Hello everybody!
In this video, I’m going to tell you about backup options in Windows operating system.
They include File History, system backup and restore, system image and recovery disk, as
well as OneDrive cloud storage and how you can use it for data backup.
Windows 10, 8 and 7 have a
number of various backup tools to help you in the future to recover your operating system
or prevent loss of data.
File History One of the backup options is File History.
It is quite limited because it backs up only files from the user account folders.
If you need to recover files from other folders, you’ll have to add them to the default list
of this function.
After you’ve done that, Windows will be able to create backup copies of such files
automatically.
This function can be used to recover all files lost anytime, to recover a certain file, or
roll back a file to an older version.
You can watch one of our videos to learn more about File History.
Find the link in the description.
Backup and restore the operating system Windows 10 has been given the old function
“Backup and Restore (Windows 7)” which was removed from Windows 8.1 but now it’s
back.
It’s also known as Windows Backup.
This tool can help you recover any Windows 7 backup on your Windows 10.
Though, you can also use it for recovery of a Windows 10 computer.
Unlike File History, Windows Backup is a lot easier to create a backup copy of almost everything
you have on your hard disk.
You can find this tool if you go to Settings / Update & Security / Backup / Go to Backup
and Restore (Windows 7) / Set up backup, then select the disk, let me choose, and in addition
to data and user libraries, select the system disk, but in that case you’ll need more
free space in the disk where such backup will be created.
A system image Another function here is “Create system
image.”
This function lets you create a complete image of your current system, including the operating
system, installed programs, settings and user files.
Such backup can be saved to an external hard disk, several DVDs or a network storage.
If you ever need to restore your computer, you’ll be able to do it with the previously
saved backup.
You can watch a detailed guide on creating a system image in one of our videos.
Find the link in the description.
You can also create a system image with a built-in utility, DISM.exe; there’s a special
video guide about it.
A Windows recovery disk In the same menu, you can create a recovery
DVD to fix problems with booting the operating system by just inserting a disk and clicking
“Create disk” to start the process.
To create a USB recovery drive, open Control Panel / Recovery / Create a recovery drive
Allow to make changes, next, create.
All data in this drive will be lost.
Such drive is a kind of a copy of the system boot loader, so you won’t need to reinstall
the operating system and you won’t lose your data.
To access this tool directly, open the Start menu, type RecoveryDrive.exe and press Enter.
Windows 10 no longer has a separate recovery partition, so this tool lets you create one
on a removable drive.
There is a special video about creating a recovery partition, and the link is below
this video.
OneDrive One more backup tool is OneDrive; it can hardly
be called a true recovery utility but at the moment it is fully integrated with Windows
and it can help you with backing up important data to a cloud storage.
Files saved to OneDrive folder on your computer will also be saved to your OneDrive account,
and you’ll be able to use these files from any other device.
Even if you reinstall Windows or use Windows from another device, all you have to do is
to sign in to your Microsoft account and all data saved to this folder will be available
for you.
Keeping data in a cloud storage is convenient for at least two reasons.
In the first place, such storage has tools to ensure safety of user data, so there are
very little chances to lose data because of a hard disk failure or other problems.
The second advantage of a cloud storage is that you can share your files very easily
- just use email or a messenger to send a link to the file kept in a storage resource.
OneDrive is easy to work with: its folder is shown in the File Explorer - just open
it.
However, using this service requires a Microsoft account.
When you open OneDrive folder for the first time, you’ll have to sign in.
Then the wizard starts to help you set up storage folders in this computer.
Folder location can be modified - for example, by moving it to another disk by clicking on
“Change location” and specifying the new path.
Then you have to select the folders which will be placed automatically to OneDrive so
that they can be synced with the cloud storage.
The working principle is that the files placed into this folder are kept in this computer,
but they are also synced with the cloud storage.
It means that every time you add a file to OneDrive folder, its copy is uploaded to the
cloud storage.
You can work with the file in this folder, and it will be synced with the storage all
the time.
All data added to OneDrive will be available on other computers and devices - all you have
to do is to sign in your Microsoft account.
If you delete a file or folder that you have already added to OneDrive, it will remove
this data from the cloud storage and your other devices.
To share the uploaded files with other users, just right-click on the file and select “Share
a OneDrive link.”
Then you should paste the link into an email or a message sent through a social network.
To change the options, right-click on the icon and select Settings.
You can prevent the service from starting automatically when Windows starts if you don’t
use this service too often.
The Files On-Demand lets you access all files on your PC remotely when working from another
computer.
When in your account, click on PCs, and a new tab will open; when you choose your computer,
you’ll see a notice saying “To connect to this PC we need you to enter a security
code.”
Click “Sign in with a security code” and an email with the code will be sent to your
mailbox.
After entering the code, you will get access to the files on your computer, where you can
download or view them.
In the tab Account you can add another account, select folders for synchronization, and configure
it in the tab Auto Save.
The most important thing to be mentioned is that OneDrive cloud service offers only 5
Gb of free space for your data, so you can only dream of putting there a system image
or a backup copy of your hard disk.
Then you’ll have to buy extra space at the prices you can find in the official website.
However, you can also get bonus gigabytes that you earn for meeting certain conditions
- for example, for inviting friends.
You can download OneDrive app for Android, Windows and iOS, so you can get access to
this service from mobile devices and always have all your files at hand.
That is all for now.
Hit the Like button and subscribe to our channel.
Leave comments to ask questions.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.