Draw on Vista’s enhanced backup features to safeguard your PC from disaster

Full system backups — images that contain your computers’ OS, system files, programs, and personal files — require software that can be too expensive for a company to purchase. With Windows Vista, software costs no longer keep you from protecting your users against their own hasty deletions or against hardware failure. We’ll show you how to create an image of your computer with Windows Vista backup features for simple restorations if a computer catastrophe strikes.

Note: No images for Home users
Don’t be surprised by missing backup options if you support some users with Vista Home Basic or Home Premium. The Complete PC Backup option is available only to Vista Business, Ultimate, and Enterprise users.

Take note of backup device options

Before you even open the Windows Complete PC Backup wizard, you need to know a few things about potential backup devices. Because Windows will take a backup image of the computer, it can’t write the backup to the primary hard partition or to a partition formatted FAT32. It also can’t write to a mapped network drive or UNC path. Your only options for backup devices are:

• Secondary partitions
• Secondary hard drives
• DVD drive

If your computer doesn’t have a secondary partition or drive, or they are not large enough to store the image, you must use the DVD option.

Downside: The DVD option requires multiple DVDs. All those DVDs increase your costs associated with buying and storing the DVDs, as well as the time you’ll spend swapping DVDs each time you create or restore a backup.

Create your first backup

Windows Vista comes loaded with the Backup and Restore Center which you can launch from Control Panel. Users who have administrative tokens can use the Center to initiate Complete PC backups and to initiate a restore of that backup. We’ll start there.

To perform a Complete PC backup from the Backup and Restore Center:

1. Select Start Control Panel Backup And Restore Center.
2. In the Backup And Restore Center’s Back Up Files Or Your Entire Computer section, click on the Back Up Computer button.
3. Windows Complete PC Backup scans your computer for available storage devices.
4. On the Where Do You Want To Save The Backup page, the wizard lists each hard drive and DVD burner available. View a list by selecting the corresponding dropdown list.
5. Select the option button for the type of device and the particular drive you’ll use; click Next.
6. On the next page you must choose which hard drives to include in your backup. Select the check boxes for each drive or partition you want to back up and click Next.
7. On the Confirm Your Backup Settings page, review your selections. If you selected the DVD option, the wizard estimates how many DVDs you’ll need. Click Start Backup when you’re ready.

Windows Complete PC Backup now creates the image based on your specifications. The process takes considerable time to complete — up to an hour or more — depending on the total size of your backup.

Are you prepared for a catastrophe?

You should never rely on a backup without testing it first. With Vista, once the image has been created, you should view the folder structure on your hard drive or DVDs. But don’t relax just because you can see the folders — restore the image right away to make sure you can count on it if the computer fails.

Caution:
In case your image does fail you, be sure to backup any critical files onto a protected network share, USB flash drive, or DVD before you proceed.

Restore your image

You can launch a Complete PC restore from the Windows Vista installation DVD or from the Windows Recovery Environment.

To restore your PC with the Windows installation DVD:

1. With your computer configured to boot from the DVD drive, insert your Vista install DVD and reboot.
2. Follow the prompts to continue and to choose your language settings. Click Next.
3. Click Repair Your Computer.
4. Select Windows Complete PC Restore from the System Recovery Options menu.
5. Select the operating system you want to repair, and then click Next. The Windows Disaster Recovery wizard opens.
6. Attach or insert your backup media, and then step through the wizard to complete the restoration.

To restore using Windows recovery options (if you installed them previously):

1. Restart the computer.
2. Press the [F8] key after the BIOS sequence and before the Windows logo appears.
   

   Tip:
   If your computer has more than one operating system installed, use the arrow keys to highlight the operating system you want to start, and then press
   [F8].

3. Select Repair Your Computer from the Advanced Boot Options menu, and then press [Enter].
4. Select a keyboard layout, and then click Next.
5. Select a user name and enter the password, and then click OK.
6. Select Windows Complete PC Restore from the System Recovery Options menu.
7. Attach or insert your backup media, and then follow the instructions to complete the restoration.

Related Courses

• 5115 Installing and Configuring the Windows Vista™ Operating System
• 5117 Installing, Configuring, Troubleshooting, and Maintaining Windows Vista®
• Windows Vista - Level 1
• Windows Vista - Level 2

Print this post