Windows 10

Backing Up Files and Folders

Nothing is more important on your computer than your files and documents. Once you lose those precious family photographs of baby Gilbert's birth, or last year's vacation in the Maldives, they're gone forever-and you have nothing but your memories from then on.

It is critical that you safeguard your files on your computer. I'll show you how to do this later in this tutorial. It is very important that you make backups and keep them in safe and sensible places.

Where to Store Backups

Choosing where to store backups of your files is critical because choosing to store your backups in the wrong location can often be as bad as having no backups at all. So where can you store your backups, and what are the pros and cons?

Tip: Many Internet routers allow you to plug a USB hard disk into them to use the network as storage. This can be an excellent local backup location.

A second hard disk on your PC is the fastest and least difficult way to store backups because an automated system can update the backup every time you change a file. However, an electrical spike through the PC could fry the original data and the backup. A theft or a fire destroys both copies.
Network-attached storage (NAS) is a great way to store backups in your home or workplace. NAS drives can be hidden in inaccessible places. They are still vulnerable to fire, however.
CD/DVD/Blu-ray discs aren't advisable for backups any more. Partly because, with the exception of Blu-ray, the discs don't have large enough capacities for our ever-growing collections of digital photographs and home videos. Also, these discs degrade-and there's little way to tell whether it will be 3 months or 30 years before they become unreadable.
USB hard disks are one of the best options because they can be stored offsite in the home of a friend or family member, or at the home of the person responsible for backing up your vital business data.
USB flash drives are of a size and price that you can consider storing backups on them. Bear in mind, however, that they are relatively easily broken (e.g., sat on, put in the washing machine, or chewed by the dog). If you store one on your key chain, it could very easily get wet when you're out in the rain.
Cloud storage is becoming ever more popular and there are a lot of services to choose from, including Microsoft's OneDrive (which is built into Windows 10), LiveDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, Carbonite, Mozy, Amazon S3, and many more. The problem here is the initial upload can be tens if not hundreds of gigabytes, and unless you are on a super-fast broadband connection, it can take weeks or even months to upload.

Tip: Using at least two backup solutions. Store backups locally on both a NAS drive and a second hard disk in my main PC for quick restoration, but also use the OneDrive and LiveDrive services for cloud backup.

Remember to Encrypt Business Backups

You can normally consider your workplace relatively secure. You control who has keys and access to the building and the room(s) containing your computers. If you store business backups offsite, however, which is highly recommended, you should make sure that those backups are either encrypted or kept in a very safe location.

Sending unencrypted backups home with a senior staff member is one thing, but given that you have no control over this person's home security presents a data protection risk. The only safe strategy with business data-and the one the data protection regulators are most likely to endorse-is a virtual private network (VPN) or cloud-based encrypted solution designed specifically for business.

Caution: Beware of synced network and cloud backups! If you use a service such as OneDrive that syncs the files on your computer with those in the cloud, or a backup solution that keeps files in sync by deleting the file on the backup destination when that file is removed from the computer, you could find that your backup is wiped completely if you accidentally delete the files from your computer. To avoid this problem, stop your backup software from running until you can restore the files or use a cloud provider that supports file archiving.

Backing Up and Syncing Your Files with OneDrive

There are two ways to back up your files in Windows 10. The first method is to use Microsoft's OneDrive cloud sync and backup service. You can set this up by first searching for OneDrive in the Start menu. Then click the OneDrive "cloud" icon in the taskbar system tray.

Tip: You don't need to be signed into your PC using your Microsoft account to access your OneDrive storage.

You set up the OneDrive file backup firstly by choosing the location of the OneDrive folder. The factory option is to store this in your C:\Users\[Username] folder on your hard disk. If you only have one hard disk or partition in your PC and you do not plan to create a system image backup, this will be fine. You can often find that you get better file security by storing your files in a location separate location from your copy of Windows.

Tip: The OneDrive app can also be used to back up and sync files from an Office 365, OneDrive for Business account.

A new OneDrive account offers only 15GB, but you can purchase more storage at www.onedrive.com . If you have an Office 365 account, Office 365 Home or Personal add 1TB (1 terabyte = 1,000 gigabytes) to your personal OneDrive account. OneDrive for Business comes with up to 1TB of storage for each account user.

The standard 15GB of free storage won't be enough for your files, photos, and video, but OneDrive remains one of the best and best-integrated cloud backup and sync solutions available. By choosing on each of your PCs which folder you want to sync, you always have the most up-to-date versions of those files on all of your PCs. Any files that are not synced are viewable in the OneDrive section of File Explorer, and when opened, are downloaded and stored locally on the PC.

Keeping Local File Backups with File History

If you want to keep a local backup copy of your files, Windows 10 comes with a file backup and versioning tool called File History, which keeps backup copies of files as you make changes to them so that if you accidentally make a change to a file that you didn't intend to make, the file can be restored.

File History also keeps copies of files that have been deleted and changed, helping you recover older copies of documents that were accidentally deleted or modified when they shouldn't have been. File History can be incredibly useful if you use your computer for work and change files (such as Office documents) frequently. It can roll back accidental or unapproved changes.

File History is accessed from both the Settings app and the Control Panel. You can use local internal hard disks, USB attached drives, and network-attached drives (though the latter two don't work if they're not plugged in or are inaccessible).

The File History options in the Settings app automatically detects any USB-attached hard disks or additional internal hard disks on your PC, but you can use networked locations as well. They include NAS drives and USB hard disks that are plugged into your Internet router. If you want to select one of these locations as the storage for your backups, click the Select a different drive link.

To get more control over File History, click the More options link. It provides much finer control over the feature, such as choosing which folders on your PC to back up (the standard options are your Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Internet Favorites folders).

In the File History options panel, you can also choose to exclude folders that are automatically included in the backup. File History keeps a backup copy of a file whenever the file changes, and just playing a music track changes the "last accessed" time of the file, therefore making a change. As music tracks can be played often, and are quite large in size, excluding them can prevent your File History drive from running out of space too quickly. Remember that anything you exclude from File History should be backed up elsewhere.

You can also change the drive you use for File History here. You can do this without deleting any current backup files already created, although they won't be accessible to restore through File History unless you reconnect the drive to the service.

You can choose how often it saves copies of files. Remember that it doesn't do it automatically when a file is saved. You can also choose from periods as low as 10 minutes. If you use your Windows 10 computer for work, a shorter period may offer you more reassurance if you work on files that change regularly, such as Word documents.

You can also choose the amount of time that a version is kept. The Forever option is a little misleading because it is the same as the Until Space Is Needed option. Keeping files until space is needed is probably the best option, however.

The first time you run File History, it creates a full and complete backup of your Libraries (Document, Music, Pictures, and Video), and if you want to back up additional files, you should add them to your Libraries. This initial backup can also take some time, depending on the number of files you are backing up and your connection speed. You don't need to worry about leaving the PC on, however, because if you need to put the PC to sleep or shut it down, the backup pauses and resumes when you switch it on next.

You can click See advanced settings to open the Control Panel File History options. This provides a way to clean up your File History drive should it become full. In the Control Panel File History settings, click the Advanced Settings link in the left-side pane, and then click the Clean up versions link.

Note: If you are using a laptop or tablet that has only a single hard disk, you might not be able to keep File History versions locally on the computer because Windows 10 doesn't support keeping versions in the same location as the original files. Many Internet routers have USB ports so that you can plug in a hard disk to use as network storage. This is an excellent location for backups and File History versioning.

Restoring Backed up and Deleted Files with File History

File History is used to restore your files under four different circumstances: you had to reinstall Windows on your PC; you need to move your files to a new PC; you accidentally deleted a file or files and you need to recover them; or you accidentally made a change to a file that you didn't intend to make.

There are two ways to open the File History restore screen. In the Settings app, in the File History options, you can click the Restore files from a current backup link at the very bottom of the panel. Alternatively, when you are in File Explorer and are looking at a specific folder, or indeed have a file highlighted, you see a History button under the Home tab on the ribbon. Click this to open the full File History restore window.

In the window that opens, you have several different sets of controls. The Back button and the address bar at the top of the window operate in exactly the same way as they do in File Explorer. Typing a folder location in the address bar takes you to the corresponding backup.

At the bottom of the window are back and forward (in time) buttons that move backward and forward through the different dates and times that changes were made to files. These buttons help you find the right version of a file to restore. Between these buttons is a large, green Restore button.

To restore files, select the file (or files) you want to restore and then click the green Restore button. It really couldn't be simpler to restore your files.

Note: If you are restoring your files from File History after reinstalling Windows, you need to set up File History again. Point it at the same backup location you used before to reconnect the File History drive. You can then restore all of your files to your PC.

Safeguarding Your Personal Files

One of the problems with your PC's user folders that store your Documents, Music, Pictures, Video, Internet Favorites, and more, is the uncertainty of where files are stored. If your files and data are stored on the same partition as your Windows installation, and you are forced to reformat the hard disk and reinstall the operating system from scratch, you could lose everything, or at least any files that have been created or modified since your last backup.

Although turning on the Libraries feature and then changing the default save location for those Libraries is one way to do this, move the user folders wholesale over to a new partition or hard disk in the computer.

A hard disk is a physical storage area in which everything is put in the same place, including your copy of Windows and all of your files. This means that if something goes wrong with Windows, you can face the possibility of losing all of your files as well.

If you split your hard disk into several partitions, you are splitting that physical hard disk into several logical ones. File Explorer sees each partition as a different disk drive.

If you have a second hard disk in your computer, you might want to use it for files and backups. If something goes wrong with the hard disk on which Windows is installed, and this hard disk sees the most mechanical activity, your files and your backup copy of Windows will still be intact.

To create new partitions on your hard disk for files, perform the following steps. (You should always be extremely careful when managing partitions on your PC. If they are not managed correctly, all manner of things can go wrong, including wiping out your copy of Windows 10 and all your files).

Press Win+X to display the Administration menu.
Click Disk Management.
To create a new partition, you need to make space by shrinking an existing one. In the Disk Management window, right-click the hard disk partition you want to shrink (usually the C:\ drive containing your Windows 10 installation).
From the options, select Shrink Volume. Note that "volume" is the terminology used here to describe both disks and partitions.
Note: How big should you leave your Windows partition? For general light usage, 50GB is a good size (enter 51200 in the size box). An enthusiast might want 100GB to 200GB (102400 or 204800), but a gamer might want up to 300GB (307200).
Choose the amount by which you want to shrink the disk. You'll need to leave enough space for all of your files and an image backup. On a larger hard disk (1TB or more), I suggest shrinking the drive down to 25 percent of its current size (e.g., 250GB).
In the unallocated space remaining after shrinking the partition, right-click with your mouse.
From the options, select New Simple Volume.
Create a partition of the appropriate size for files. We recommend 50 percent of the original volume size. Give it a name and a drive letter.
Repeat steps 6 to 8 for an image backup drive. Note that if you are using a professional-grade tablet or an Ultrabook that does not have a large hard disk, you might not have enough space for an image drive.

Note: Many computers come with a backup partition containing a factory system image of Windows 10. If your computer didn't come with a Windows 10 installation disc, I recommend leaving it and creating your own secondary backup partition as well, because you never know when the factory image might come in useful.

Now you need to move the user folders and files to the new files partition.

Open File Explorer.
Click the small arrow in the File Explorer address bar at the far left of the current address location.
From the drop-down location options, click your username.
Select the user folders you want to move, which are usually Downloads, Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos. Your Internet Favorites are automatically backed up and synced by default in Windows 10.
Right-click the selected folders.
From the menu, click Cut. (It is very important that you do not click Copy!)
In File Explorer, navigate to the new partition in which you want your files to reside.
Right-click in a blank space.
Select Paste from the options that appear.

Taking Ownership of Files and Folders

You can change security options with any selected file(s) or folder(s). Go to the Share tab on the Ribbon to launch Advanced Security Settings. By default, when a new user account is created in Windows 10, that user is given full permission to read, write, and modify the files in her user folders (Documents, Music, and so forth).

At times, you might find that you have permissions set on files and folders from another user or another version of Windows. This is especially true if you have upgraded your system from an earlier version of Windows or if you store your files and folders on a separate partition or hard disk for added security and peace of mind.

Caution: You should always be very careful when changing permissions for files and folders on your PC, as you could find that you inadvertently lock yourself out!

When you try to access a folder for which you do not have permission, Windows 10 normally asks you if you want to take ownership of the folder; if you say yes, it automatically changes the permissions of its contents.

Sometimes, however, you need to do it manually by following these steps:

In the Owner section of the Advanced Security Settings dialog, click Change.
In the Enter the Object Name to Select section, type the username of the user you want to make the owner.
Click the Check Names button.
If the names are correct, they appear. Click the OK button to complete the ownership changes on the files/folders.

[Previous] [Contents]