Windows 7: Failed backup - yet again

Speedy,

Have a look at these links. It's late here and my bed is calling me.

See what you think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX37AifCJ6Q



FreeFileSync - CNET Download.com

By the way, alll the products Ignatz mentioned are all very good. It just comes down to personal choice really.

You need to go to Control Panel->System and Security->Backup and Restore and press the change settings button.



Just run through the wizard and everything should be back to normal. Sometimes when you add, remove or rename folders that are in the backup set Windows Backup doesn't understand what is going on.

I see that Burdus has recommended FreeFileSync and pointed you to my video. That would be my choice as an alternative to the Windows Backup for data files. For images I recommend Macrium Reflect Free. The link is in my signature.

I have made the experience that many of those backup programs - especially the ones built into Windows - do strange things that I do not understand. That is why I just copy my data manually to an external drive or make an image of the data partition (on those systems where I have a seperate data partition) using free Macrium.

I also recommend to enable restore points on data partitions and allocate sufficient space for about 10 restore points. That is often handy if you lost files. They are easy to recover with Shadow Explorer

Shadow Explorer is good but Windows has built in support for restore points on data volumes using the Previous Versions tab in the file and folder properties dialogue.

Keith, previous version is fine if you still have a version of the file. But what do you do when the file has been totally deleted - e.g. by accident.

Hi Wolfgang. You go to Previous Versions of the containing folder or the drive if a root folder has been deleted.

Hi there
This is one of those cases where I REALLY would spend the 40 or so USD on a commercial backup product.
I don't know about you but in my case the DATA I have stored on various computers is worth FAR MORE than the entire Computer(s) and some of it would be nearly impossible to re-create or take hours or even weeks to do so.

For example I can't imagine having to rip over 1000 CD's again (assuming I can even find them all), re-create photo libraries, music folders etc. to say nothing of important documents like Income Tax statements etc.

the 45 or so USD I spent on Acronis IMO was money EXTREMELY WELL SPENT.

The MS built in backup gives mixed results for different people -- it's slightly better in the new W8 Consumer edition but still nothing like as good as a decent 3rd party product.

The other advantages these commercial products give you is that they can do what's known as Incremental Backups -- that is for example at the end of the day when you run a backup only data that's changed is backed up.

You can exclude particular types of files such as temporary one's or particular directories.

These types of backups also can make BOOTABL:E restore images of your OS so if your whole system becomes non bootable - simply insert the backup bootable media and restore.

Ms Backup is better than nothing - but its results appear to be too unpredictable to rely on it completely.

BTW also when taking backups ALWAYS have more than one copy - HDD's are cheap these days -- recovering lost data ISN'T. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

Understand Keith. But that may have some undesirable effects. If you go to a higher level folder - e.g. the root folder - you may reset a lot of other files that were updated in the meantime. With Shadow Explorer you can pick the exact file you want to restore. I think that is an advantage.

Try it once, it is really easy. You just navigate to the file in question in the shadow and right click on it. Then you can retrieve it.

Yes I also use Shadow Explorer.

If you double click the previous version for a folder or drive it doesn't restore, it opens in Windows Explorer.