MFR IT Technical Guides Windows 7 Backup and Recovery Page 1 of 33
Table of Contents 1 Glossary... 3 2 Backup Strategy... 4 3 Windows Backup Options... 5 3.1 Windows Backup... 5 3.2 Windows System Image Backup... 10 3.3 Windows System Protection... 15 3.4 Creating a System repair disc... 19 4 Restoring files from Backup... 20 5 System Restore - Restoring Windows 7 with a System Image backup... 24 5.1 Restoring Windows 7 on a functioning computer... 24 5.2 Restoring Windows 7 on an inaccessible machine... 27 6 System Rebuild Complete rebuild of a Windows 7 machine... 30 7 Cloud Options... 32 Page 2 of 33
1 Glossary Drive Volume System Image System Restore Point Cloud Backup GB Wizard NTFS File System Hardware Software CPU Boot NAS A disk on a computer, either physical, or virtual, (a physical disk may contain multiple virtual drives or volumes A logical drive that appears as a single accessible storage area, place to store system and/or data An exact copy of a drive, useful in recovery to replace a faulty or missing A point-in-time where the system, (i.e. Windows) has taken a copy of the configuration settings and files necessary to run Windows that you can revert the system back to Backup to places located on the Internet GigaByte, a computer sizing unit that denotes an amount of memory, (1GB = 1000MB, MegaByte) A part of an application, (generally on install), that guides the user through setting configurations for the application New Technology File System Microsoft s proprietary File System, providing a stable and secure platform for Windows to be installed onto Is used to control how data is stored and retrieved. Every hard disk requires a file system that acts like a cataloguing system for all the data stored on it Refers to any physical used or connected to a computer system; Hard Disks, CPU, etc. Refers to the non-tangible parts of a computer system; Operating System, Applications, etc. Central Processing Unit carries out the instructions directed to it by the Operating System and other applications The term used for a computer starting up Network Attached Storage Device with multiple hard disk for storage and redundancy, (one disk can fail without impact to data disk can then be replaced to provide redundancy again) Page 3 of 33
2 Backup Strategy Why? To protect your computer, and most importantly, your Data, from corruption, loss, or deletion you need to have a backup strategy in place. It is very important to always have a current backup of your system and files so that in the event of disk failure; corruption of the O.S.; loss of your PC, (more prone to happen with laptops); or some other issue that renders your system unrecoverable, you can restore from a valid backup and get everything back. Windows 7 comes with three standard types of backup; 1. Windows Backup that can back up all of your data on the system, and allow you to restore individual files from it, in the event of corruption or issues. 2. System Image backup which will create an image of all the system and application files, and provides a restore of the entire system, including all programs, settings, and files. This will create a single backup file. You cannot select individual files to restore with this type of backup. 3. System Protection, (System Restore Point) this tool allows you to set aside a certain amount of harddisk space to create older copies of system settings and files to restore from if necessary. For the first two options it s best to purchase an external hard disk drive, (HDD), that you can use as a backup drive. I recommend a 2.5 inch size drive that uses USB power, (i.e. it doesn t require a separate power cable to run). WD and Seagate do good cheap drives and you can find these in most electrical goods stores, or computer wholesalers. (The 3.5 inch drives are cheaper but larger, weigh 4 to 5 times as much, and often have separate power required). Option 3 uses a set amount of hard disk space on each drive that you set it up for see section 2.3 for more details. Other backup options are now available with Cloud Backup solutions that allow you to select file and folders to replicate to the Cloud, (internet storage repositories), from your computer that you can then retrieve whenever and wherever you like. Page 4 of 33
3 Windows Backup Options 3.1 Windows Backup Why? So you can recover your data in the event of a system, user, hardware, or environmental issue. To access Windows Backup in Windows 7 simply click Start and type backup. Then select Backup and Restore from the items displayed. Alternatively, open Control Panel and select Backup your computer. You will see the following screen on first opening. Here click on Set up backup You will be prompted for the administrator s credentials, or if logged on as Admin a prompt to confirm the action. Whilst the Windows Backup wizard starts, insert you backup device e.g. external HDD to save your backups to. It should be visible in the Computer window. Here I have a backup drive E: called Backup with capacity of 160GB. Page 5 of 33