Creating data backups

Unless your computer is attached to a network with reliable backup services (for example, if you have a Windows Home Server network or your computer is attached to a network storage device that automatically performs backups), you should take advantage of Windows 7's abilities to make copies of your key files - and then ensure that those files are stored off-site, away from the computer from whence they came.

Here's how to get backups going on your computer:

1. Choose Start → Getting Started → Back Up Your Files.
   If you've never performed a backup, Windows responds with a Backup and Restore Center dialog box, informing you of that fact. You may also see this dialog box if you plug an external hard drive into your computer and choose Use This Drive for Backup.
2. Click Set Up Backup.
   Windows starts its backup software. That can take awhile. When the scampering chipmunks come back up for air, you see the dialog box.
3. If you have a network, and you're running windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, you should store the backup on another computer's hard drive, so click the Add Network Location button and follow the instructions.
   Windows 7 Starter and Home Premium editions don't allow you to automatically back up to a different computer on your network.
   You have to provide a valid username and password for the computer that will take your backups out on the network.
   The username and password have to be valid on the backup computer when the backup program runs.
4. Click the location that you want to hold your backups, and then click Next.
   You see the Configure Backup dialog box.
5. Specify whether you want to select the list of folders for backup or whether you trust Windows to do the dirty deed. (See the following sidebar, "What does Windows want to back up?" for details.) Click Next.
   If you elect to choose your own files for backup, Windows 7 gives you an opportunity to select file locations, but not file types. So, for example, you can say that you don't want to back up anything in a user's Videos library - but you can't tell Windows 7 that you want to include (or exclude) particular kinds of files.
   The Configure Backup Wizard presents you with the criteria it intends to use.
6. Click the Change Schedule link at the bottom to change the scheduled backup time.
   Generally it's a good idea to choose a schedule that doesn't interfere with your normal work schedule.
7. When you're ready to run a backup - and it can take a while - click the button marked Save Settings and Run Backup.
   The backup routine needs to transfer a lot of data, so don't expect your computer to be particularly, uh, sprightly in the interim.

The Windows 7 backup routine packs a whole bunch of smarts. It backs up only files that have changed since the previous backup, and if only part of a file has changed, just the "deltas" are transferred. It stores the backups as regular, old, everyday Zip files, in locations that you can find, understand, and get to. Recovering backed-up files takes only a few clicks. All in all, the wizard's a remarkable achievement, incorporating features that other backup programs have had for, oh, a decade or more.

Even if you feel secure about your fancy automatic shadow copies and previous versions (see the preceding sections), here are two good reasons for running this more mundane style of backup:

• From time to time, you definitely want to store backups someplace other than the drive on which the original data resides. Unless you (or your company's network administrator) have changed things, shadow copies go on the same drive as the original data.
• Having a full set of file backups at your beck and call can get you out of some very tight spots. I speak from personal experience.