What's the best way to back up my PC?
- I want to install the Windows 7 RC, but am a little nervous about losing stuff. What's the best way to back up my data?
- Moved byMarilyn-Support EngineerMSFT, ModeratorMonday, October 05, 2009 2:55 AM (From:Getting Ready for Windows 7)
1 person got this answerI do too
Answers
- If you're not comfortable backing up your computer, you probably don't want to install the Release Candidate, but if you're looking for tips, you'll find everything you need to know for backing up your PC from Windows 7 Beta, Windows Vista or Windows XP here.
- Marked As Answer bySteve Alter Thursday, April 30, 2009 6:16 PM
All Replies
- If you're not comfortable backing up your computer, you probably don't want to install the Release Candidate, but if you're looking for tips, you'll find everything you need to know for backing up your PC from Windows 7 Beta, Windows Vista or Windows XP here.
- Marked As Answer bySteve Alter Thursday, April 30, 2009 6:16 PM
- The video in M3 Sweatt's blog post may also be helpful: Video: Migrating from Windows XP to Windows 7 using the User State Migration Tool .
Corrine, Microsoft MVP This posting is provided "AS IS" without warranty, and confers no rights. I want to install the Windows 7 RC, but am a little nervous about losing stuff. What's the best way to back up my data?
If you want to be able to go back to the state that your PC is in now, you can make an exact copy of your entire hard disk. Use a tool like Norton Ghost (Not freeware) or something similar. In Windows Vista a tool is included in some of the versions.
If you decide that W7 is not for you, put back the image and your PC will work exactly as it is doing now. And, you dont have to install the applications again.
Normal backup methods only include files like the ones in the "My Documents" folder. But an image makes a copy of everything on your hard disk, including applications.- Proposed As Answer byThe Dutch Guy Thursday, May 14, 2009 8:45 PM
- Assuming that you want to backup an existing Windows XP or Vista system: This software is free and similar in function to Norton Ghost:
http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm - I find the absolute best way to back up your data is to an external hard drive. They are inexpensive as well. Depdending on the version you are trying to back up, it varies. Vista is much easier to back up Desktop, Favorites, Documents because you can just pull the entire user profile. XP, is still easy, but you just need to pull the documents and settings file for the user's data you want to back up and desktop and favorites is not usually listed unless "show hidden files" is selected. I also find right clickick on start, and searching the files that way is the easiest to find the favorites & desktop folders listed under a user's profile. Double check the files are copied to your external prior to doing the "clean install" or you could be sadly disappointed but by then it's too late. Good luck.
- There are a number of excellent suggestions provided here with various methods for backing up your data. Regardless of the mechanism selected, it is important to recognize that the Release Candidate will expire on June 1, 2010. Starting March 1, 2010, your PC will begin shutting down every two hours. Thus, you will need to install a non-expired version of Windows before March 1, 2010.
In the event you elect to restore your computer to a pre-Windows 7 RC state using one of the back-up procedures mentioned in this thread, remember that it will be necessary to update that operating system, including Windows security updates as well as updates to anti-virus software and other programs such as SunJava, Adobe, Flash, etc.
Corrine, Microsoft MVP This posting is provided "AS IS" without warranty, and confers no rights. - One note about backing up before migrating to Windows 7 - I'd suggest using something like Norton Ghost, or using an external hard drive to copy your files to. If you try to use the Windows Backup utility, Windows 7's backup utility won't read the .bkf files that the Windows Backup utility creates. There *is* a utility you can download from Microsoft to open these files, but I'm finding it problematic in Windows 7.
- Use a flash drive or burn cd's and dvd's!!!!!
it might take a few cd's or dvd's!!!
That what my mom does!!!!!!- Proposed As Answer byEd Thornton Saturday, May 23, 2009 7:12 AM
The best way to backup a system is to purchase a product called backup now. But first buy an external hard drive. They are very inexpensive. You backup your system and then make a start up cd. You can take a bare hard drive and start up your system on the cd then retrieve all your data from your external hard drive. I have ben using this for years. Started on floppys then a tape drive then cd's and now an external hard drive. I had a hard drive crash once and replaced with with a new one. I booted the system with the start up disk and then brought all the data over from the external hard drive. Using this device I can backup my entire system of approximately 20 gig in about 5 minutes. I backup my system every couple of weeks. I backup the daily stuff like checking acct, etc on a memory stick.
- if you are using XP do start-run-usmt , this will help you back up all ur data..then later u can perform a clean installation,
as upgrade from xp to win-7 is not possible..If u are running vista you can upgrade to win-7, howevere u will loose stuff like..windows messanger, security software..and some other application may also not work..now to knw wat all will work you can install (windows 7 upgrade advisor tool) from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/get/upgrade-advisor.aspx..this program takes about 5 min to let u knw wat all u might need to reinstall and u might loose after u install win-7...
I would suggest to install the Win-7 and not the Win-7 RC..
wait till oct 22nd..
Thanks regards
Shafi Inamdar.
sr. tech support |Microsoft|Xp-Vista-Win-7|set up and networking.
Microsoft|your potential our passion| You should use the back up utility in windows to back up your data and then restore your data in windows 7.
- Proposed As Answer byGab 1 Thursday, October 15, 2009 5:35 PM
Here's what I do and it works great and is super EASY. I use Windows Live OneCare as my virus protection program. I've experimented with Norton, McAfee, and Kapersky and have found Live OneCare to be the most user friendly of all of them. Within Live OneCare I have the software set to back up my entire PC every day at 10 AM. I keep a Western Digital 500 mb external hard drive plugged in to my PC 24/7 and it backs up to the HD automatically everyday. These hard drives are reasonably priced and are often on sale at Costco or costco.com.
Whther or not you make the switch to Windows 7 if you keep anything important on your PC then the importance of regular back ups cannot be overstressed. Furthermore, for additional safety, their are on line back up services available. These are really valuable because if your computer and external hard drive were to get destroyed, say in a fire, you would still have a way of retrieving all your important data.
I cannot recommend an on line backup as I'm still researching them myself. However. they too seem to be reasonably priced and if they work as advertised represent a terrific value.
Hope this helps.- Proposed As Answer byKaySun Wednesday, October 21, 2009 9:00 AM
- Furthermore to the above point I noticed that nobody has mentioned about Microsoft's own Imgex utility available on WAIK for backing up complete partition. I have used it and it is a simple command line utility. A simple GUI is also available made by third party under the name GImagex. I created a Vista boot CD with Imagex and Gimagex and experimented with it on different machines. Depending on what processor one uses aka. AMD or Intel, 32 or 64 bit system one can chose the corresponding utility for complete, compressed if desired, backup of the entire partition. It gives a very good compression ratio over some the commercially or freely available (for personal use) software but one point to notice is that it does a non-destructive restore. May be I made a mistake when I ended up with a botched up restore once, crashing often, when I restored without formatting the partition. That may a point to consider as well. I have not so far used the backup option on Vista as I always prefer a standalone backup/restore than something "on the fly".
transfer the data to an external hard drive before install, or buy a new faster sata hard drive, just remove your old one, that way you can even put the old one back in if you have to
im a data recovery tech, as far as your data if you have questions email me Email removed for privacy- Yes a very good one is Acronis true Image I wouldn't have a computer without this on it not only that but if you every get a very bad virus go back and put the image on before the virus
- Yes - I use Windows Live One Care..but there is a potential problem in that Live One Care has been discontinued and will not run under Win7. All very well having used it to make the back-up but what happens when you want to restore files after installing Win7?
- Proposed As Answer byJan Kosters Tuesday, November 03, 2009 8:40 PM
- I agree with Lateniteone. ATI is superb, worth the expense.
If you're not comfortable backing up your computer, you probably don't want to install the Release Candidate, but if you're looking for tips, you'll find everything you need to know for backing up your PC from Windows 7 Beta, Windows Vista or Windows XP here.
- If you subscribe to Webroot security system, as opposed to MacAfee or Norton, one of their features is that they back up everything on your PC as part of their service using online space. It is not free or inexpensive -- $120 for 3 years -- but it is superior to either in many ways to other PC security systems. It catches many more unwanted cookies and has a more comprehenisve system of catching other spyware and viruses. Webroot allows you to back up everything up to 5MB on THEIR space, not on your PC, so you don't have to fill disk after disk with backup info., and then worrying about continually updating your off-PC data and files. And if you exceed the allotted 5MB, you can purchase additional storage space at a very reasonable price. It also provides the ability to schedule automatic sweeps & cleans (scans & defrags)and supplementary back-ups. I schedule these events weekly while I sleep so that my PC runs at optimum performance, and so that I never have to fear losing anything. NOTE: If your PC crashes and you need to recover everything Webroot has --- even the things you have deleted & don't want, you will get EVERYTHING back which you need to review and any files you may no longer wish to keep.
