Windows 7 / Getting Started

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.

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In this tutorial:

  1. Managing Disks and File Systems
  2. Overview of Partitioning Disks
  3. How to Choose Between MBR or GPT
  4. Converting from MBR to GPT Disks
  5. GPT Partitions
  6. Choosing Basic or Dynamic Disks
  7. Working with Volumes
  8. How to Create a Simple Volume
  9. How to Create a Spanned Volume
  10. How to Create a Striped Volume
  11. How to Resize a Volume
  12. How to Delete a Volume
  13. How to Create and Use a Virtual Hard Disk
  14. File System Fragmentation
  15. Backup And Restore
  16. How File Backups Work
  17. File and Folder Backup Structure
  18. How System Image Backups Work
  19. How to Start a System Image Backup from the Command Line
  20. How to Restore a System Image Backup
  21. System Image Backup Structure
  22. Best Practices for Computer Backups
  23. How to Manage Backup Using Group Policy Settings
  24. Previous Versions and Shadow Copies
  25. How to Manage Shadow Copies
  26. How to Restore a File with Previous Versions
  27. How to Configure Previous Versions with Group Policy Settings
  28. Windows ReadyBoost
  29. BitLocker Drive Encryption
  30. How BitLocker Encrypts Data
  31. How BitLocker Protects Data
  32. TPM with External Key (Require Startup USB Key At Every Startup)
  33. TPM with PIN (Require PIN At Every Startup)
  34. TPM with PIN and External Key
  35. BitLocker To Go
  36. BitLocker Phases
  37. Requirements for Protecting the System Volume with BitLocker
  38. How to Enable the Use of BitLocker on the System Volume on Computers Without TPM
  39. How to Enable BitLocker Encryption on System Volumes
  40. How to Enable BitLocker Encryption on Data Volumes
  41. How to Manage BitLocker Keys on a Local Computer
  42. How to Manage BitLocker from the Command Line
  43. How to Recover Data Protected by BitLocker
  44. How to Disable or Remove BitLocker Drive Encryption
  45. How to Decommission a BitLocker Drive Permanently
  46. How to Prepare AD DS for BitLocker
  47. How to Configure a Data Recovery Agent
  48. How to Manage BitLocker with Group Policy
  49. The Costs of BitLocker
  50. Windows 7 Encrypting File System
  51. How to Export Personal Certificates
  52. How to Import Personal Certificates
  53. How to Grant Users Access to an Encrypted File
  54. Symbolic Links
  55. How to Create Symbolic Links
  56. How to Create Relative or Absolute Symbolic Links
  57. How to Create Symbolic Links to Shared Folders
  58. How to Use Hard Links
  59. Disk Quotas
  60. How to Configure Disk Quotas on a Single Computer
  61. How to Configure Disk Quotas from a Command Prompt
  62. How to Configure Disk Quotas by Using Group Policy Settings
  63. Disk Tools
  64. EFSDump
  65. SDelete
  66. Streams
  67. Sync
  68. MoveFile and PendMoves