Which folders should I copy to backup my laptop?

[Shepherd Jim]

Hi All - I'm setting up a simple backup using Second Copy (SC). I can set the SC software to automatically "sync" specified subdirs on my laptop's hard drive to a 1.5 TB NAS (Drobo FS).

My question is which folders do I want to keep safely copied. I know I want to safeguard "My Documents" (a/k/a: "C:\Users\ShepJim\Documents") -- that's where all my stuff is. And, while not as important, I'll have to make arrangements for "My Pictures" and "My Music."

My head starts to spin when I look at other data repositories. I know that all Eudora's email mailboxes are in "C:\Users\ShepJim\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora",

But, then there's also the "\AppData" folder whose "\Roaming\" subdirectory seems have a backdoor entrance to the same email data in "C:\Users\ShepJim\AppData\Roaming\Qualcomm\Eudora"

Question 1)
Are
"C:\Users\ShepJim\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora" and
"C:\Users\ShepJim\AppData\Roaming\Qualcomm\Eudora" the same but with different names?

Question 2)
Do I have to play it safe and copy/sync the entire "\Users\ShepJim\" and all the sub-folders? That appears to contain a bunch of junk that I would not really need to get going again in the event of a disk crash or whatever.

I'm sure there is a reason that Microsoft has the files directory structure turned back inside itself like a Moebius strip?

 

[whs]

With a data backup program it only makes sense to backup your user folders and maybe the mail. Backing up system folders that way makes no sense. For the system you should use imaging. E.g. this one: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html?ltr=I

 

[Jerryg50]

My point of view:

I would keep a copy of all the user files on a separate hard disk, especially an external one.

I also make a full system image of the computer on an external drive using the Windows 7 backup. It is important to make the recovery start-up DVD. To recover the original full image this recovery start-up DVD is essential.

On some of our computers I've had to use this image backup to fully restore the system. This saved a lot of time and grief.

___

Hi All - I'm setting up a simple backup using Second Copy (SC). I can set the SC software to automatically "sync" specified subdirs on my laptop's hard drive to a 1.5 TB NAS (Drobo FS).

My question is which folders do I want to keep safely copied. I know I want to safeguard "My Documents" (a/k/a: "C:\Users\ShepJim\Documents") -- that's where all my stuff is. And, while not as important, I'll have to make arrangements for "My Pictures" and "My Music."

My head starts to spin when I look at other data repositories. I know that all Eudora's email mailboxes are in "C:\Users\ShepJim\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora",

But, then there's also the "\AppData" folder whose "\Roaming\" subdirectory seems have a backdoor entrance to the same email data in "C:\Users\ShepJim\AppData\Roaming\Qualcomm\Eudora"

Question 1)
Are
"C:\Users\ShepJim\Application Data\Qualcomm\Eudora" and
"C:\Users\ShepJim\AppData\Roaming\Qualcomm\Eudora" the same but with different names?

Question 2)
Do I have to play it safe and copy/sync the entire "\Users\ShepJim\" and all the sub-folders? That appears to contain a bunch of junk that I would not really need to get going again in the event of a disk crash or whatever.

I'm sure there is a reason that Microsoft has the files directory structure turned back inside itself like a Moebius strip?

 

[suspect008]

what is your intention of backing up like this? I mean here you gonna backup user files and then some system files? and about that folders, the are not the same, one contains the data(downloaded emails, other one is acting like a temp folder for the email like if you use IDM, unfinished downloads will be in roaming/IDM.and roaming folder mostly involves with things hapening while you're connected to the internet. I dont know about it much but some expert here will explain.

and again, what do you expect by backingup like this, is it for, recovering your system as it is now if something goes wrong or just to keep your files for later use?