Restoring a System after a Disaster

If you have replaced a drive or computer, you can restore all your data because you were wise enough to back it up. Here are the tasks you need to perform (in the order in which you perform them):

• Install Windows
• Install the tape drive or removable media drive you used to make your backup.
• If you backed up to another computer on a network, install and configure the NIC so that you can get to the remote computer on the network.
• Install the backup software you used to create your backup. For most people, this is Microsoft Backup, but you may have installed a third-party application. It does not matter, because the process is the same.
• Open the backup software, and select the option to restore backed up files. A restore wizard opens to walk you through the process of restoring your files.
• Choose the files you want to restore. Choose the location of your backup files, and then choose the backup file you want to restore, which is usually the last backup file you made. Microsoft Backup displays the date and time that each backup file was made, so it is easy to select the right file.

If you have accumulated a lot of backup files, more than a couple of weeks' worth, you can delete the older files.