Vista Backup & Restore

[Andee39]

Hi,
I recently had to have Vista Business reinstalled b/c my computer crashed.
I have a complete backup on an external drive using Vista Backup & Restore
(keeping my fingers crossed it is a good one) but it is from several months
ago so I decided to have the tech that was checking out my computer do a
backup before reinstall. Unfortunately, he couldn't backup everything and I
am missing quite a bit of stuff. I have no idea how the complete restore
would work. Am I able to select certain data to restore? Does it restore
things back to their original location?
Thanks.

 

[nomore]

Le Vista Backup does not clone your hard drive.
It will back up that which you select and you must check to see it has been
done and is readable. The latter is true for all archiving systems.
There are various schemes for backing up individual files, locally or web
based or both.
Serious users should perform an entire hard drive back-up periodically, at
least once anyway, that can be cloned back to a new hard drive should the
situation arise.
Freeware programs such as Drive Image xml are more than adequate and there
are several good commercial packages.

 

[Andee39]

In the Vista Backup & Restore program you have a choice of backing up
specific folders (I don't remember exactly how it is worded) or a complete
backup of your computer. I did the complete backup. Doesn't that make a
clone of your system?

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:34:01 -0700, Andee39



Several points interspersed below, mostly for your future use of
computers.

I recently had to have Vista Business reinstalled b/c my computer crashed.

You didn't provide any details about the crash, but for the future,
let me point out that most crashes can be fixed far more easily than
reinstalling Windows. Sometimes reinstallation *is* necessary, but it
should be a last resort, to be only done after other attempts by a
competent person at solving the problem have failed.

I have a complete backup on an external drive using Vista Backup & Restore
(keeping my fingers crossed it is a good one) but it is from several months
ago

Three points here:

1. An external drive *is* a good place to backup to.

2. The built-in Windows backup is just about the poorest choice of
backup software available. If your data is important to you, it's
worth spending a little money for an excellent product like Acronis
True Image.

3. If you perform backups several months apart, and your data is
important to you, you are playing with fire. I can't tell you how
often to back up, because I don't know what your data is or how
volatile it is. But most people probably should back up at least once
a week or so.

so I decided to have the tech that was checking out my computer

Who is this tech? What company does he work for? How did you choose
him and his company?

Avoid the Geek Squad (which is terrible) and anyone else from one of
the big box stores. The best service usually comes from a small local
establishment, and you should find who to use by recommends from
trusted friends or, even better, from a local PC Users Group, if their
is one.

do a
backup before reinstall. Unfortunately, he couldn't backup everything and I
am missing quite a bit of stuff. I have no idea how the complete restore
would work. Am I able to select certain data to restore? Does it restore
things back to their original location?

I can't tell you much about the built-in Vista backup, which I don't
use, but perhaps someone else here can give you more details.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

No. A clone is in essence a sector-by-sector copy of the entire hard drive,
including the boot sector and the OS and all the file-system management
stuff.

A complete backup might mean just a copy of all the data folders and files
with no boot sector or file system stuff. It might even lack the OS, and
even all programs, depending on which program and which options you choose.

 

[Charles W Davis]

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:34:01 -0700, Andee39



Several points interspersed below, mostly for your future use of
computers.




You didn't provide any details about the crash, but for the future,
let me point out that most crashes can be fixed far more easily than
reinstalling Windows. Sometimes reinstallation *is* necessary, but it
should be a last resort, to be only done after other attempts by a
competent person at solving the problem have failed.




Three points here:

1. An external drive *is* a good place to backup to.

2. The built-in Windows backup is just about the poorest choice of
backup software available. If your data is important to you, it's
worth spending a little money for an excellent product like Acronis
True Image.

3. If you perform backups several months apart, and your data is
important to you, you are playing with fire. I can't tell you how
often to back up, because I don't know what your data is or how
volatile it is. But most people probably should back up at least once
a week or so.





Who is this tech? What company does he work for? How did you choose
him and his company?

Avoid the Geek Squad (which is terrible) and anyone else from one of
the big box stores. The best service usually comes from a small local
establishment, and you should find who to use by recommends from
trusted friends or, even better, from a local PC Users Group, if their
is one.






I can't tell you much about the built-in Vista backup, which I don't
use, but perhaps someone else here can give you more details.

Vista Ultimate will back up most of the contents of the computer, it is not
a cloner.
Vista Home will back up documents.
For both versions, you can have it automatically back up on any frequency
that you choose. They only back up documents (files) that have been revised
since the prior back up.

Both will restore selectively.

However, if you have had Vista Ultimate you can't back up to Vista Home
Premium. I balks and if you force the restore, it will place 96,000 files on
your computer that are protected. It took me a couple of weeks to get a
workable system again.