Backup And Restore

Windows 7 includes the Backup And Restore Control Panel tool, which is an updated version of the Backup And Restore Center. The Backup And Restore Center uses Shadow Copy to take a snapshot of your files, even allowing the backup to back up open files completely without problems.

The Backup And Restore Center supports two kinds of backup:

• System Image Previously known as Complete PC Backup in Windows Vista, the System Image backup backs up an entire volume to a virtual hard disk (.vhd) diskimage file (compacted to remove empty space), allowing you to quickly restore a computer and all running applications. However, backups take up much more space and are more time consuming. System Image backups typically need to be done only once after a computer is initially configured. Complete PC Backup in Windows Vista could be stored only on local media, such as a DVD or a removable hard disk, but System Image backups in Windows 7 can also be saved to shared folders.
• Files and folders Stores user files and documents to compressed (.zip) files. File backups are incremental by default and thus are very quick. Additionally, file backups do not back up system files, program files, EFS-encrypted files, temporary files, files in the Recycle Bin, or user profile settings. File backups can back up to either local media or a shared folder on the network.

Note File backups are faster because they don't back up system or application files. However, System Image backups are surprisingly fast. Because System Image backups read the disk block by block, the read performance is faster than reading the disk file by file, which requires the disk to jump between different files.

Backup And Restore supports backing up data files to CD, DVD, hard disk (fixed or removable), or a network share. The default settings for the first backup and for scheduled backups perform both a System Image backup and a files and folders backup on a weekly basis.

Note You cannot save backups to a universal serial bus (USB) flash drive, but you can use an external USB hard drive or CF or SD memory cards.