Virtual Hard Disk (.VHD) files are used by Virtual PC and Virtual Server, and created by Windows Backup when you make a system image backup. If you ever need to access files contained within a .VHD, you can do it using the Disk Management tool built into Windows 7. Just follow these steps:

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I go on and on about how important backup up your data is. All hard disks fail eventually, and when they do, you’ll lose all your stuff–including your personal pictures and home videos.

So, you need to backup. I tell most people to buy a USB drive a bit bigger than their computer’s C:\ drive and use that for backups. That works well and protects you from a failed hard disk or accidentally deleted files–but it doesn’t protect you from fire or theft, because you’d lose your backup drive, too.

Businesses do off-site backups for disaster recovery. Basically they take their backup drives or tapes to a different location that they can get to if something goes really bad. That doesn’t work well for people, though, because even if you buy a second external drive and take it to a friend’s house, you’ll forget to do it regularly. For the home user (myself included), backups must be automated or they’ll be forgotten.

Enter online backup services, which copy files from your computer to a server on the Internet. When you lose your data, you download it back from them. I checked out the major online backup services and found one that’s working for me.

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If Windows Vista or Windows 7 won’t start, you can boot from the system DVD and perform a System Restore to return your computer’s configuration to an earlier state. This is a great way to undo recent problems with malware,  spyware, and viruses.

Before doing a System Restore, I’d try running Startup Repair. Then, do this:

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Question:

Tony,

I have Windows Vista Home Premium, and want to use Task Scheduler to schedule Automatic Backup to my DVD to wake-up and run this task after I put my computer into Sleep Mode.  In Task Scheduler, I click on Create Task, and when I get to the Actions window, I click on New, and then click on Browse, and then click on Look-In.  However, I can’t locate the Backup task in the Look-In portion of the Actions window, so that I can schedule it to wake-up the computer (on the Conditions window), in order to run backup, after I have put it into Sleep mode.  Can you tell me how to locate Backup in the Look-In window?  Your prompt reply will be greatly appreciated.

Stan  

Answer:

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Question:

Hi Tony. THANKS SO MUCH for all the great info!

I tried to follow the procedures to do a complete PC backup but 2 issues: 1) system can’t find the file wbadmin and 2) I want to do the backup to a specific directory of the external hard drive: is that ok?

Thanks!

Answer:

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When I provided these manual instructions for restoring a BKF file, I promised that Microsoft would release a tool to simplify the process. Well, here it is.

Before you install it, you’ll need to turn on or install the Removable Storage Management by following these steps:

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If the Backup Status And Configuration or the Backup And Restore Center freezes when you try to open it, verify that your backup media (the external hard disk you use for backups) is connected and has some free space. If it doesn’t have enough free space, Backup Status And Configuration and the Backup And Restore Center seem to freeze trying to get the info from the drive.

To check the space, click Start, and then click Computer. Right-click your backup disk and then click Properties. From there, you can run Disk Cleanup to clear up some space.

After you free up the space, reopen the Backup Status And Configuration or the Backup And Restore Center pages–it should work this time.