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Backup Your Computer and Save Your (Computing) Life, Part 1

Apr 13, 2011

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Windows Backup Utilities

Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP all include backup programs, but they vary widely in how they work. The following sections help you understand the features and limitations of the backup programs included in your version of Windows.

Windows 7 Backup and Restore

All Windows 7 editions incorporate image and file backup from a Backup and Restore utility accessed from the Control Panel. Backup and Restore can use recordable or rewriteable DVDs or external hard disks for file backups; to perform scheduled backups, including image backups, use external hard disks formatted with the NTFS file system. Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate editions can also back up files and images to a network share.

NOTE

Although late-model external hard disks made for use with Windows are typically pre-formatted with NTFS, older models (some of which may still be available as new) and drives made for use with MacOS and Windows or MacOS are formatted as FAT32. You can use the command-line convert.exe program to convert a drive using the FAT32 file system to NTFS.

To determine the file system used by a hard disk, right-click the drive icon in My Computer/Computer/Windows Explorer and select Properties. The file system is displayed along with other drive information on the General tab.

Backup and Restore can also be used to manage the space used by your backup, and can also restore backups made with Windows Vista’s image backup.

Some users have complained of slow backup times with the initial release of Windows 7. Install Windows 7 Service Pack 1 via Windows Update or through this download to fix this problem and receive other fixes. To learn more about Windows 7 Backup and Restore, see part 1 and part 2 of my two-part series for InformIT. I also wrote about Backup and Restore for Maximum PC.com.

Windows Vista Backup

Windows Vista also has a Backup and Restore utility that supports CD and DVD media, external hard disks, and (in Business and Ultimate editions only), a network folder. However, instead of using a single backup program, Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise include two backup utilities, one for image backup (Windows Complete PC Backup) and one for file/folder backup (Back Up Files wizard). Home editions only include the file/folder backup and must use a third-party program to create a disaster recovery image backup.

Although the Windows Vista and Windows 7 Backup and Restore dialogs are similar, Windows 7’s backup is a lot easier to manage. It’s just one of the benefits you’ll gain by upgrading to Windows 7 from Vista.

Windows XP Backup

Windows XP’s backup program (also known as NTBackup) was written primarily for removable media and tape backup drives. You can use it with external hard disks and a network folder, but it can store files on a CD or DVD only up to the capacity of a single disc; you can’t span backups to these types of media. If you use Windows XP Home Edition, NTBackup is not installed by default, but it can be installed from your Windows XP Home Edition CD.

NTBackup also lacks the ability to create a true bare-metal disaster recovery backup. Although it supports a backup option called ASR (Automatic System Recovery), you must reinstall Windows XP before you can run it, and you can’t restore programs with it. If you want a true bare-metal disaster recovery backup, use a third-party backup tool.

NOTE

What if you have NTBackup (BKF) files on disk or tape and you need to restore them to a newer version of Windows? You can restore backup files from disk or tape in Windows Vista using the Windows NT Backup Restore Utility for Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 are the last versions of Windows to support the Removable Storage Manager (RSM) needed to restore BKF files from tape. If you are restoring from tape, enable RSM.

To restore backups from media other than tape in Windows 7, get the Windows NT Backup Restore Utility for Windows 7 and for Windows Server 2008 R2.

Table 1 provides a brief comparison of the major features of these versions of Windows’ backup utilities.

Table 1—Windows 7, Vista, and XP Backup Capabilities

Windows Version	Backup Utility	Disaster-Recovery Image Backup	File Backup
Windows 7 (all editions)	Backup and Restore	Yes	Yes
Windows Vista Business, Ultimate, Enterprise	Complete PC Backup	Yes	No
Windows Vista (all editions)	Back Up Files	No	Yes
Windows XP	NTBackup	No	Yes

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