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. I have the 750 gigger. 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.
thanks a lot for these brilliant information. i searched a long time to find the info here. now i will ad it to my favorites. thanks.
I setup backup that way, however when i boot to WinRE and try to restore it shows no exisitng backup where as if i run a backup the the GUI utility it list fine
When I try to do an automatic back-up I receive an error message that says there is no disk in the drive even though I have a disc in there. What would cause that?
check if your dvd drive is working, or check if there is a burning software installed, update the DVD drive firmware….
On vista, I’m using automatic back up to a USB hard drive. Even though I only have ~20BG of data (files, music, etc) – it is quickly filling up my 230 GB drive. A right click on the drive indicates ~90% full, however when I open the drive and explore – the back up folder only says ~20GB. If I drill down, I eventually find folder after folder of file back ups. If I play a song w/ media player, it backs up the file. Seems to continously add every day. Don’t understand what’s going on… Also – thinking I should maybe try synch toy instead, but have neer used it. Thoughts?
I have a Western Digital 750 G external hard drive. I followed you instructions but the back-up fails every time- error code (0×80042306)
A shadow copy could not be created for the following reason:
The shadow copy provider had an error. Please see the system and application event logs for more information.
Any ideas? Is this a Vista problem or WD problem?
Backup and Restore, put simply, just doesn’t work on Vista Home Premium.
Many files are not backed up, and dangerously it leads you to believe that the backup was successful! I have just learnt from another forum that it doesn’t do .exe and other files!
Home Premium doesn’t even do complete backups.
It is not up to the job of trying to be a professional operating system. A basic requirement of an operating system for the past 50 years has been the task of backing up (& restore if ever needed).
Without this it should not even be released to Beta Testing.
It is not “fit for purpose” (a legal consumer phrase in the UK) and you should get your money back from the supplier.
It is also not possible to restore files saved to an external harddisk using Vista’s own File Backup & Restore.
It is dangerously easy to use the “backup” function which saves to external disks fine at first… but just try restoring a test file after that from that harddisk and you’ll find that the “restore” won’t let you access the external harddisk for restoring from.
There are 100s of other posts on the web with this issue unsolved if external harddisks were used.
My advice is DO NOT USE/RELY ON the backup and restore files wizard unless you test the restore out immediate to see if it works at all. Use another back up system. There seems to be no support for this one.
Thanks to Plandon and emerald for those last two posts.
I have been regularly backing up my files using back up and restore for months and have only just needed to find a file that i accidentally deleted from my hard drive and guess what!!! Its not on my back up CD along with quite a few others too. I wont be using the back up and restore again it obviously doesnt work
I will simply copy my documents to a CD and or USB manually.
But how can I copy my email messages that I want to keep and email contacts from windows mail???
Mike
I am a semi-pro photographer an photos are crucial to me. Imagine a couple ask for for reprints 3 years later and I have lost a HDD. Not an option for me.
I learnt the hardway to find a solution that WORKS, EVERYTIME!!!!
Try Super Flexible File Synchronizer.
Scedule any backup task anywhere.
Support is also very good.
I do recommend this product if you are srious NOT to loose data.