How To Back Up And Restore Your Data In Windows 7

Ever stuck in some situation when there is no other way other than system restore or complete system format to get it working? Or have you experienced the havoc some virus created and remember all the data it cost you? To be frank, we all have experienced one or another kind of situation that had cost us our data. So what is the best option to avoid the outage of data? The best possible solution is to have back up of your data that is important for you, so that in any such mishaps, we can always get our things back.

Initially in Windows XP, though there were tools that allowed you to get a backup of your documents, they lacked many features including better user interface. When Microsoft designed Windows 7, main emphasis was put on data security and thus Windows 7 contains several features which allow users to get backups of various things including all the system files.

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So in this post, I will tell you how to backup you documents in a hassle-free way. So let’s start right away.

How to backup data in Windows 7:

1. The first step that you need to perform is to ensure that you have external storage device ready such as hard disk or CD/DVD. The external storage device is required as Windows 7 asks for external drive before backing up the data.

2. To start with the backup, go to My Computer and right click on system drive and go to properties. Once you do this, you will get a new box having various options like disk defragmentation, Backup, error checking and so on under tools section.

3. Click on “Backup now” under “Tools” section so that you will get a new backup window. In the backup or restore window, click on “Set up backup option” as we first will have a look at how to take a backup.

4. Once you click on that option, Windows will automatically search and find suitable drive (External) for backup. Alternatively you can also choose network drive to have backup on.

5. After this step, Backup wizard will let you choose which files you want to get backed up! Alternatively you can also let Windows 7 do the same for you. If you choose to select files on your own, you can even choose to backup C drive as a disk image.

6. Once you have selected all the files and folders, you can review them before starting backing up and can also schedule backup timetable additionally.

7. Now you can save these backup settings and start the process.

Once the backup process is complete, you can see those files and system image (if you have opted for that option) in the backup folder on selected external drive.

How to restore the data in Windows 7:

1. Restoration process is much simpler than backup as you don’t have to do anything apart from starting the process; so no making changes to any settings and no headache.

2. All you have to do is go to the same “backup and restore center” which we used to create backup and click on restore my files.

3. Then locate the backup earlier you had created and choose files you want to extract from backup.

4. Additionally you can also select the location where you want to extract things and then click on “Restore”. That will do it.

Congratulations, you have learnt how to backup as well as restore your data from backups now. Backups are important feature of any operating system and if you are running any professional setup on it, then its unavoidable. You can also create a system disk image, so that you can restore your system to its previous stage if something goes amiss.

Some things to remember:

1. Believe me when I say, keep it ready before starting as if you if you cancel the process midway, Windows 7 keeps giving you irritation notifications to start back up again.

2. Whenever you are taking backup, generally it’s nice to choose which files to have backed up yourself rather than depending on compiter.