Win7 Backup Procedures?

gumboman · 15 Oct 2013

I'm trying to use the Win7 Backup Program and have a couple of questions:

I did a backup of my C-drive to my external harddrive and it backup up ok. But, it did not put the back in a Folder on the E-drive, just put the backup file on the drive under the name of the C-drive. Question, I normally retain 2-3 backups in other backup programs, but don't know if I can backup again with Win7 Backup and it will retain the previous one and not overwrite it - so, I can maintain a number of backups?

Second, I tested the Restore File function, but restoring a backed up file to a different folder on the backed up drive, and it put it there but deleted the file from the original location? It there a way to tell it to not delete the previous file when restoring the backup file to a different location?

Thanks for any insights/suggestions.

Gumboman

Kaktussoft · 15 Oct 2013

"so, I can maintain a number of backups?"=>yes no problem at all. Just try it.
" but restoring a backed up file to a different folder on the backed up drive, and it put it there but deleted the file from the original location?" => it doesn't delete anything at all! It only supersedes the file if it's already there.

Brink · 15 Oct 2013

Hello Gumboman,

By default, a scheduled Windows Backup is an incremental backup, and is not a new one each time.

If you like, you could use the shortcut from the tutorial below to always create new ones.

Backup - Make a "Create New Backup" Shortcut

For more information about Windows Backup, please read through the tutorial below. Afterwards, please feel free to ask any questions you may have. :)

Backup User and System Files

gumboman · 15 Oct 2013

Kaktussoft said:

"so, I can maintain a number of backups?"=>yes no problem at all. Just try it.
" but restoring a backed up file to a different folder on the backed up drive, and it put it there but deleted the file from the original location?" => it doesn't delete anything at all! It only supersedes the file if it's already there.

--------------------------------------------------

After backing up the C-drive, I went in to test the restore feature and had a file in C:\Work, I chose to restore that file from the backup to another folder (C:\CMC) so I could retain the original one in C:\Work. After the restore, I looked in C:\Work and the file was gone. Looked in C:\CMC and the file was there - so, what did I do wrong to have it delete the original file?

Kaktussoft · 15 Oct 2013

gumboman said:

Kaktussoft said:

"so, I can maintain a number of backups?"=>yes no problem at all. Just try it.
" but restoring a backed up file to a different folder on the backed up drive, and it put it there but deleted the file from the original location?" => it doesn't delete anything at all! It only supersedes the file if it's already there.

--------------------------------------------------

After backing up the C-drive, I went in to test the restore feature and had a file in C:\Work, I chose to restore that file from the backup to another folder (C:\CMC) so I could retain the original one in C:\Work. After the restore, I looked in C:\Work and the file was gone. Looked in C:\CMC and the file was there - so, what did I do wrong to have it delete the original file?

Very strange. Can you try it again?

DavidE · 15 Oct 2013

For "restoring" specific files to a different location you try mounting the Backup Image as a VHD, and then extracting the files.
Maybe using this approach will leave the original file in place ???
This tutorial has instructions for mounting the image and extracting files:
System Image - Extract Files Using Disk Management

Kaktussoft · 16 Oct 2013

DavidW7ncus said:

For "restoring" specific files to a different location you try mounting the Backup Image as a VHD, and then extracting the files.
Maybe using this approach will leave the original file in place ???
This tutorial has instructions for mounting the image and extracting files:
System Image - Extract Files Using Disk Management

He's talking about backup/restore. Not about "system image". No VHD is involved in this process

DavidE · 16 Oct 2013

Ah, ... sorry for my misunderstanding

I don't use Win 7 built in utilities for backups and imaging...