Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Answers inline. :)

baritompa said:

1. Do I still have 4 system images on this drive? If so how can I tell what dates and times for them? and if I rename WindowsImageBackup folder as described, will it keep them all saved?

You will be able to tell by opening the WindowsImageBackup folder and the "computer name" folder in it. The Backup...... folder contains the system image with the date and time created in the name of the Backup...... folder. If you only have one Backup folder, then you only have one image. See the blue NOTE box at the top of the tutorial for more on this though.

If you rename the WindowsImageBackup folder, then a new one will be created the next time you create a system image. This way you will be able to keep all images created in both or more folders. The only catch is that you must rename the folder that you want to restore a image from back to the default WindowsImageBackup name after renaming the current one first before windows will see the image.

baritompa said:

2. Concerning the backup of my data. There seems to be one back up set folder which has two back up files folders. I thought
the second file folder was a differential one, but the earlier folder
has 10059 files 552GB, while the later has 10089 files 553GB. Could it be that because I changed permissions that they were saved twice?

The incremental Backup Files YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS folders in the Backup Set YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS folder contains ZIP folders each under 200MB in size. These ZIP folders contain the actual backed up files for the date and time of the Backup Set folder. If a file that you included to be backed up is larger 200MB then it will be automatically broken up into several pieces each under 200 MB to fit into the multiple ZIP files in the Backup Files folders. This would be why you had more than one Backup Set folder in the Backup Files folder.

If you like, the tutorial below for how to manually extract files from a Windows Backup can help show you more about the structure of Windows Backups.

Backup - Manually Extract Files from in Vista & Windows 7

baritompa said:

3. Vaguely related to this concerns how file permissions get changed. I have a user account for using most of the time and an admin account for installation and backup tasks. Often when running with the admin acct, to open a file I get a pop up saying I do not have permission (even though the files and folder have full control for administrators), and the option given is to get perminent control. When I do this then my admin account is added to the permissions. Could this be what is causing them to be copied again by the backup?

Permissions is really a different subject that should be discussed in a new thread, but it depends on what files/folders you are referring to and where they are located. Permissions are something that should be handled with care so as not to deny yourself access by mistake.

Answers inline. :)

baritompa said:

Hi Shawn, It appears I have only one backup. I cannot understand why only the most recent is there. I'm certain I used the option to save as many as possible. The attached screen shot is a puzzle for me. Backup is sceduled, however the options for space management are only keep the current or delete them all????

A Windows Backup (files only) is different than a System Image (HDD backup). When you include creating a system image while doing a Windows backup instead of creating a separate system image, then you will always only have one system image since Windowws Backup will delete the old image when creating a new one with it's scheduled backup.

baritompa said:

However I have 2 Backup Files folders in the Backup Set Folder. I used the tutorial you suggested to look at them, and I can't see that the second set is incremental. The second set is slightly larger than the first (550 GB). I've copied files from both sets and they seem identical (however I can't see if the permission are different, and if
I copy them to my desktop, they inherit the same permissions). What is preventing an incremental backup?

Each Backup Set folder is a separate "new" backup in the (computer-name) folder. Each Backup Files folder is an incremental backup in the specific Backup Set folder.

Do not worry about permissions. By default, everytime you create a new backup, the permissions get changed back to where you will have to click on "Continue" to open the (computer-name) folder again.

If you like, delete all backups, and reset Windows Backup to see how it works for you afterwards.

baritompa said:

The owner of most of these files is strange (see attached). Is this part of the problem?

The long S-1-5.... number is a SID number that is unique to each user account you have on your computer. When you see the SID number instead of a user name, then it usually means that the account the the SID number belonged to was either deleted or disabled. Is that the case here?

Either way, this has no bearing on the backups being created. I would strongly recommend to not be playing with the ownership and permissions of these backups, or you could render them unable to be used to restore with in Windows Recovery.

Before Brink comes back with his advice - I would not take ownership of system files.

baritompa said:

Running Windows Backup with the include system image box ticked will DELETE the previously created WindowsImageBackup.

Correct. It will delete the previously created image that was created in Windows Backup.

baritompa said:

Running Windows Backup by selecting 'backup now' will run exactly the same as letting it run on schedule.

Correct. It'll run the same incremental backup that you had setup for the schedule.

baritompa said:

The first Backup Files folder in a specific Backup Set folder will contain all the files being backup at that date.

Subsequent Backup Files folders in the specific Backup Set folder will contain only files that differ in some way (content OR attributes).

When you a backup is created by either the schedule or you clicking on "Backup now", these will be saved incrementally as separate Backup Files folders in the same Backup Set folder. Only when you create a new separate backup will it create a new Backup Set folder.

baritompa said:

All of the files on the D: drive came from my xp machine (which is about to die, and why I got this new machine). Some I copied via a network drive, others via a USB drive.
I couldn't get Windows "Easy" Transfer to work!

Would it hurt for me to take ownership of all my files on the D: drive? They are all my files and I owned them on my xp machine.

If you have access to them, then I wouldn't worry about taking ownership of them.

You're most welcome. I prefer having a system image myself as well.

Sorry, but no I haven't used FreeFileSync.

Please let us know how it went. :)

baritompa said:

Hi Shawn, Thanks for all your help. I reset windows backup and did it again to a dedicated 1T partition. I'll wait to see what happens when it does the scheduled back up in a week. The compression is not great, all my data (587 GB) is on my D: drive. The report after the backup gave 560GB for the data files. After reading the tutorial and other information about windows backup, I'm not sure it's worth it. Simply keeping a clone of my D: drive may make more sense for me. Do you have experience with FreeFileSync?

I use FreeFileSync. I find it great for File and Folder backups. I have it scheduled to run daily on my data. I made a video on how to use it if you are interested. Backup With FreeFileSync - YouTube