Backing up the Entire PC Backing up and restoring data files is important and should occur on a regular basis. But over the past few years, a new type of backup utility by which entire PC systems are duplicated, or imaged, in the event of a hardware disaster have become quite popular. System imaging utilities aren’t actually all that new; corporations have been using them for years. But now that consumer-oriented system imaging utilities have gained in popularity, Microsoft has created its own version and bundled it right in Windows Vista. System imaging utilities typically compress the data on your hard drives so that the image file takes up a lot less space than the original installation. Various solutions use different compression schemes, but you may be interested to know that Windows Vista uses the tried and true Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) format that Microsoft also uses in its Virtual PC and Virtual Server products. That means that system images created with Windows Vista will be supported for a long time to come. System images contain complete PC environments. You can’t arbitrarily restore just parts of a system image, as you can with data backups. Instead, when you restore a system image, it restores the whole PC and overwrites any existing operating system you may already have on there. That means you should be careful before restoring a system image: Any data you have on the disk will be overwritten. But you’re using automatic backups, right? To create a system image, launch Backup and Restore Center and click the Back Up Computer button. This launches the Windows Complete PC Backup Wizard, which naturally walks you through the steps needed to completely back up your PC system. You can save system images to hard disks or optical storage (like recordable CDs or DVDs). You can only write a system image to a hard disk that is formatted with the NTFS file system. That’s because system images often exceed the 4 GB file size limit imposed by the older FAT32 file system. Windows Complete PC Backup will provide an estimate for the amount of space needed to create a system image. After you’ve selected a location for the image, you choose which disks (or partitions) to include in the image. Two file system locations must be included in the system image, what Microsoft refers to as the boot partition and the system partition. The boot partition is always

C:\, whereas the system partition is the drive with the Windows Vista

Windows directory. This is typically

C:, but if you installed Vista in a dual-boot setup with a previous Windows version, the system partition might be in a different location. If you have other drives or partitions, you can optionally choose to include then in the system image as well. Creating a system image is typically a lengthy process. For this reason, you should ensure that your system is exactly the way you want it before you start imaging the PC.

Restoring the Entire PC Although a Restore computer option appears in Backup and Restore Center, you can’t actually trigger an entire PC restoration from within Windows. Instead, you will need to reboot your system and utilize the Windows Recovery Environment, which should be installed on your system, or the Windows Vista installation DVD. The reason for this is that the recovery process literally overwrites all of the data on your hard drives. Obviously, you will want to be sure you’ve backed up any crucial data before attempting this process. Follow these steps to restore your entire PC using a system image:

1. Reboot the computer.

2. After your PC has finished its BIOS sequence, hold down the F8 key. If you don’t see an option for the Windows Recovery Environment, just boot up your computer with the Windows Vista DVD instead.

3. After Windows Vista Setup begins, you’ll be brought to the Install Now screen. Instead of installing Vista, however, choose the System Recovery Options link.

4. You’ll be guided through a series of steps. Choose your keyboard layout (US for US residents) when requested to do so.

5. Setup searches for Windows installations to repair. When you are asked what type of repair task you’d like to accomplish, select Windows Complete PC Restore.

6. The Windows Disaster Recovery Wizard launches. If you haven’t already attached a hard drive or DVD containing the system image, do so now. The wizard will step you through the process of recovering the system image, rebooting, and loading your newly recovered system. As with creating a system image, this can be a very lengthy process. For this reason, you should budget an hour or more to complete this recovery.

Recovering Old Versions of Data Files One of the most useful new features for information workers first appeared in Windows Server 2003. It’s called Volume Shadow Copy, which silently and automatically creates backups, or snapshots, of data files every time a user makes any changes. In a managed environment like Windows Server, Volume Shadow Copy is a wonderful feature, because end users who save documents on the server can easily recover older document versions without having to summon an administrator to restore an old backup from a tape or hard drive. With Windows Vista, Microsoft has added Volume Shadow Copy to its client operating system as well. This means that any Windows users can take advantage of this amazing bit of functionality and recover seemingly lost versions of files they’ve mistakenly edited. The trade-off, of course, is disk space. Because Windows must store multiple copies of your data files, Volume Shadow Copy does eat up a bit of disk space. However, because Volume Shadow Copy saves only the parts of files that have changed, or what Microsoft calls the delta changes, the disk space loss is not as bad as it would be otherwise. Unlike with Windows Server, you can’t really manage how much disk space Volume Shadow Copies uses, or even the drives on which it is enabled. Instead, Microsoft enables the service across all drives, folders, and data files on a Windows Vista PC. To access this feature, find a document that you’ve changed a lot recently, right-click it, and choose Properties. Then, navigate to the Previous Versions tab. As you can see in article 21-7, Windows maintains a number of previous versions, each of which you can restore when needed. To restore an older version of a file, select the file version you want and then click the Restore button. As with any other file copy operation, you’ll be prompted to replace the existing file, keep the existing file, or keep the existing file and rename the newly recovered version.

Using System Restore to Repair Windows One of the best features in Windows Millennium Edition (Me) and Windows XP was System Restore, which has proved itself to be a life saver. This feature carries forward in slightly improved form in Windows Vista. What System Restore does is automatically back up key system files at opportune times, such as when you’re installing a new hardware driver. That way, if a driver or application wreaks havoc with your PC, you can use System Restore to reload older system file versions and get back up and running again. System Restore now has the following two main interface points.

System Protection: Located in the System Properties dialog box (which is annoyingly much harder to find in Windows Vista than it was in previous Windows versions). To get to it the quickest possible way, open the Start Menu, right-click My Computer and choose Properties, and then click the Advanced System Settings link in the System window. Then, navigate to the System Protection tab. 21-8, this interface enables you to configure which disks or partitions you will protect (typically only the system volume, which is usually drive

C:). You can also manually create a system restore point by clicking the Create button. You’ll need to supply a name for the restore point.

System Restore Wizard: Restores your PC’s key system files to a previous point in time. To launch this wizard, open the Start menu and navigate to All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore. In the introductory page of the wizard, you can choose the recommended restore point (typically the most recent one) or optionally see a list of previously created restore points, 21-9. Most of these will have been automatically created by the system and will include a description of what was going on when each restore point was created. If you manually created your own restore points from System Protection, those restore points will have the word (Manual) appended to the front of the name. When you select a restore point, Windows will move into the secure desktop and begin restoring your system to its previous state. This will require the PC to reboot. Note that any applications you’ve installed since that restore point will almost certainly need to be reinstalled.

Summary Windows Vista includes a surprisingly rich set of features for backing up and restoring both specific file types and the system itself. This is one instance where Vista really distances itself from Windows XP: With Vista, you get handy file backup and restore wizards, a system imaging utiltiy that enables you to recover completely from any kind of PC calamity, and a nice front end from which to manage all of this functionality. It will be interesting to see how the third-party utility market responds to these changes.