Are you backing up? You really should be.
An issue that’s came up in General Poop Discussion rather frequently lately has been about Vegas freaking out and making your system wonky. My most frequent suggestion—use the last restore point available from a time when you remember your computer worked reasonably well.
Beyond that, though, System Restore is not and should not be used as a backup plan. It’s not perfect. System Restore applies only to core Window’s files and programs and their registry settings. It absolutely cannot bring back a picture of grandma you accidentally deleted, but inversely it will not remove files you’ve created after the restore point you revert to.
System Restore is awesome though, don’t get me wrong. It’s faster creating a restore point than a system image and uses far less space. So if Vegas or any sort of software is giving you problems by making your computer behave in a less than desirable way (like downloading disgusting amounts of pornography and locking you into a ransomware security suite) fire up System Restore and take a step back a few days. Hell—go back to the earliest one ever made and have a clean(ish) system. Backing up, though, is something you need to also give serious attention to. If you’re not backing up, you’re not doing something right. If you’re backing up to the same drive as the backup’s source files, you’re still not doing something right. Get an external hard disk.
No if’s, and’s or buts—you have no excuse not to buy a 1TB external hard disk unless you’re a kid with no income and your parents are on a razor thin budget that disqualifies a $60 external hard disk even as a Christmas gift. I’m dead serious—you can buy a 1TB hard disk for $60, and that’s pretty cheap as far as most mission-critical hardware goes. Sling any slurs at me about assuming how anybody can afford an external hard disk without knowing about their financial situation all you want. But as far as I’m concerned I’d no sooner use a computer without a mouse or monitor than I would without a backup drive. To me, it’s that, stinking important and essential.
With Windows 7, I recommend the default backup plan Window’s chooses unless you’re some weirdo who saves personal files in Program Files (or have an oddball program that saves data to Program Files—I’ve seen that before and it’s pretty stupid… I’m looking at you, CDex).
A System Image is very much like a Restore Point on steroids. I’ve never heard of a case of System Restore being compromised and failing, but a System Image is just what it says on the box—a complete clone of your C: drive you can squirrel away and revert to when your disk eventually fails (and trust me, it will. I’m riding out year three on a Western Digital 1TB HDD and am starting to study my options of migration). If your hard disk fails, System Restore will not save you.
So, you have a backup of your personal files and a System Image. Your hard disk fails and you pop in a replacement—how do you get those files back on there like nothing ever happened? You might have noticed in the Backup and Restore center beneath Create a System Image in the left panel, there was an option to create a System Repair recovery disk. Use this to create a bootable medkit for your PC which you can use to re-image your System Image onto the new hard disk. It’s been while since I’ve had to re-image a Windows 7 PC but if I remember right, your System Image will already include the contents of your C: drive which means that you shouldn’t even have to restore the files from your backup and they will be there without any extra fiddling.
Windows 8 and 8.1 have File History which is as easy as plugging your external in and turning File History on. You’ll forget you’re even backing up at all! To turn on File History, open the Charms bar (Win Key+C, or mouse to top right corner and move the cursor down). Select Settings, Change PC Settings, Update and Recovery, File History. If the slider says “off”, move it to “on” to turn on File History.
To add folders to a library group, it’s super-easy. You right click a folder, go to “Include in Library” and from the sub-menu that opens select the library group you want to add the folder to. After that, File History will always make sure the folder you selected is backed up.
You can also further detail File History through its Control Panel settings. Confusingly, this isn’t available from the PC Settings interface of Update and Recovery. From the Start Screen, start typing File History. You’ll see three options come up. Select File History--it looks like a little folder icon with a small clock and green arrow (not the gear that misleadingly says "File History Settings", that’s the Modern UI settings). This will bring you back to the desktop with the File History settings which should have logically been in the Update and Recovery group as well as the desktop’s. From here you’ll notice you can make a System Image very much the same way you could in Windows 7. There’s also the Recovery section from which you can create a bootable recovery drive to troubleshoot badly behaving PC’s or fiddle with the restore point settings.
Going back to File History, though, you’ll see “Advanced Settings” in the left pane, which will give you some neat options like how long to keep backups, and how frequently you want File History to save them. The defaults are fine, but I’ve found as my internal HDD’s space has shrank, it’s been even harder on my external which has to hold multiple versions of each file, and I’ve found myself keeping my backups for shorter and shorter periods of time.
Guess it’s time to buy a second backup drive! A 2.5TB, this time. Lock the old one away in a safe and reformat it next year when I feel all of its data probably holds no further intrinsic value to me. A word to the wise, though, backup drives (especially with File History) are written to many, many times throughout their lifetime. When you find yourself needing a newer, bigger backup drive and retire the old one, it's probably already at the end of its lifetime and shouldn't be relied on for critical backup any further.
OTHER THOUGHTS
Cloud backup might be your only choice if you well and truly cannot afford or access any sort of external backup medium. What services work for you depends on several factors. I like Dropbox, personally, but then again I’ve earned a lot of free extra space for my account and have nearly 30gb that I’ll probably never use. Dropbox initially, though, has 2GB for its free account. If you’re just storing class work, documents, and maybe some photos and music it might just be enough for you to get by with.
Alternatively, if you’re already using Windows 8 or 8.1 and aren’t as grounded in Dropbox as I am, I think OneDrive is a very solid alternative since it already integrates well into Windows. It also boasts an initial free 15GB of storage compared to Dropbox’s paltry 2GB. Quite honestly, I’d be using OneDrive right now if I didn’t already have so much integrated into Dropbox.
A word to the wise, though, you more than likely will not benefit from commercial cloud backup providers that specialize in data backup and protection. Things like OneDrive and Dropbox work more accurately as syncing services which while they do save your data to the cloud, they aren’t intended to store big data. Services such as SpiderOak cater more to businesses that deal with hundreds of gigabytes to terabytes worth of data and if you are storing that much data in the cloud, you will likely never fully upload the full contents of your drive due to the relatively low upload speed limits and caps that come with residential ISP’s.
An issue that’s came up in General Poop Discussion rather frequently lately has been about Vegas freaking out and making your system wonky. My most frequent suggestion—use the last restore point available from a time when you remember your computer worked reasonably well.
Beyond that, though, System Restore is not and should not be used as a backup plan. It’s not perfect. System Restore applies only to core Window’s files and programs and their registry settings. It absolutely cannot bring back a picture of grandma you accidentally deleted, but inversely it will not remove files you’ve created after the restore point you revert to.
System Restore is awesome though, don’t get me wrong. It’s faster creating a restore point than a system image and uses far less space. So if Vegas or any sort of software is giving you problems by making your computer behave in a less than desirable way (like downloading disgusting amounts of pornography and locking you into a ransomware security suite) fire up System Restore and take a step back a few days. Hell—go back to the earliest one ever made and have a clean(ish) system. Backing up, though, is something you need to also give serious attention to. If you’re not backing up, you’re not doing something right. If you’re backing up to the same drive as the backup’s source files, you’re still not doing something right. Get an external hard disk.
No if’s, and’s or buts—you have no excuse not to buy a 1TB external hard disk unless you’re a kid with no income and your parents are on a razor thin budget that disqualifies a $60 external hard disk even as a Christmas gift. I’m dead serious—you can buy a 1TB hard disk for $60, and that’s pretty cheap as far as most mission-critical hardware goes. Sling any slurs at me about assuming how anybody can afford an external hard disk without knowing about their financial situation all you want. But as far as I’m concerned I’d no sooner use a computer without a mouse or monitor than I would without a backup drive. To me, it’s that, stinking important and essential.
.Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Here you see the backup and restore center, and its breadcrumbs through the Control Panel in Windows 7.
When it comes to backing up, you have various options. I’m going to presume the wide swath of us are probably using a Windows 7, 8 or 8.1 PC. In Windows 7 you open the Start Menu, type “Backup and Restore” and open the Backup and Restore center. If you’ve never made a backup before, you’ll see an option on the right in blue text “Set up backup” which from there you’ll be able to select an available drive to backup to. Windows 7 has two options which is to let Windows choose what to back up and the second option you pick which folders and libraries you want to backup. By default, when Windows chooses the backup source files, it selects your libraries, your desktop, and the default personal folders (eg My Documents, My Downloads… etc). The second backup option also gives you the option of making a System Image along with any individual folders you select.With Windows 7, I recommend the default backup plan Window’s chooses unless you’re some weirdo who saves personal files in Program Files (or have an oddball program that saves data to Program Files—I’ve seen that before and it’s pretty stupid… I’m looking at you, CDex).
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Both default backup strategy choices. Note the recommended backup will not offer to create a system image.
In the Backup and Restore center, on the left-hand panel you’ll see the option to create a System Image. I recommend you doing this semi-frequently. At least on a monthly basis. And if storage space is an issue (as I have the problem with a 1TB internal backing up to a 1TB external), keep them only one month at a time too. You’ll at least have something to fall back on if your computer meets with a terrible fate.A System Image is very much like a Restore Point on steroids. I’ve never heard of a case of System Restore being compromised and failing, but a System Image is just what it says on the box—a complete clone of your C: drive you can squirrel away and revert to when your disk eventually fails (and trust me, it will. I’m riding out year three on a Western Digital 1TB HDD and am starting to study my options of migration). If your hard disk fails, System Restore will not save you.
So, you have a backup of your personal files and a System Image. Your hard disk fails and you pop in a replacement—how do you get those files back on there like nothing ever happened? You might have noticed in the Backup and Restore center beneath Create a System Image in the left panel, there was an option to create a System Repair recovery disk. Use this to create a bootable medkit for your PC which you can use to re-image your System Image onto the new hard disk. It’s been while since I’ve had to re-image a Windows 7 PC but if I remember right, your System Image will already include the contents of your C: drive which means that you shouldn’t even have to restore the files from your backup and they will be there without any extra fiddling.
Windows 8 and 8.1 have File History which is as easy as plugging your external in and turning File History on. You’ll forget you’re even backing up at all! To turn on File History, open the Charms bar (Win Key+C, or mouse to top right corner and move the cursor down). Select Settings, Change PC Settings, Update and Recovery, File History. If the slider says “off”, move it to “on” to turn on File History.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Image may be NSFW.
Clik here to view.
Side-by-side views of Windows 8/8.1's File History settings. You can access it through the Modern UI's PC Settings, or through Control Panel.
There are a few tweaks, you can use to personalize the backup. For example, I realized to my frustration once that File History doesn’t backup AppData by default. In fact, by default it only, ONLY backs up folders included in a library group. If you want to keep a copy of a folder and its contents that aren't included in a library, I recommend opening the File Explorer, and right-clicking Libraries in the navigation pane on the left. From there, you can create a new library group. Call it whatever you want. If in Windows 8.1 you do not see the Libraries group in the navigation pane, go up to the ribbon, select view, Navigation Pane in the “pane” group, and check “show libraries” if it is not checked.To add folders to a library group, it’s super-easy. You right click a folder, go to “Include in Library” and from the sub-menu that opens select the library group you want to add the folder to. After that, File History will always make sure the folder you selected is backed up.
You can also further detail File History through its Control Panel settings. Confusingly, this isn’t available from the PC Settings interface of Update and Recovery. From the Start Screen, start typing File History. You’ll see three options come up. Select File History--it looks like a little folder icon with a small clock and green arrow (not the gear that misleadingly says "File History Settings", that’s the Modern UI settings). This will bring you back to the desktop with the File History settings which should have logically been in the Update and Recovery group as well as the desktop’s. From here you’ll notice you can make a System Image very much the same way you could in Windows 7. There’s also the Recovery section from which you can create a bootable recovery drive to troubleshoot badly behaving PC’s or fiddle with the restore point settings.
Going back to File History, though, you’ll see “Advanced Settings” in the left pane, which will give you some neat options like how long to keep backups, and how frequently you want File History to save them. The defaults are fine, but I’ve found as my internal HDD’s space has shrank, it’s been even harder on my external which has to hold multiple versions of each file, and I’ve found myself keeping my backups for shorter and shorter periods of time.
Guess it’s time to buy a second backup drive! A 2.5TB, this time. Lock the old one away in a safe and reformat it next year when I feel all of its data probably holds no further intrinsic value to me. A word to the wise, though, backup drives (especially with File History) are written to many, many times throughout their lifetime. When you find yourself needing a newer, bigger backup drive and retire the old one, it's probably already at the end of its lifetime and shouldn't be relied on for critical backup any further.
OTHER THOUGHTS
Cloud backup might be your only choice if you well and truly cannot afford or access any sort of external backup medium. What services work for you depends on several factors. I like Dropbox, personally, but then again I’ve earned a lot of free extra space for my account and have nearly 30gb that I’ll probably never use. Dropbox initially, though, has 2GB for its free account. If you’re just storing class work, documents, and maybe some photos and music it might just be enough for you to get by with.
Alternatively, if you’re already using Windows 8 or 8.1 and aren’t as grounded in Dropbox as I am, I think OneDrive is a very solid alternative since it already integrates well into Windows. It also boasts an initial free 15GB of storage compared to Dropbox’s paltry 2GB. Quite honestly, I’d be using OneDrive right now if I didn’t already have so much integrated into Dropbox.
A word to the wise, though, you more than likely will not benefit from commercial cloud backup providers that specialize in data backup and protection. Things like OneDrive and Dropbox work more accurately as syncing services which while they do save your data to the cloud, they aren’t intended to store big data. Services such as SpiderOak cater more to businesses that deal with hundreds of gigabytes to terabytes worth of data and if you are storing that much data in the cloud, you will likely never fully upload the full contents of your drive due to the relatively low upload speed limits and caps that come with residential ISP’s.