Backup

Does Windows 7 come with a backup utility?

Sure does, here's a couple tutorials,

Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup

Backup User and System Files

Can Windows Backup do a copy and paste without backing up to a file?

Yeah I am looking for a program that I can schedule that will do a simple copy and paste. I don't want to backup to file...

tommypa said:

Yeah I am looking for a program that I can schedule that will do a simple copy and paste. I don't want to backup to file...

What do you actually want to backup - the system or user files or a combination or what? And to where do you want to backup - seperate partition or seperate drive, etc.

Basically I have a drive of photos that I work on on my workstation and instead of manually copying them up to a server every night for backup I want to automate that procedure. But I don't want to back up to file because I want to be able to just copy and paste back to my machine if I need to. Its much more convenient. So basically I will be backing up to a share on a server from my local workstation

tommypa said:

Basically I have a drive of photos that I work on on my workstation and instead of manually copying them up to a server every night for backup I want to automate that procedure. But I don't want to back up to file because I want to be able to just copy and paste back to my machine if I need to. Its much more convenient. So basically I will be backing up to a share on a server from my local workstation

If the photos are on a dedicated drive, I would image the drive to the server. You can always mount the image and copy whatever you like. Free Macrium and Free Paragon are some options, but there are many others. Some do differentials, some don't. Some manage the backup space, some don't. So it depends what you need.
The Windows7 imaging is another option, but that is complex and mounting the images is only for specialists.
I use Macrium for the purpose. But free Macrium does neirther differentials nor does it manage the backup space. On the other hand is is super easy, fast and very reliable, and the images mount with a double click. Here are a couple of my Macrium tutorials.

Image your system with free Macrium - Vista Forums

Imaging with free Macrium

Just use the builtin Robocopy.exe. Go to command prompt and type in robocopy /? to get the commands to use it. You can also download a GUi for it, or better yet download Richcopy.exe, the upgraded tool. These are free utilities written by Microsoft.