How to Create a System Backup in Windows Vista
Windows Vista has improved the backup and recovery capabilities from previous Windows versions. In particular, Vista now offers a means to back up an entire system, including not just user files but system files as well. Using Vista's new complete backup feature, you can create a snapshot of your system and return it to a specific point in time should your system be unrecoverable because of file corruption or hard drive failure.
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Instructions
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Start the "Backup and Restore Center." Choose "Start," then enter "Backup" into the search field. Select "Backup and Restore Center" from items listed in the search results.
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Identify a suitable backup location. Make sure that it has sufficient storage space to hold a copy of your entire system. To find out how much space your system currently uses, select "Start," then "Computer," and then separately add up the used space listed for each of the drives that are a part of your system.
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Begin the backup process. Click "Back Up Computer." Accept any "User Account Control" notices that appear. Vista will look for appropriate backup devices and provide a list of options. These will include local media such as locally connected hard drives and CD and DVD drives. You will also see warnings if a given device has insufficient space for the operation. Select a location and select "Next."
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Select the drives to back up. By default, Vista selects all internal drives for backup. Any connected external drives remain an option as well. Select the drives that you wish to back up. Click "Next." Note that a drive to which the backup is to be performed cannot be selected as part of the backup set.
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Confirm the backup settings. Vista will provide a summary of the backup settings to review before starting the backup. Review them, and when satisfied select "Start Backup." When the backup completes successfully, click "Close."
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Tips & Warnings
Store the backed-up image in a safe location away from the computer, to ensure that the backup image will be available in case of a catastrophic loss.
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Comments
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osbonwilma
Sep 02, 2010
I have tryed this many times ,and it has worked, but the last few times it hasn't worked, I have tryed freeing up space,I haven't been able to do that either , so what do I do ? -
trentguy
Oct 01, 2009
When you first instal Vista you get the opportunity (one time only) to create an image of your system on DVD in the form of a recovery disk. It takes about 2 DVD's. You can also create a recovery image on your D drive. Subsequent to this you should use Backup/Restore to create incremental backups onto DVD. In the event of a catastrophic failure (ie you can't boot your system) get your Hard drive fixed/replaced then insert the Recovery DVD (the full image recovery disk on your D drive will be lost)and reboot, then recover your user files from the incremental DVD's. Do incrementaL BACKUP regularly and keep the DVD's away remore from the computer!!
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peterpanxo
May 23, 2009
kurt07, it's hard to say for sure without having a root directory listing of the C: and D: drives of your PC, but unless you or someone else customized your computer, most likely you boot off of the C: drive and most likely your "initial computer image" is on D:.What that means is that you can probably boot into "Safe Mode" by holding down the F8 key on Restart, then choose System Restore from the Backup and Restore Center (through the Control Panel). You really don't have to know -- except to satisfy your curiosity, of course -- that the system will copy the image from D: to C:. (Note that if things are really messed up, you'll want to choose "Destructive Restore" which basically wipes out C: completely before copying the image from D:)Good luck!
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kurt07
Apr 14, 2009
I have vista home premium and it has back up and restore tab in control panel. I have used up 6 to 7 GBs on the D:\ drive and about 45Gbs on the C:\ drive. Which drive has my complet OS so if something happens to the OS I can formate and the install the complet OS?? How to i burn a OS to a DVD disk? And how do I make a complet copy of about 45 gbs on the C;\ drive to dvd disk?? thanks for any real good answerws?
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kurt07
Apr 14, 2009
I have vista home premium and it has back up and restore tab in control panel. I have used up 6 to 7 GBs on the D:\ drive and about 45Gbs on the C:\ drive. Which drive has my complet OS so if something happens to the OS I can formate and the install the complet OS?? How to i burn a OS to a DVD disk? And how do I make a complet copy of about 45 gbs on the C;\ drive to dvd disk?? thanks for any real good answerws?
