Windows backup what does it save

Always store media used for backups external hard disks, DVDs, or CDs in a secure place to prevent unauthorized people from having access to your files; a fireproof location separate from your computer is recommended. You might also consider encrypting the data on your backup. In the left pane, choose Create a system image , and then follow the steps in the wizard. If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

You can keep several versions of system images. On internal and external hard drives, older system images will be deleted when the drive runs out of space. To help conserve disk space, delete older system images. If you're saving your system images in a network location, you can only keep the most current system image for each computer. If you already have a system image for a computer and are creating a new one for the same computer, the new system image will overwrite the old one.

If you want to keep the old system image, you can copy it to a different location before creating the new system image by following these steps.

You can use a restore point to restore your computer's system files to an earlier point in time. Restore points are automatically created each week by System Restore and when your PC detects change, like when you install an app or driver. Here's how to create a restore point. Select the System Protection tab, and then select Create. In the System Protection dialog box, type a description, and then select Create. To look through the contents of the backup, select Browse for files or Browse for folders.

When you're 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. To search the contents of the backup, select Search , type all or part of a file name, and then select Search. Tip: If you're searching for files or folders associated with a specific user account, you can improve search results by typing the location of the file or folder in the Search for box.

Additionally, Backup and Restore creates a system image that you can use to restore Windows if your system is not functioning properly. Introduced with the release of Windows 8, File History became the primary backup tool for the operating system. And, even though Backup and Restore is available in Windows 10, File History is still the utility Microsoft recommends for backing up files.

File History is significantly different from Backup and Restore in that its primary purpose is to allow you to back up personal files rather than creating a complete system image. Once you select a drive to use for the backups, File History will store copies of the files and update them automatically as needed. In addition to simple user-file backups, File History also retains previous versions of your files so you can access or restore them if needed.

Nonetheless, there are several critical limitations with the native Windows backup utilities that you should consider before trusting all your data to them.

Here are a few:. While File History allows you to restore individual files, Backup and Restore does not. Consequently, if you want to recover files from a backup file set, you must restore them all or none at all. Backup and Restore lets you create a system image each time you perform a backup. However, you can only store one backup at a time on the destination drive. Therefore, if you want to store multiple system image backups, you must back up to multiple destination drives.

Additionally, system images only include drives with files required for Windows to run. Both Backup and Restore and File History allow you to store backups on local drives. However, neither one of the utilities includes a way to back up files online or to the cloud.

If you want to upload backup files created with the utilities to the cloud, you must do so manually using a separate application or Web service. For many years, Windows users have used Windows System Restore to rollback changes or restore Windows system files when problems occur. With recent release and updates of Windows 10, though, Microsoft seems to have disabled the feature. Some have suggested that System Restore interferes with automatic updates.

And, while you can re-enable system restore , the utility may no longer be a reliable means of protecting Windows system files. And, of course, this makes backing up Windows properly more important than ever. While using Backup and Restore or File History to create backups is indeed better than not using any backup tool at all, neither of the tools provides the advanced features needed to truly protect your data. Professional backup applications, on the other hand, address the limitations of native Windows backup tools by supporting various storage media types, better automation and scheduling, and direct backups to the cloud to name a few.

While professional applications are not free, the best Windows backup software programs offer significant value for the price you pay.

If you ever lose access to your data, the price you paid will seem trivial to the cost of recreating important files if such recreation is even possible. Need more help? Expand your skills. Get new features first.

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