COMPUTER BACKUP

PC DATA BACKUP

WINDOWS 7 BACKUP & RESTORE

There are several ways to back up your PC.

1. Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

2. Do one of the following:

3. If you've never used Windows Backup before, or recently upgraded your version of Windows, select Set up backup, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

4. If you've created a backup before, you can wait for your regularly scheduled backup to occur, or you can manually create a new backup by selecting Back up now.

5. If you’ve created a backup before, but want to make a new, full backup rather than updating the old one, select Create new, full backup, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

Note: Do not back up files to the same hard disk that Windows is installed on. For example, do not back up files to a recovery partition. 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.

To make a system image

System images contain all of the info on your PC at a particular state

1. Right-click the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

2. In the left pane, choose Create a system image, and then follow the steps in the wizard. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Note: To create a system image of a drive, it must be formatted to use the NTFS file system. If you save the system image on a hard drive or USB flash drive, it must be formatted to use the NTFS file system.

Keeping different versions of system images

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. System images are saved in the format of drive\WindowsImageBackup\computer name\. If you have an existing system image for a computer and are creating a new one for the same computer, the new system image will overwrite the existing one.

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

1. Navigate to the location of the system image.

2. Copy the WindowsImageBackup folder to a new location.

Create a restore point

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.

1. Right-click the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > System.

2. In the left pane, select System protection.

3. Select the System Protection tab, and then select Create.

4. In the System Protection dialog box, type a description, and then select Create.

Restore

• Right-click the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

• Do one of the following:

1. To restore your files, choose Restore my files.

2. To restore the files of all users, choose Restore all users' files.

• Do one of the following:

1. 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.

2. To search the contents of the backup, select Search, type all or part of a file name, and then select Search.

Tips: 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. For example, to search for all JPG files that were backed up, type JPG in the Search for box. To only search for JPG files associated with the user Bill, type C:\Users\Bill\JPG in the Search for box. You can use wildcard characters such as *.jpg to search for all JPG files that were backed up.

Restore a backup made on another computer

You can restore files from a backup that was created on another computer running Windows Vista or Windows 7.

1. Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

2. Choose Select another backup to restore files from, and then follow the steps in the wizard. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Find files that were restored from a backup made on another computer

If you're restoring files from a backup that was made on another computer, the files will be restored in a folder under the user name that was used to create the backup. If the user names are different, you'll need to navigate to the folder where the files are restored. For example, if your user name was Molly on the computer that the backup was made on but your user name is MollyC on the computer that the backup is being restored on, the restored files will be saved in a folder labelled Molly.

You can find the restored files by following these steps.

1. Select the Start button, then select Computer.

2. Double-click the icon of the drive that the files are saved on, for example C:\.

3. Double-click the Users folder. You will see a folder for each user account.

4. Double-click the folder for the user name that was used to create the backup. The restored files will be in the various folders based on where they were located originally.

Restore files from a file backup after restoring your computer from a system image backup

After you restore your computer from a system image backup, there may be newer versions of some of your files in a file backup that you want to restore.

To restore files from a file backup that was created after the system image backup was created, follow these steps.

1. Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance >Backup and Restore.

2. Choose Select another backup to restore files from. Administrator permission required If you're prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

3. In Backup Period, select the date range of the backup that contains the files that you want to restore, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

WINDOWS 10 FILE HISTORY

Set up a drive for File History. Before you start using File History to back up your files, you need to first select where your backups are saved. You can select an externally connected drive, such as a USB drive, or you can save to a drive on a network. There are other choices, but these two provide the best options to help protect your files against a crash or other PC problems.

File History only backs up copies of files that are in the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders and the OneDrive files available offline on your PC. If you have files or folders elsewhere that you want backed up, you can add them to one of these folders.

If you're going to use a new external drive, connect it to your PC. If you see a notification asking if you want to configure the drive for File History, select it, and then turn on File History on the screen the appears.

Otherwise, follow these steps to choose either a network drive or an external drive that’s already connected to your PC.

1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, and then tap Search. (If you're using a mouse, point to the lower-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer up, and then click Search.)

2. Enter File History settings in the search box, and then select File History settings.

3. Select Select a drive, and choose the network or external drive you want to use.

4. Turn on File History.

Note: If the network drive you want isn’t in the list of available drives, select Show all network locations. If the drive you want isn’t listed there either, open File History in Control Panel, select Add a network location, and follow the instructions on the screen.

Restore files or folders using File History

File History regularly backs up versions of your files in the Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders and the OneDrive files available offline on your PC. Over time, you'll have a complete history of your files. If the originals are lost, damaged, or deleted, you can restore them. You can also browse and restore different versions of your files. For example, if you want to restore an older version of a file (even if it wasn't deleted or lost), you can browse through a timeline, select the version you want, and restore it.

Follow these steps to restore files or folders using File History.

1. Swipe in from the right edge of the screen, tap Search (or if you're using a mouse, point to the upper-right corner of the screen, move the mouse pointer down, and then click Search), enter restore your files in the search box, and then select Restore your files with File History.

2. Enter the name of file you're looking for in the search box, or use the left and right arrows to browse through different versions of your folders and files.

3. Select what you want to restore to its original location, and then select the Restore button.

If you want to restore your files to a different location than the original, press and hold or right-click the Restore button, select Restore To, and then choose a new location.

MAC DATA BACKUP

MAC TIME MACHINE BACKUP

Use Time Machine to back up or restore your Mac. Time Machine backs up all of your files to an external hard drive so that you can restore them later or see how they looked in the past. Time Machine is the built-in backup feature of your Mac. To use it, you need an external storage solution, sold separately:

• External hard drive connected to a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt port on your Mac

• Time Capsule or macOS Server on your network

• External hard drive connected to the USB port of an AirPort Extreme base station on your network

When you connect an external hard drive directly to your Mac, you might be asked if you want to use the drive to back up with Time Machine. Click “Use as Backup Disk.” If you select the option to encrypt, your backups will be accessible only to users with the password.

If Time Machine doesn't ask you to choose a backup disk:

• Open Time Machine preferences from the Time Machine menu Time Machine icon in the menu bar. Or choose Apple menu () > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.

• Click Select Backup Disk, Select Disk, or Add or Remove Backup Disk.

• Select a backup disk from the list, then click Use Disk.

• For addtional backup security and convenience, you can repeat these steps to add another backup disk. For example, you might use one backup disk while at home, and another backup disk while at work.

Back up using Time Machine

After you set up Time Machine, it automatically makes hourly backups for the past 24 hours, daily backups for the past month, and weekly backups for all previous months. The oldest backups are deleted when your backup drive is full.

To back up now instead of waiting for the next automatic backup, choose Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu Time Machine icon.

• To stop automatic backups, open Time Machine preferences, then either deselect Back Up Automatically (macOS Sierra) or turn off Time Machine (OS X El Capitan or earlier). You can still back up manually by choosing Back Up Now from the Time Machine menu.

• To cancel a backup in progress, choose Skip This Backup (or Stop Backing Up) from the Time Machine menu.

• To check backup status, use the Time Machine menu. The icon shows when Time Machine is backing up In progess, idle until the next automatic backup Idle, or unable to complete the backup Can't backupCan't back up.

• To exclude items from your backup, open Time Machine preferences from the Time machine menu, click Options, then click the plus sign and select the item to exclude.

Your first backup may take a long time, depending on how many files you have. You can continue using your Mac while a backup is underway. Some Mac computers make backups even when asleep. Time Machine backs up only the files that changed since the previous backup, so future backups will be faster.