Schedule an Automatic BackupWindows Vista includes two types of backups: * Files and folders. This backs up your documents. If you lose your hard disk, you can use this to restore your most important files. You’ll need to re-install Windows and all of your applications, though.
Hard disks die, and computers get stolen. You need to backup your computer regularly. Most people backup weekly, but I do it nightly, because who can stand to lose a week’s worth of work?
First, buy yourself an external USB hard disk to hold your backup. You can’t backup to your C:\ drive, because you won’t be able to get to your backup if it dies. Here are some well-reviewed drives in different capacities:
250 GB, 500 GB, and
750 GB. Be sure to get one big enough to hold all your files.
Then, follow these steps to schedule a backup (you’ll need administrative privileges):
1. Connect and turn on your external hard disk.
2. Click
Start, type
Backup, and then click
Backup and Restore Center.3. Click
Back up files.
4. On the Where Do You Want To Save The Backup page, click On a
hard disk, CD, or DVD, and then select your disk. Click
Next.5. If the Which Disks Do You Want To Include In The Backup page appears, select the disks where you store important files, and then click
Next.6. On the Which File Types Do You Want To Back Up page, select any file types you don’t want to lose. Then, click
Next.7. On the Back Up Files page, schedule how often you want your files backed up. I suggest changing this to
Daily. If you don’t mind losing a whole week of work if your computer has a problem, you can leave it at
Weekly. Then, schedule a time when your computer will be turned on and connected to the external hard disk, and click
Save settings and start backup.Windows Vista will immediately start a backup. It’ll also run a backup at the time and interval you specified.
This automatic backup will save your most important files. You should also do a
Complete PC backup at least once (it’s better to do it every six months). You can’t easily schedule that, though.
Backup your computer and applications *
Complete PC. This backs up your entire computer, including all of your applications and settings. This backs up your personal files, too, but it takes up so much space that you won’t want to do this on a daily basis. CompletePC backup is only available on Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise editions. It’s not part of Windows Vista Home Basic or Home Premium.
You should create a Complete PC backup when you first get your computer setup and all your applications installed. Then, schedule a files and folders backup nightly. You can run another Complete PC backup if you install new applications, or every six months.
First, buy yourself an external USB hard disk to hold your backup. You can’t backup to your C:\ drive, because you won’t be able to get to your backup if it dies. Here are some well-reviewed drives in different capacities:
250 GB, 500 GB, and
750 GB. Be sure to get one big enough to hold all your files.
To run a Complete PC backup, follow these steps:
1. Connect and turn on your external hard disk.
2. Click
Start, type
Backup, and then click
Backup and Restore Center.3. Click
Back up computer.
4. On the Where Do You Want To Save The Backup page, click On a
hard disk, and then select your disk. Click
Next. Yes, you can backup your computer to DVDs if you have a writeable DVD drive, but it would take dozens of DVDs, and you’ll forget to do it on a regular basis.
5. Click
Start Backup. Windows Vista will work for quite some time… It’ll probably take hours.
If your hard disk every fails, or if you get hit by a spyware or virus and you can’t fix your computer, you’ll be able to restore your computer using this backup from the Backup And Restore Center.
