windows-backup interview questions
Top windows-backup frequently asked interview questions
I'd like to use Dropbox as a backup service. By default, Dropbox will only synchronize files in the My Dropbox folder with my online storage. Can I configure it to synchronize from other locations, so I can backup all files in My Documents, or will I have to resort to some type of mechanism that periodically copies files to My Dropbox?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I've installed fresh Windows 7 Ultimate (32bit) on my laptop. I've installed all the application/WindowsUpdates which I wanted to and my system is ready to use. All my other data is now on D: drive.
I need to backup image of my system drive (C:) and want to be able to restore it whenever needed.
I want to back it up only once. I don't want to do scheduled backup and I will only restore it on this system.
Is there any free tool which can allow me to write DVD or back up image on an external hard drive or on my E: drive?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Possible Duplicate:
Which is the best application to Sync two folders?
I'm having a hard time synchronizing my folders. Currently I'm doing manual RAID-1.
It sucks because OCCASSIONALLY I update a folder on drive C: that needs to be "mirrored" over to drive F:.
WHen I do the mirror, windows wants to overwrite ALL or overwrite NONE (which means hella longer copy time), instead of letting me only "overwrite if source file is newer".
How can I do that?
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm setting up a backup for a friend's computer onto his USB drive. I was reading this article about the Windows 7 Backup and Restore feature.
Everything looks okay, but for the life of me, I can't figure out how to get to this screen.
I need to set up some excluded folders, since the backup media is a little smaller than the home folder. I need to exclude the replaceable 100 GB video directory.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have win 7 scheduled to backup every Sunday, it's only looking at one of my drives at the moment and is backing up to an external HDD. It's a 1TB drive so should take quite a while to fill but the amount of time the backup takes makes me think its taking a fresh copy every time.
It's now 21:34 and I think backup started at about 19:30. It did a full backup earlier in the week of approx 200GB. Is it copying the whole lot again? Or is it just taking its time checking for differences?
Source: (StackOverflow)
A simple Google search for "Time Machine for Windows" results in a flurry of different little apps. But instead of relying on forum anecdotes and advertisements, I call on the much wiser Super User beta community for some depth on this one.
Having Time Machine running on Leopard is like a warm, fuzzy blanket of comfort that I never got with RAID, rsync, or SyncToy on Windows. I'm not asking the community what the "best" backup software for Windows is, but instead:
Is there any true Time Machine clone for Windows, one that includes as many of the following as possible:
- Completely transparent, "set-it-and-forget-it" backup
- Incremental backups (changes only) for every hour for a day, every day for a month, and every week until the backup disk is full
- Ability to rebuild from this backup disk in case of main drive meltdown (the backup doesn't have to be bootable; neither are Time Machine disks)
- Extremely easy to use UI (target user == novice). Bonus points for a beautiful UI
- As originally asked, this question did not take into consideration the Windows Registry, which has no equivalent on Mac OS X or any other UNIX, and poses a significant obstacle to Time Machine-like functionality. A true replacement for Windows would need to be able to seamlessly rebuild a user's desktop appearance, settings, applications, and all data on either a replacement drive (or equal or greater size), a brand new machine, or even an upgraded version of the OS, without the need to update file paths or make any other tweaks. This is the irreplaceable attraction of Time Machine.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I've seen a lot of bad press on WD SmartWare (I think it comes on most WD backup devices now, such as their MyBook product line), mostly related to how it's impossible to remove properly or replace. There are allegations (I couldn't tell how true they were) that it has/is a rootkit, as well. Most of the articles are a couple of years old, so I'm wondering if SmartWare is still just as problematic as it was. Does it still have a nasty rootkit reputation and should I just stick with the Windows 7 built-in backup system, or is the current SmartWare generation improved and better behaved?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Background
There are numerous backup solutions out there for Windows and they come in many different forms. From a file copy and/or syncing tool like SyncBackSE to whole hard drive backup utilities based on Volume Shadow Copy like Acronis TrueImage or Norton Ghost to block level copy tools like dd. Each of these solutions offers different pros and cons versus the "Windows Backup and Restore Center" feature built-in to Windows Vista and Windows 7. I am not interested in discussing alternative backup solutions here however, as that has already been covered by numerous other questions.
Constraints
There are two "types" of backup supported by the "Windows Backup and Restore Center"(WBRC):
- File backup (which Windows calls "Back Up Files")
- Full System Backup (which Windows calls "Complete PC Backup)
I am interested in a solution which supports either and/or both types of backup with WBRC.
Questions
- How can you use a TrueCrypt encrypted mount point as the destination for the built-in "Windows Backup and Restore Center" feature in Windows Vista and 7?
See Also
References
Source: (StackOverflow)
I'm using Windows Backup to back up my Win7 Pro laptop. I'd like to use it to back up my complete user profile, but I only see standard profile directories (e.g. C:\Users\JohnstonJ\Documents) in the list. Non-standard ones aren't there (e.g. C:\Users\JohnstonJ\MyCustomDirectory).
What's the best way to handle this? The only thing I can think of is to browse under the "Computer" entry and navigate directly to C:\Users\JohnstonJ and check off the entire profile (to get what's in there, and any new directories that come up). But is that going to back up the profile twice? Cause other unforeseen problems given that I checked it off by navigating through the computer, rather than picking it under the "Data Files" category? (e.g. back up temporary file garbage, files in use problems, etc. that the "Data Files" category might be handling better).
Looking for solutions that other people use that are known to work well and still uses the Windows Backup software - I don't really want to fuss with 3rd-party backup software.
Example - as you can see, I have two directories in my profile that Windows Backup is not offering to back up: "Dropbox" and "New folder":
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a new Dell Laptop that I have setup the way I like it. I want to use Windows 7 to do a backup and then restore that backup on a different hard drive (solid state).
When I setup the backup info (manually) for Windows 7 Backup there is a little checkbox at the the bottom that says:
Include a system image of drives: RECOVERY, OS (C:)
I can also select to backup all my data on the C: drive (the only hard drive I have anything on) as well as some libraries (which are on my C: drive so no point in selecting those).
The question I have is, does Windows 7 Backup just somehow know what needs to be restored (ie program files and Windows and the registry ....? Or is it really making a full restorable copy of the C: drive? (If the later is true then I don't need select the C: drive to be "backed up" if I don't plan to access the files except by restoring them right? (Because the system image will already have it all.))
So, which way is it? What is saved in the System Image?
Source: (StackOverflow)
By using the 'File History' of Windows8 I can backup my stuff (or rather, my 'libraries'). I enable the feature and then ... the magic happens in the background.
How can I see the progress? How many of my files are "now" backed up?
Source: (StackOverflow)
Hard disk failed. With a little trickery, I was able to coerse the Windows Backup and Restore 320GB VHD drive partition image (which contained only 220GB of actual data) to restore it onto a smaller 256GB (actual ~238GB) partition on my new SSD.
After going through the expected repair, since the drive layout changed, everything is back up and running fine, and all that's left is to update my special folder locations (I used to have pictures, desktop, video, etc. folders on a separate data partition). While doing this, I noticed that almost HALF THE DATA ON THE DRIVE (~100GB) was in %appdata%\Local\Temp.
Is this safe to erase? Why would a temp folder end up with so much data. Is that where things like WinRAR stores decompressed files temporarily?
I'm asking this questions, because I'm just very surprised that all this time, it looks like half the data on my main OS drive was disposable, and Windows never clued me in on this. With only 238GB on my SSD, 100GB is precious space.
Source: (StackOverflow)
I have a Windows 7 64-bit installation on my current PC, and I want to move it to a new PC .. I do NOT have a problem with licensing, as the new system already has its own new Windows 7 license, which I intend to use.
I want to use my existing installation, because it has 3 years worth of installed office related software development software, which installing again could take weeks !
I'm assuming that I can use Windows 7's Backup and Restore feature to backup a system image to a network location, then restore that network stored system image on the new PC ?
Again, like I said, I don't have a WIndows 7 licensing issue, as both machines are corporate provided and come with their own licences.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Windows 7 Backup is failing. When backing up even a single insignificant directory (e.g. I chose only the empty "Contacts" directory, leaving all other directories unchecked), I get this error within a few seconds and the backup fails. If I uncheck all files/directories, and just do the system image - then the system image is backed up OK without issue.
Backup destination is an external USB hard drive.
Steps to reproduce and subsequent failure:
- Set up backup to go to external hard drive. Don't back up system image. Back up "Contacts" directory only for my profile.
- Start backup.
- Immediately view the status of the backup, it stays on "Creating a shadow copy..." for a few seconds, and then the backup fails.
Click Options button, and it says "Check your backup / The system cannot find the file specified." - with options to "Try to run backup again" or "Change backup settings". If I click "Show Details", then it says:
Backup time: 4/12/2012 04:38
Backup location: My Book (D:)
Error code: 0x80070002
An examination of the Event Log shows nothing useful beyond the following:
Log Name: Application
Source: Windows Backup
Date: 4/12/2012 04:38:44
Event ID: 4104
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: JTJLaptop
Description:
The backup was not successful. The error is: The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002).
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="Windows Backup" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">4104</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-04-12T04:38:44.000000000Z" />
<EventRecordID>23979</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>JTJLaptop</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>The system cannot find the file specified. (0x80070002)</Data>
<Binary>02000780E30500003F0900005B090000420ED1665C2BEE174B64529CB14610EA71000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>
What I have tried:
- ChkDsk on both C: (main drive) and D: (backup drive) doesn't find any errors.
- Running
SFC /SCANNOW to run system file checker
- Checked the list of profiles at
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList and ensured that each profile directory exists.
I'm stumped; WHAT file can't be found and why is my backup failing?
This is on a Lenovo T420 laptop.
Source: (StackOverflow)
Can someone explain the structure of %localappdata%\Packages*package id*\ in Windows 8 so I can get a better idea of what files should be backed up and what files shouldn't be. Specifically what state, settings, and appdata folders are important to backup and what is the AC folder? I haven't been able to find any information regarding whether the AC folder saves any app specific settings and/or what exactly it is storing.
Source: (StackOverflow)