Windows 7 - Backup User and System Files

**Brink** · 11-20-2008

How to Backup User and System Files in Windows 7

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Click here to read the entire tutorial

**polycue** · 11-08-2009

Quote: Originally Posted by Brink

Ski,

You would only have one backup at the same location. You would not want to rename or move it. Doing so will make it unrestorable. You can still have multiple incremental backups if each one is saved in a different location.

Would moving the backup to another location temporarily (for archival purposes) and moving it back to the original location prior to restoring work properly? Also, does this apply to system images?

**Brink** · 11-08-2009

Hi Polycue,

It's for both backup types. It seems that moving them period makes them unrestorable since Windows 7 cannot find them. It would not be advised. If you do, it would be best to just create new backup instead.

**polycue** · 11-08-2009

Thanks Shawn,

This means I need a separate partition for each backup that I do not want overwritten by the scheduled backup? Is there no way to assign the backup location to a specific folder?

**Brink** · 11-08-2009

Yeah, unfortunately it only let's you choose what drive letter to backup to and not a folder location.

**polycue** · 11-08-2009

So, if I change the settings of my scheduled backup to exclude the system image will it erase the existing system image?

Even with 221GB of free space letting windows chose how to manage space it still overwrites the old system image with the new. Is scheduling a daily backup the reason it cannot hold more than one image?

**Brink** · 11-08-2009

Any changes you make will be reflected in the incremental backup. When you restore from the backup, you will have the dated incremental backups to select from to restore with. Think of it being like restore points in System Restore.

If you no longer wanted the backup, then you would still have to manually delete it.

**polycue** · 11-08-2009

Does the incremental nature of the backup only apply to files and folders as opposed to the system image?

**Brink** · 11-08-2009

It's for both.

**polycue** · 11-08-2009

Is there a legal way to test the recovery withought erasing the original installation?

**Brink** · 11-08-2009

Sure, you can remove the hard drive Vista is on, and put in a empty hard drive to restore it to test it with.

Windows 7 - Backup User and System Files

Backup User and System Files problems?