike XP NT Backup the backup data is constantly growing instead of updating the existing file. I stopped using the backup program for that reason. I set up Robocopy and run it. The initial file will be larger but the backup will only append new or changed files.
I have one final comment to the user that changed out the system board. He states that he was using XP and to be careful that you do not expect too much from system image backups. The OS on an XP hard drive is setup using the HAL of the system. A lot of times a major change in the hardware like a system board will render the OS useless. Even an image of the hard drive will still have problem so a new install will be needed. Windows 7 does not use the HAL and for the most part the OS will pick up the change of the system board and will function as it did before the switch. You may need to install a few drivers that are related to the new board. Once up and running you make a new system image.

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Windows 7 includes Robocopy.exe that was not in the article and it is another free backup program.

Robocopy is not included with Windows 7 Home Premium. It may have been part of your computer’s OEM software package, but it is not included with Windows 7.

-- rc primak

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How about going through the process of restoring, both from a backup and from an image? After all, a good backup or image is only useful if you can restore it.

Me, I use Image from Terabyte Unlimited to create disk images–and I’ve never had the SID problem other users mentioned when restoring an Acronis image. My image takes about 30 minutes (imaging about 30 GB), I can keep as many images as I want, and I can restore individual files from an image if I want. For user data backups (the ones I make more frequently than images), I’m much less comfortable with the incremental backups used by Win 7 because it takes way longer to find the file I really want to restore. So, I use a 3rd party backup app to create full backups of user files daily–the process takes only 3-5 minutes, so, I’m not really losing any time and, when I need to restore, I can simply pull the file from “yesterday’s backup.”

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Windows 7 backup is good, when it works but sadly, the last few times I’ve tried to run it I receive a 0x81000037 error. I have tried numerous times to fix this but have had no luck.

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Me, I use Image from Terabyte Unlimited to create disk images–and I’ve never had the SID problem other users mentioned when restoring an Acronis image. My image takes about 30 minutes (imaging about 30 GB), I can keep as many images as I want, and I can restore individual files from an image if I want. For user data backups (the ones I make more frequently than images), I’m much less comfortable with the incremental backups used by Win 7 because it takes way longer to find the file I really want to restore. So, I use a 3rd party backup app to create full backups of user files daily–the process takes only 3-5 minutes, so, I’m not really losing any time and, when I need to restore, I can simply pull the file from “yesterday’s backup.”

I suspect that the Acronis SID issue occurs on Network Restores. The poster indicated that the affected computer was part of a network.

-- rc primak

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This was a great article, and cleared up a lot of misconceptions for me, but to wipe away the last of them, could you answer a question or two?

I’ve been using Acronis True Image for several years to do a bi-weekly clone of my master drive. In between clones, I use Vice Versa to sync new/changed files to the clone drive.

The three times I got smacked by intractable viruses, all I had to do was remove the master disk and replace it with the clone disc. I was up and running immediately, with the operating system and all programs working correctly. No reinstalls, reactivations, etc.

So my question is this: Is the Win7 built-in imaging function the same as cloning? If I remove the master disk and swap in the drive containing the image, will it work immediately and be indistinguishable from the original? The reason I ask is that you mention that there is some “space saving” going on during thei mage creation process. If this is just the same as defragging, I get it, but it sounds more like compression, whereas the Acronis clone is a true, bit-for-bit copy.

I like the idea of using the Win7 backup, because one process does everything: both image creation and incremental backups. But I want to make sure that the results are the same as what I’ve been getting with cloning.

Thanks very much, Fred. Incidentally, one of the viruses that slammed me got right past Windows Security Essentials.

-lee gruenfeld
http://www.leegruenfeld.com

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My major, insurmountable problem with Windows Backup is security. There is no way to encrypt the backups. Someone finds your USB drive, they’ve got all your data. Acronis, Ghost, etc., all offer encryption of the data set.

My second problem, although I finally solved it, is that Create System Repair Disk doesn’t work on many systems. The only workaround is either to use the original Windows 7 install disk, or to log on using the hidden Administrator account. You have to enable that account first. It is different from the admin account you created when first setting up Windows 7.

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You say at the beginning of the article that the third step is to make a recovery disc and then in step three you show how to make a repair disc. There’s a big difference between the two and many people fail to realize that the repair disc they just made isn’t going to recovery their system to factory state until it’s to late.

There are two free products that are both very good for the home user for creating Backup Images:

EASEUS Todo Backup (Free edition)
Macrium Reflect (Free edition)

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You say at the beginning of the article that the third step is to make a recovery disc and then in step three you show how to make a repair disc. There’s a big difference between the two and many people fail to realize that the repair disc they just made isn’t going to recovery their system to factory state until it’s to late.

There are two free products that are both very good for the home user for creating Backup Images:

EASEUS Todo Backup (Free edition)
Macrium Reflect (Free edition)

I simply burned the hidden Recovery Partition onto DVD media when I first got my computer. Toshiba guides you through that, plus the Repair Disk, plus a driver backup disk. Not all manufacturers are that good about this, but most have either that option, or else you can buy OEM Recovery Disks online or by phone for your model. If you bought Full Retail Windows, this is a moot point.

-- rc primak

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My major, insurmountable problem with Windows Backup is security. There is no way to encrypt the backups. Someone finds your USB drive, they’ve got all your data. Acronis, Ghost, etc., all offer encryption of the data set.

Could one not use Bitlocker to Go for this? That would encrypt the drive so you would need a password to access the backups, and then should work normally.

My second problem, although I finally solved it, is that Create System Repair Disk doesn’t work on many systems. The only workaround is either to use the original Windows 7 install disk, or to log on using the hidden Administrator account. You have to enable that account first. It is different from the admin account you created when first setting up Windows 7.

This one I know will work. Right-click the Create System Repair Disk, and then click Run as Administrator, or use the keyboard shortcut mentioned in a recent article (Ctrl-Shift-Click??)

HTH.

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Great article, Fred.

A point was already made about the size of your profile not necessarily being the same as the backup size because of libraries. However, that same use of libraries can make it very easy to add folders to your data backups. Just add your folders to a library, and Backup will happily back it up for you! For example, I keep my music and downloaded files on a second hard drive. I created libraries that included these, and everything gets backed up automatically! The only thing I have to do now is tweak the scheduler to wake my machine for backups!

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Don’t forget MS Windows Home Server. Greatest thing MS has come out with. Does a great job of backing up and restoring client machines. Have used it’s restore features quite a few times to restore laptops that had to go back for repairs to their manufacturer, and desktops that have died for one reason or another. I can only say MSWHS is a great product!

It’s extremely easy to restore a file, folder, drive, or a whole computer.

Gib

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The article is fine if you use a desktop or a laptop. I have W7 Home Premium on a netbook. I’ve had a NAS for years. Why should I have to buy Ultimate just to have the privilege of using my own NAS for a backup? A boot CD is useless. I have to jump through hoops to make one on a thumb drive. Microsoft has hobbled a pretty big community of computer users. Backing up my machine shouldn’t be this difficult or require so many steps. How will MS address this on the upcoming Windows tablets?

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I do not see how to determine the date of my current system image. When I go to Control Panel -> System and Security -> Backup and Restore -> Manage Space, it shows the size of the system image. I can click on View Backups to see the dates for the backups and to delete them if I need more space. But how do I see the current system image date?

P.S. Good article on Win 7 backups.

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How will MS address this on the upcoming Windows tablets?

Surely you jest. Tablets you just throw away and start with a new one, like they did in Roman times. Don’t even think about saving data locally.

Surely I jest.

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Fred, in my humble opinion, Win7’s built-in system image back-up is a joke! Have you actually tried restoring a computer (running Win7) from a system image? Well, I decided to give it a try for fun. Yes for fun. And the experience was NOT fun. Infact it was painfully SLOW!

I have a Clevo Intel Core i5 M460 laptop with 4 GB Ram and lots of free space. My Win7 system partition is 50 GB, of which 24 GB is in use. I created an image of the system partition (which took 12 minutes) and saved it on another partition on the same hard drive. The image was automatically compressed to a size of 16 GB.

In the Recovery Control Panel, I clicked ‘Advanced recovery methods’, then clicked ‘Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer’. I was prompted to restart the computer and then followed a few more steps.

I was then presented with a screen entitled ‘Re-image your computer’, a progress bar and the words: ‘Windows is restoring your computer from system image. This might take from a few minutes to a few hours’. Infact it took almost FOUR hours!

Fred, in your many articles on this subject, you have always given the impression that you could turn the clock back at a click of a button with a system image. You never mentioned anything about a four hour coffee break!

Is it normal for it to take this long to restore an image? Am I doing something wrong? Is other imaging software like Acronis faster at restoring the image when needed? Personally, I think a fresh install would have been quicker, even with all the Windows updates, program and driver installs.

Incidentally, after the process I noticed that the Windows update history was cleared and that previously hidden updates were annoyingly offered again. Is a Win7 image really a mirror image? What else won’t be the same I ask? Only time will tell. And no more experimenting for me any time soon.

Alex

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Fred,

I’ve backed-up and restored Windows 7 images a number of times using an external hard drive, it’s worked each time and it was fast. However, I’ve had several questions/concerns from day 1, that I’ve never been able to answer: (1) Since Windows only does incremental image back-ups, is there some way to force a full back-up (without a network drive)? If I had to restore from say 50 active incremental back-ups, seems likes that might be error prone. (2) Do back-up periods constitute a full image back-up set? If yes, does a new period start with a full back-up? (3) I have two external hard drives, can I safely switch image back-ups between the two drives? If so, how will Windows actually handle this situation? (4) If I back-up to double-sided DVD, will there always be a full back-up on each disk set? Will this cause any issues with subsequent hard drive back-ups?

Dave

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Fred, in my humble opinion, Win7’s built-in system image back-up is a joke! Have you actually tried restoring a computer (running Win7) from a system image? Well, I decided to give it a try for fun. Yes for fun. And the experience was NOT fun. Infact it was painfully SLOW!

I have a Clevo Intel Core i5 M460 laptop with 4 GB Ram and lots of free space. My Win7 system partition is 50 GB, of which 24 GB is in use. I created an image of the system partition (which took 12 minutes) and saved it on another partition on the same hard drive. The image was automatically compressed to a size of 16 GB.

In the Recovery Control Panel, I clicked ‘Advanced recovery methods’, then clicked ‘Use a system image you created earlier to recover your computer’. I was prompted to restart the computer and then followed a few more steps.

I was then presented with a screen entitled ‘Re-image your computer’, a progress bar and the words: ‘Windows is restoring your computer from system image. This might take from a few minutes to a few hours’. Infact it took almost FOUR hours!

Fred, in your many articles on this subject, you have always given the impression that you could turn the clock back at a click of a button with a system image. You never mentioned anything about a four hour coffee break!

Is it normal for it to take this long to restore an image? Am I doing something wrong? Is other imaging software like Acronis faster at restoring the image when needed? Personally, I think a fresh install would have been quicker, even with all the Windows updates, program and driver installs.

Incidentally, after the process I noticed that the Windows update history was cleared and that previously hidden updates were annoyingly offered again. Is a Win7 image really a mirror image? What else won’t be the same I ask? Only time will tell. And no more experimenting for me any time soon.

Alex

Acronis True Image Home has restored Windows XP and Windows 7 for most of us in less than thirty minutes. Four hours is indeed painfully slow. Thanks for the heads-up.

-- rc primak

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I did a Windows 7 clean install on a new OCZ vertex 3, 120 gb solid state drive. It took quiite a while to get Windows 7 to work as well as my XP setup because I use the command line a lot. In my opinion, Microsoft comes close in Windows 7 to taking away much of the fun in the name of security–but I digress.

Now for backup…Windows 7 and the SSD were both new to me so I proceeded cautiously. Fred’s article led me to try Windows Imaging and while it seemed to image the drive ok, immediately restoring it (as the acid test) took–are you ready?–8 hours!

Microsoft’s backup was not practical to use with a solid state drive and the restored image was ok but a couple of BIOS settings got fouled up (don’t ask me why but indeed they were).

My old trusty Acronis True Image which I had actually tried first proved to be a disaster with the SSD. A search of several forums found several users complaining about non-support for SSDs. I re-installed Windows 7 after that fiasco.

Finally, after looking at several programs, I found a CNET recommended FREE program and it works perfectly with the SSD and regular drives. It works smooth and fast. Like less than 5 minutes to image the drive and less than 5 minutes to restore the image. The recovery disk also runs great. I offer this hard won knowledge as payback to Fred Langa and the rest of you for many fun hours tinkering with my favorite toy.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/br-free/download.html

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Surely you jest. Tablets you just throw away and start with a new one, like they did in Roman times. Don’t even think about saving data locally.

Surely I jest.

Actually, you’re not far off the mark. Tablets do best with Cloud Backup services, which are arranged like any other App. Given that you do not own licenses to Apps, they are not installed the same way as desktop or laptop application software. All you would need to store for a Tablet, is your own data files (small space requirements) and a manifest of your installed Apps, Settings and Preferences (very small space requirements). In the event of disaster, both backups could be restored to a new Tablet in minutes. Many Smart Phones also have this sort of Cloud Backup for SIM Card data.

-- rc primak

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The article alludes to “incremental backups”. Is that really true? I thought they were differentials. Periodically I delete older backups because my external drive is only 1.5 TB and runs out of space. I retain EOM backups going back ag least 6 monthys, but delete most of the intervening daily backups except for the past month.

Amy I sabotaging myself by doing this? Is there a way to have Windows Backup save differential backups? Or complete backups of my selected folders?

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[INDENT] Fred Langa’s last column on “Build a complete Win 7 Safety Net” (Win Secrets Issue 288), created several questions:

1) Would love to ask some questions of Fred Langa, but how do you write Fred directly? Apparently it’s possible from the questions he addresses in his column, but after much searching I can find no direct e-mail address.

2) When I set up Windows Backup, I’d like to send the backup on one computer to an “archive” (separate) HD on a different network computer. Windows Backup can see the other drive and it’s folders, but insists on having a login name and password for the network before it will allow me to complete the setup. Being a home system, neither computer nor the network requires a password. Is there a way to send the backup to a drive on local network computer when there are no system passwords?

3) Will Windows Backup wake a PC if it is ‘sleeping’ at the prescribed backup time?

4) From the Windows ‘Restore’ dialog box, it would seem that the only option to restore the “user” files is to restore ALL user files. Is it possible to restore individual files?

Many thanks. [/INDENT]

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[INDENT]
…3) Will Windows Backup wake a PC if it is ‘sleeping’ at the prescribed backup time?
[/INDENT]

It will if you set it to do so through the Task Scheduler. Once you have the backup scheduled follow this path:

Open the Task Scheduler >> expand the TS Library in left sidebar >> Microsoft >> Windows >> Windows Backup >> right-click “Auto Backup” in the top panel >> select properties >> click on the “Conditions” tab >> check the box beside “Wake the computer…”

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It will if you set it to do so through the Task Scheduler. Once you have the backup scheduled follow this path:

Open the Task Scheduler >> expand the TS Library in left sidebar >> Microsoft >> Windows >> Windows Backup >> right-click “Auto Backup” in the top panel >> select properties >> click on the “Conditions” tab >> check the box beside “Wake the computer…”

Thanks for that! Why does MS bury these options so deeply in a maze of left and right clicks? (rhetorical!) How hard would it have been to include a, “Wake the computer?” check box in the Backup setup options? Sheesh!

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[INDENT] Fred Langa’s last column on “Build a complete Win 7 Safety Net” (Win Secrets Issue 288), created several questions:

1) Would love to ask some questions of Fred Langa, but how do you write Fred directly? Apparently it’s possible from the questions he addresses in his column, but after much searching I can find no direct e-mail address.[/INDENT]

At the end of the article is a box that contains the following:

[INDENT]
Readers Bob Primak, Charlie Cohen, Randy Brook, and Don Piller will each receive a gift certificate for a book, CD, or DVD of their choice for sending the tips we printed above. Send us your tips via the Windows Secrets contact page.[/INDENT]

“Windows Secrets contact page” is a link to the contact form directed to ‘Editor”. Apparently, this is the contact path.

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Opinion needed.

I thought the Win 7 safety net was useful. I purchased an external drive from Western Digital (still in the box). My question is should I 1) use the Dell backup software that came pre-loaded on my computer, 2) Use the software that came from Western Digital, or 3) Use Win 7 built in software?

My inclination is to use the Win 7 because it’s already there and, heh, Fred seems to endorse using it.

Thanx….

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I don’t know anything about the Dell software. I do know that the WD backup software is very limited and not customizable. It decides what to back up, not you.

The Windows 7 software has, to me, a fatal flaw. It cannot encrypt the backup. Even if your hard drive or critical data is encrypted, say with EFS, it won’t be on the backup of your data. Anyone who gets your drive gets your data. So I use Ghost on one machine, Acronis on another.

However, I just got a WD Passport drive a month ago. The new models come with built-in hardware encryption. As long as you use it, it eliminates my objection to Win 7 backups.

Just one reminder: If you deviate in storing data anywhere other than the Win 7 defaults, and some programs may actually do this without your approval. you must manually add those locations to any Win 7 data backup you set up. I believe this applies to Thunderbird email files, for example.

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I don’t know anything about the Dell software. I do know that the WD backup software is very limited and not customizable. It decides what to back up, not you.

The Windows 7 software has, to me, a fatal flaw. It cannot encrypt the backup. Even if your hard drive or critical data is encrypted, say with EFS, it won’t be on the backup of your data. Anyone who gets your drive gets your data. So I use Ghost on one machine, Acronis on another.

However, I just got a WD Passport drive a month ago. The new models come with built-in hardware encryption. As long as you use it, it eliminates my objection to Win 7 backups.

Just one reminder: If you deviate in storing data anywhere other than the Win 7 defaults, and some programs may actually do this without your approval. you must manually add those locations to any Win 7 data backup you set up. I believe this applies to Thunderbird email files, for example.

Thanx for your reply…
The box says “Encryption with password protection…” That would imply to me that you’d need to use their software.
Your reminder is one of those “gotcha” things that would make life a bit more miserable.
Thanx again!

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Just to be clear. You don’t need to use WD backup software to get the benefit of encryption. You can just use the encryption part of the WD software without installing anything else. When you plug in the drive the first time, you’ll be invited to install the whole shebang. But then when you attach it to another pc, if you have set it as encrypted, you’ll get to the unlock program.

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Is there a trick to be able to backup to a drive across the neotwrk? Or is that only in some special version of Windows?

I have external drives attached to two networked computers and wish to back up all our computers to those two drives. Following the instructions above doesn’t seem to give me the oppy to get to those two drives.

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Windows Backup will allow you to place your image on a USB drive. You might as well not do a backup because Windows restore PE will NOT recognize the USB for a restore. No matter what you do, it won’t work.

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On Picture 11 there is a worrying message that Fred did not commented about : any existing system images (on the backup location) might be overwritten. This means entire HDD or just the a selected folder? It doesn’t seem to exist a place to select folders, it is just the HDD. Does win 7 formats the external drive before imaging or it can be used for other stuff? What if one wants to have 2 different images on the same external drive?
thanks in advance

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I miss Windows NT Backup!!!! This app was so useful, flexible, reliable and free! Sob:(- it is no longer available or will it run on Windows 7. My main complaints with Windows 7 backup and imaging is that one is unable to create backups in specific folders (for multiple redundant backup copies), unable to create multiple full or diff images without fear of deleting prior images, or to schedule image backups. Ever have a corrupted backup? I have, many times, and having only one is reckless and dangerous.

All of these shortcomings are resolved in free (to non-commercial users) with great 3r party products such as GFI Backup (gfi.com) and others. Don’t waste your time and risk data loss or loss of ability to restore a corrupted system by depending on Windows 7 backup.

BTW: I don’t mention Vista even though these comments apply because Vista is basically irrelevant!

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The 404 error when trying to rate this article appears to be resolved now.

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in addition to data backups every couple of days, i do more complete backup monthly, which i store offsite. being offsite, i want it encrypted.

Also, i want to be able to access my backups easily, accessing individual files, so that if i need to continue working on a document i can access it on another computer, until the crashed system is fixed.

i don’t believe that win7 b.u. will accommodate either of these points.

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good article Fred..if the backup is scheduled for a time the computer is normally off, does it do the backup when the computer is turned on or just skip it?

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Great article. However, I have a question regarding the use of backup software on links. My system has an 80GB SSD main drive, and a 1.2TB secondary drive (4x300GB WD raptors in RAID 0). I use mlink to keep my user directory on my secondary drive, since my personal data ranges in the 200-300GB range. Being an amateur photographer, RAW files take up quite a bit of space. I also use the secondary drive to keep lesser used programs. In other words, software that I use on a normal basis, or where I want faster speeds, such as Adobe Photoshop, I keep on my SSD, and everything else on my secondary. My question is, how does the Windows backup handle an mlinked directory, especially when I would want to backup both my primary and secondary at the same time for the “system” backup? I do have Acronis 2010, by the way, but it’s been causing some system issues lately. Specifically, it’s causing my system to spontaneously reboot (repeatable).

A couple of points that I’d like to put forth for anyone who’d like to opine. Please don’t suggest not using RAW for photography. I can see that argument coming a mile away, and that doesn’t pertain to my query anyway. Secondly, I know and understand that there are probably much better ways to offload the user directory than using mlink. However, that ship has sailed, and I don’t feel like re-installing, at least not at this juncture. Let me thank everyone, in advance, who chooses to offer an opinion. Any constructive opinion is appreciated.

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Perfect timing for anyone that wants a Free version of Todo Backup Professional:

http://www.todo-backup.com/products/promotion/free-get-tb-pro.htm

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Nice article, but now i found more of microsofts mis behavioure.
– I have two disks and this backup program only did show the C drive.
– I have also a NAS and when i want to use that, the program needs a username and password, while the explorer can whitout!
– Because my D drive did not show up, i decided to add a folder on that drive to the library where i was able to select it for backup. But now the backup did not complete because it was unable to find the data!
– There was also a warning that the music on my M: drive could not backupped. I do not have a M: drive

My conclusion and advise: Forget microsoft backup! Start using Acronis True Image. I use (all versions) since 2005 or so and it is getting better and better.

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I followed the article to the letter. I used the recovery disc, which offered the same options as the MS Installation disc. No Recovery option was offered, so how do I recover my image???

My 35+ GB backup takes several hours, which is far longer than Acronis TI.

I, too, turn off HAL when not in use. I prefer Manual updates and backups, as I know what I have and need without getting what I don’t want or need.

I realize that WS is slanted to business users, but us home users need advice also. Would it be possible to differentiate between the two when you write, as you do between different OSs in your articles? :confused:

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Great article … I’d like to see it extended …

A major premise if backing up is the prospect of actually recovering. To trust one’s backups, there needs to be an occasional recovery. Would you mind writing a supplement to this article explaining how to use each of the three backup types during a recovery operation?? Clearly, there are multiple scenarios … and waiting until there’s actually a need before one tries a restore is a pretty risking prospect.

Thanks!

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Seems like a number of people are recommending people buy Acronis’s product. For a different perspective,
I bought both the 2010 and 2011 versions, and they never worked as far as recovering my system.
Some of my postings here detail the amount of time and effort (supplying the various snapshots, dumps, etc.
requested by Acronis tech. people – up multiple levels of their support chain) I spent trying to resolve the issue.

For what it’s worth, I tried Macrium Free and it worked (both backing up AND recovering) right out of the box.
I was so happy I paid for the Pro version.

I’ve had no problems using Macrium to do what I need; and, because I love to play and tinker with my system,
it has come through for me (as far as recovering) every time.

FWIW, I dont work for Macrium and have no connection to the company.

Dick

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Thanks Dick, I never heard of Macrium Reflect. I haven’t had any problems restoring Acronis TI images. But you can never be too safe so I bought Reflect also, and now I’m going to use both for my images.

Seems like a number of people are recommending people buy Acronis’s product. For a different perspective,
I bought both the 2010 and 2011 versions, and they never worked as far as recovering my system.
Some of my postings here detail the amount of time and effort (supplying the various snapshots, dumps, etc.
requested by Acronis tech. people – up multiple levels of their support chain) I spent trying to resolve the issue.

For what it’s worth, I tried Macrium Free and it worked (both backing up AND recovering) right out of the box.
I was so happy I paid for the Pro version.

I’ve had no problems using Macrium to do what I need; and, because I love to play and tinker with my system,
it has come through for me (as far as recovering) every time.

FWIW, I dont work for Macrium and have no connection to the company.

Dick

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Great! Thanx much for the advise!

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Hi Fred
Please help. After doing Windows backup, should I be able to open and view the backup on my external hard drive? When I try I try I get the message “Internet Explorer cannot
display the web page” whatever that means? I also cannot view the files on the backup disc as it asks what programs i want to open the files with and then shows a list of
different programs.
If my system crashed would I get all my data back from these backups?

My OS is Windows 7 Pro and running Firefox 6.0

Regards
Thanks
DaveBRenn
Dave

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Hi everyone,

After you do your first Widows 7 Pro backup and image and made the bootable Recovery CD, do you have to always make a new bootable recovery cd after you do the 3 backup steps? Or can the first bootable Recovery CD be used for any future crash or problem after you’ve done several backups and images. :confused:

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I’m late to this party, but I needed a good backup solution and tried using Windows 7 Backup. It worked beautifully for a few weeks and then started failing with no information but an error code 0x81000037. The Microsoft Support fora provided no useful help, though reading posts from all the other people with the same problem, I didn’t feel so lonely.

I had previously used Acronis Backup and Recovery 10, but it also started failing silently, and their tech support was a joke. After a half-dozen back-and-forths with a support guy who stuck to his script, I had gotten nowhere.

Right now, I’m relying on Iron Mountain’s Connected Backup, but that’s hideously expensive and I’d prefer to also have alocal backup. (What I’d really like to do is have Windows 7 Backup working reliably locally, and then trim down Connected to cover just my frequently-changing data files.)

Can you guys make some recommendations? I’d particularly like to hear how well the backups do in reporting problems. Windows 7 Backup didn’t tell me when it started failing and it was only when I went to recover a file did I discover it had not succeeded in a backup for a while. Connected is too chatty, and each day tells me that I have not had a successful backup in xx days because I’m within 10% of using up my quote. (In other words the backup *worked*, but is reported as unsuccessful.)

Backups are too important to be so hard to get right!

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@Fred —

I know this is late feedback, but I just moved from XP to Win7. As an opening quibble, you repeatedly give Microsoft grief for calling their system image tool a “backup” tool, but an image backup is really a kind of backup (as most people, I think, use the term) — and I’d say that’s especially true here since Win7 includes the built-in ability to mount one of its images as a VHD and recover individual files.

More importantly, I’d take issue with your statement that “You need to make a new system image only when your system changes in some major way (a major new software update, or whatever). It’s a low-frequency task.” As you point out in your article, the file-based Windows Backup excludes executable files — even if they’re in folders that you specifically include in the backup — and the excluded “executable files” include, e.g., batch files, .php files and many other files that the particular user may be spending hours creating and modifying and that accordingly call for regular backing up (not just when the “system changes in some major way”).

Unless such a user has a partitioned hard drive (like I do), I’m inclined to think that relatively infrequent image “backups” (sorry) probably makes sense, but only if that user is using something other than the file-based Windows Backup for their daily and weekly backups. (I use Robocopy myself.)

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