You don’t have to worry about losing your favorite pictures or music if your hard drive crashes anymore. Backup all your files in a few easy steps using Vista Backup utility.

What is Windows Vista Backup Utility?

The backup utility was introduced to help you make copies of the data found on your hard drive in the event of data loss due to hard disk failures, accidental deletion and any other misfortune that may happen.

How to use Windows Vista Backup

You can run the utility from two locations:

1. Start - All Programs - Maintenance - Backup and Restore Center
2. Start - All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Backup Status and Configuration.

Both have pretty much the same options, the only difference being how they are displayed.

Back up files will create backup copies of your files and folders. In the Backup Status and Configuration click on Set Up Automatic File backup.In the next window select which drive you want to copy your backup on. The wizard tells you how much space you need for your backup, so be sure you have some available. Note that you cannot save your backups on the same partition on which Vista is installed.

Next, choose which drives you want to create a backup for:

Vista will not allow you to choose exactly which folder to backup, but instead will let you select a general file type: Pictures, Music, Videos, E-mail, Documents, TV Shows, Compressed files, Additional files.

You can schedule your backup to be done automatically, so you don’t have to worry about it anymore. The backup begins as soon as you finish selecting the schedule.

You should be aware that backups will be made only for files that match the criteria which you selected. Vista excludes some files, like the ones in Recycle Bin, Program Files, system files and also encrypted files.

As soon as the backup is completed, information about the last backup will be displayed on the Backup Status and Configuration window. You will also be able to Change backup settings or Back up now. If you do not wish to run automatic backups, you can set this option off by pressing the Turn off button.

In Backup and Restore Center choosing Back up computer will create a complete image of your entire computer, including programs and settings. The steps are quite similar with the ones above. Select where to save your backup, but remember that a complete backup will take up some space, and, in this specific case, you are not allowed to choose a network destination. The next step is to choose the disks you want to include in the backup process.

Restoring backups

After you’ve made the backup, it’s time to know how to restore them, if needed.

In the Backup Status and Configuration, go to Restore Files. You will notice two options: Advanced restore, which lets you restore backups for all users of the computer or backups made on another computer, and Restore files, which restores only backups made on that computer for the current user.

You may select the latest backup or files from an older backup. Next you will be able to restore files or folders, or to search for them. Select where to restore your files, either the original location or a different folder, and your files will be the same as they once were.

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