[Yosemite Sam voice]: I hates yuh, yuh varmint! 
When my second computer’s hard drive failed, it failed in stages. As it became more and more corrupted, I was able to try out a number of data recovery methods. The last one I used was a program from the company EaseUS, which IIRC allowed recovery of files even when the “index” was destroyed.
I’m inclined to agree - in the case of Linux, it’s easy; in the case of Windows, when your hard drive fails, it’s probably time to upgrade to a new OS version anyway, so it’s the data backup you need, not the OS.
Is the OP using Windows 7’s built-in backup utility? Files backed up this way CANNOT be restored in Windows 8. And forget about just retrieving the files one-by-one from the zipped folders…the backup utility breaks large files up into several zipped pieces.
Uggh. That is absolutely disgusting and just one of the reasons I will never use a proprietary back-up program that employs compression. With a mirroring scheme, such as the rsync program I linked earlier, you can ‘see’ your backup files. No restoration or decompression needed. With cheap terabyte external hard drives under $100 these days, I see little reason for compression, at least for the average user.
It scared the hell out of me…fortunately, I was able to revive the malfunctioning hard drive long enough to dump my documents and other stuff to the external drive. Had I not recognized the issue in time, I wouldn’t have lost very much…part of my backup scheme involves a second computer with up-to-date copies of everything except my podcast collection.
Install Dropbox. It creates a folder on your computer that acts just like a normal folder, but anything you put in it gets mirrored on the Dropbox servers. So you treat the Dropbox folder like your Documents folder – that’s where you put anything you care about. Then if your computer dies, you install Dropbox on the new computer and there are all your files.
Yes. And you’ve confirmed my suspicions about those zipped folders. I had opened a few and realized that if push came to shove I could never manually restore data that way.
And, I think, you have probably also answered my question about why I might wish to obtain some other backup utility.
The main advantages of backup software versus manual copy is automation and version differencing. You can set up the backups to happen on a schedule or when you plug in the drive. And you can only save the changes instead of resaving all of your data, which saves a lot of time.
Not only saves time, but keeps the backups small enough to run them every day without running out of disk space. And frequency of backup is very important - the newer it is, the more likely it actually has what you want in it.
Brief highjack: when backing up data folders to an external USB hard drive, is a Windows “highlight, drag, and drop” copy good enough, or should I use something else? Would a command line dos instruction (like… xcopy c:. i: /e /v /c /l /h /r /k /x /y /D:01-01-1901 … ) be better? Or is there a cheap/free app that would be better?
I’ve been just dragging and dropping, but is this just a fool’s paradise?
Use something like rsync. It only copies the portions of the files that have changed since the precious backup. The first backup might take hours (if it’s a lot of data). Subsequent backups will take only minutes.
I just read the article, and it looks to me as if rsync is outside my skill level.
Thanks, tho’! It does look like a good solution for someone more adept.
In addition to backing up documents, pictures & music, you might want to consider backing up programs you have downloaded from the internet (generally you will find these in your Downloads folder). This will make things much easier when you have to rebuild. Also keep backups of critical drivers. One driver that is particularly important is the driver to your wi fi device (if you use one). If you don’t have this when your computer gets restored, then you can’t get on the web to get it. Very annoying. The rest of the drivers will likely fix themselves once you are on the web.
Exactly how are you going to reinstall the OS? If you have a Dell (or similar), that means that you do not have a copy of Windows, what you have is an image of your hard drive when it was shipped from Dell. This image is probably on a hidden partition on your hard drive. If you do not have a copy of this image on a dvd, make one now. The Dell help file will tell you how. You should also take time to find out exactly how to restore your system in the event of a complete hard drive failure (can you replace a hard drive?). Print out those instructions. You will not remember them when the time comes and you won’t have access to your computer. One problem with this is that now you have restored all the bloatware that came with your dell that you subsequently removed. Too bad. Remove them again.
I assume you are using Windows backup, so you can just go to backup restore. I would see what the help file says about it and I would print that out.
If you are going to a new computer with a newer version of Windows, it should not be a problem.
As the many different replies in this thread attest, there are many different flavors of backup and restore. If time is of the essence (i.e. you cannot afford to be down for long) you need to educate yourself thoroughly about the options. Otherwise you will be best served by;
[ol]
[li]Restore the OS.[/li][li]Update the OS (this will be done by Windows over the internet, but might take a few days.[/li][li]Restore your files.[/li][/ol]
I suggest you do a trial run. That is the only way to be sure. Write down any problems you had and what you did to solve them. Print that out. Even if you hose things up so bad you need to take it to your local computer guy, it will be money well spent. Just don’t hose up your backup.
I posted the below in a different thread a few weeks ago. Seems relevent here as well:
As my current laptop is five years old, and I can afford a new one, I would probably go that route (since of course my data will be backed up elsewhere :))
But if I could figure out how to avoid Windows 8, that would be cool.
I have a Toshiba Satellite, and it was shipped with Windows 7 already on it. I guess I have to figure out how to do what you are suggesting, restore the OS. That is more valuable to me than the programs, actually (partly because lots of those will consequently need new versions/upgrades/drivers with a new OS).
Toshiba also has a “recovery image” on the hard drive, but you are responsible for making a copy of it (if you don’t have a DVD reader/writer, you can use a usb flash drive, but make sure it is a big one). You can do this using the Toshiba Recovery Media Creator (included on your machine).
When you buy your next laptop, this is what I would do.
[ol]
[li]Create your recovery media following their instructions.[/li][li]Reformat the c: drive.[/li][li]Recover from disks you made in step 1.[/li][li]Recover all your backed up documents onto your new machine.[/li][/ol]
This will basically give you a dry run of the process without risking too much. You will almost certainly run into problems. Write down everything you do, even the stuff that seems obvious to you, and keep a printout.
After I wrote all this, I realized there was a flaw in my thinking. This process will prepare you for the scenario where your hard drive is fried and you need to replace it. Since this is a laptop, you are unlikely to replace the hard drive yourself. You will likely bring it somewhere to have it done and they will do the recovery themselves (assuming you bring them the recovery and backup media).
Do it anyway.