Managing and restoring data backups

With all that backed-up data floating around on your machine, you might think that restoring a backed-up file would prove daunting at best. Not so. The Backup and Restore Center gives you several tools to make managing and restoring data backups - the kind you created in the preceding section - surprisingly easy.

Windows 7 automatically keeps shadow copies/previous versions of your data files, but they sit on the same hard drive as the original file: If the drive goes belly-up, the shadow copies go down hard.

Data backups usually go on some drive other than the original hard drive - possibly on a network drive, or a USB drive, burned on a DVD, or a second hard drive attached to your computer. Data backups keep growing and growing and if you don't prune them back, they'll take up all the space they can. Windows provides you with a one-stop center for pruning data backups. Here's all you have to do:

1. Choose Start → Control Panel. Under the System and Security heading, click the Back Up Your Computer link.
   The Windows 7 Backup and Restore Center appears.
2. Click the Manage Space link.
   The Backup and Restore Center shows you a full analysis of the room occupied by your data backups and system image ("ghost") backups. (Shadow copies/previous versions aren't listed here because they're stuffed into each drive's system restore area.)
3. Click the View Backups button.
   The Backup and Restore Center shows you a list of all backups that have taken place recently, noting the size of the backup.
4. If you want to delete a backup, click it once and then click Delete. If you're trying to reclaim significant amounts of space on a hard drive, search for the really old, really big backups. Remember that you're only deleting the backup, not the original data.
5. Click Close, and then click X to close the Backup and Restore Center. Backups can take a lot of room.

To restore a file from a data backup, follow these steps:

1. Choose Start → Control Panel. Under the System and Security heading, click the Back Up Your Computer link.
   The Windows 7 Backup and Restore Center appears.
2. Click the Restore My Files button.
   The Backup and Restore Center has you specify which files you want to restore by either browsing or searching.
3. Choose Browse for Files, Browse for Folders, or Search, and add all the files or folders you want to restore. When you're done, click Next.
   The Backup and Restore Center lets you specify whether you want the files restored to their original location or to a new location of your choosing.
4. Unless you have an overwhelming reason to overwrite your current files, pick a new location for the restored files. Click Restore.
   By restoring the file to a location other than its original location, you eliminate the possibility (indeed, the likelihood) of shooting yourself in the foot by confusing restored files with any original files.
   Windows restores each selected file and folder. When it's done, a final dialog box tells you that the files have been restored.
5. When the wizard presents you with the final dialog box, click the Finish button.
6. Immediately open the restored file, and make sure that you got what you thought you were going to get.
   If you got the right file, you can feel comfortable about moving it to its original location, possibly zapping out a screwed-up version.
   If you have the wrong file, repeat Steps 1-3 and, in Step 3, select the Files from an Older Backup option.