College of Information Technology / Software Department

LEC. 10 ………………………………………………….. Computer Skills II / First Class / Second Semester

Backup and Restore

Imagine what would happen if your computer suddenly stopped working. Would you lose any important documents, photos, or other files? It may be possible to repair your computer, but your files may be lost forever, you can prevent this by creating backup copies of all of your files (or just the important ones) on an external hard drive.

You can make a backup of windows and your files for reference and using it in many cases, such as damage to the system and the loss of files. This backup may be store on flash memory, partition, CD, or DVD. The initial backup could take several hours. In information technology, a backup, or the process of backing up, refers to the copying and archiving of computer data so it may be used to restore the original after a data loss event.

All this is free without software downloads, it uses the built backup and restore in control panel.

There are two methods to run backup and restore: - Go to start, write backup and restore in search box, and selecting from programs list. or - Go to start, go to control panel, from system and security select backup your computer.

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Making a Backup: From the opened window click Set up backup.

Until you see the window of generating program, wait until the end of generating and then you'll see a window conservation (saving window):

You can determine the flash memory nor the hard, because sometimes problems occur in the hard drive and they may delete files by mistake (by error or virus or any other reason). After that window another window will appear, from it choose the files you want to take a backup of them, select Let me Choose.

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After selecting your files, the process of making the backup is started (starting the files saving process). The storage space that needed to back up files depends on the size of the files you back up.

To show the remaining time click View details.

Restore the Backup: To restore the backup that you making and saving it, go to the path that you saved in it the backup, and open the backup file which is shown as:

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When you open this file, a window will appear, select from it Restore my files from the backup selected.

You can restore files using the Restore Files wizard. You can restore individual files, multiple files, or all files in a backup. You can also restore just your files or files for all people that use the computer.

Here, you can select restoring method, (restore one file, or set of files), then choose next for determining the retrieval place, and finally click Restore.

View and Restore the contents of the backup

You can view the contents of your backup by opening the Restore Files wizard. 05

1. Open Backup and Restore. 2. Do one of the following: o To view (restore) your files, click Restore my files. o To view (restore) all users' files, click Restore all users' files. 3. Do one of the following: o To browse the contents of the backup, click Browse for files or Browse for folders.

When you are browsing for folders, you won't be able to see the individual files in a folder. To view individual files, use the Browse for files option.

o To search the contents of the backup, click Search, type all or part of a filename, and then click Search.

What backup settings should I use to maximize my disk space?

Windows Backup provides you with the flexibility of managing the disk space that is used by your backups. After you set up Windows Backup, you can view how much disk space is being used by the backup and how much free space you have on the disk that your backups are being saved on by going to the Backup and Restore Control Panel.

To control how much disk space is being used, you can choose how many file backups. Backups are created in sets known as backup periods. To help maximize your disk space, Windows Backup backs up all selected folders the first time it's run and then it only backs up files that are new or have been modified since the last backup was made.

Periodically, Windows creates a new, full backup. Each full backup is known as a backup period. When you view your file backups, you see all of the backup periods labeled with date ranges. If you decide to delete file backups, you should always keep the most recent file backup.

To create a new, full backup

After you create your first backup, Windows Backup will add new or changed information to your subsequent backups. If you're saving your backups on a hard drive or network location, Windows Backup will create a new, full backup for you automatically when needed. If you're saving your backups on CDs or DVDs and can't

05 find an existing backup disc, or if you want to create a new backup of all of the files on your computer, you can create a full backup. Here's how to create a full backup:

1. open Backup and Restore. 2. In the left pane, click Create new, full backup.

Note: You will only see this option if your backup is being saved on CDs or DVDs.

Windows provides the following backup tools:  File backup: Windows Backup allows you to make copies of data files for all people that use the computer. You can let Windows choose what to back up or you can select the individual folders, libraries, and drives that you want to back up.

 System image backup: Windows Backup provides you with the ability to create a system image, which is an exact image of a drive. A system image includes Windows and your system settings, programs, and files. You can use a system image to restore the contents of your computer if your hard drive or computer ever stops working. When you restore your computer from a system image, it is a complete restoration; you can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced.

 System Restore: System Restore helps you restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. It's a way to undo system changes to your computer without affecting your personal files, such as documents, or photos. System Restore uses a feature called system protection to regularly create and save restore points on your computer. These restore points contain information about registry settings and other system information that Windows uses.

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