Windows 7 - Backup and Restore Wizard Question

Asked By randwill

18-Mar-10 11:41 PM

I want to move a bunch of files from C drive to an external hard drive. I
know I can just copy and paste, but if I try to do a large group at once the
action sometimes stalls. And who wants to sit and do it a few at a time? So
I see that XP has something called Backup and Restore Wizard. I followed the
instruction here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/setup/maintain/backupfiles.mspx

When it had finished supposedly moving the files I selected to be moved from
C drive to the external drive, I looked in the external hard drive and
found, not the files I had selected to be moved, but only one file,
again. But I do not want to backup or restore anything. I want to access the
selected files on the external hard drive.

What did I do wrong?

19-Mar-10 12:00 AM

You may want to check out third-party image backup apps, such as

DriveImage XML

I use this and am able to select a single file from the backup file.

hth
--

19-Mar-10 12:20 AM

No you cannot access the selected files on external HD because the files
are compressed and can only be accessed using restore wizard.  If you
have many files then clearly you need to find an efficient way to to
that.  Acronis True Image Home 2010
doing; Other good product is Norton Ghost 15
I do not recommend any free software because they are completely
unreliable and undocumented.

hth

19-Mar-10 07:57 AM

You did not do anything wrong, almost all backup applications (like the
NTBackUp wizard that you used) compress the files into a single archive
file.  Some backup utilities have a tool that allows you to explore the
archive and extract selected files, NTBackUp does not have any such
browser, to restore files you have to go through a rather clumsy process.

You can use a third party backup utility that has this kind of feature
or you can use other Microsoft command line tools like xcopy or Robocopy
to backup your files, or you can try the Robocopy GUI version:

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx
Utility Spotlight  Robocopy GUI

or perhaps SyncToy could suit your needs:
http://www.microsoft.com/prophoto/downloads/synctoybeta.aspx

John

20-Mar-10 02:19 PM

If you just want to easily backup files and be able to access them
anytime, try -

http://www.karenware.com/powertools/ptreplicator.asp

it is free

20-Mar-10 02:23 PM

Have you tried the unstoppable copier?? It can be found at;

http://www.roadkil.net/program.php?ProgramID=29

I like it since it will do entire directories an anything it couoldn't
copy it gives you a report on when it is done doing the file copy.

I have also had a lot of luck with Allway Sync. It is a bit slower than
the unstoppable copier on the first run, but when you just need to
freshen up the files it is great. It can be found at;

http://www.allwaysync.com/

Sincerely,
C.Joseph Drayton, Ph.D. AS&T

CSD Computer Services

Web site: http://csdcs.site90.net/
E-mail: c.joseph@csdcs.site90.net