Working with Backups

Seriously, you should back up your data periodically - and store the major backups off-site.

Windows 7 backups fall into four categories:

• Shadow copies (also called previous versions and, confusingly, backup copies) of your data files, which Windows 7 keeps for you automatically.
• Data backups are partial backups in which you use the File and Folder Backup Wizard to make copies of a subset of everything on your drives. You find details about shadow copies and data backups a little later in this section.
• System restore points back up most of your computer's internal settings, drivers, and certain key system files. Windows 7 automatically creates a system restore point daily. Windows 7 also usually creates a restore point before installing new software. Restore points are quite different from data backups; see "Using System Restore and Restore Points," later in this tutorial, for details.
• Image backups are snapshots of the entire contents of your drives. Image backups are also called system images, Complete PC backups (that's Vista terminology), system backups, complete backups, ghosts - in deference to Norton Ghost, the granddaddy of image backup software - and several other imaginative appellations. Confused yet? Details on image backups appear later in this section.

Tip If you have a Windows Home Server PC on your network, you have no need to run Windows 7 backups. Really. Windows Home Server takes care of everything - shadow copies, image backups, the whole nine yards - and it does so in a way that's technically superior to Windows 7 capabilities. Windows Home Server has a lot of cool capabilities.