Backup Computer Vista

All Microsoft Windows Vista users know from experience that a lot of things can go wrong, a lot of us suffered the “update issue” that affected most Vista systems and that rendered a full system useless with a single answer from Microsoft, which was “Reinstall Windows Vista”.

If we add virii, hard drive failures, human mistakes and natural disasters to the list, we’ll find ourselves in the desperate need of some backup solution.

If you are going to back up your entire computer, the easiest and most reliable way is to do a disk image backup. Windows Vista includes a backup assistant which can be located at Control Panel, then System and maintenance, in there you have a backup utility that as integral part of Microsoft Windows Vista, “knows” how to handle backups without conflicting with open or locked files. The other option, a disk image backup means that the backup software will take a “snapshot” of your entire hard disk and will back it up to a storage location. We call this the most reliable way as that way you can restore more than just your personal files, but also your system, applications and settings in a breeze.

Image backups can grow to almost the same size as your current hard drives used space. Some disk imaging programs will compress your backups to try to save some storage space, however due to the already compressed state of most modern file formats (like mp3 for music or jpeg for photos), sometimes the compressed backup will only be slightly smaller than the original data, so get ready to handle some big backup files.

If you don’t have a spare hard drive (either internal or external), you can always rely on removable media drives (such as iOmega’s drives, CD and DVD burners and tape recorders) to store your backup in a secure location.

There are freeware and open source tools that will get the job done, like CloneZilla or PING, however if you love fancy interfaces and commercial support, you could go for a product like Norton Ghost, which will also create full hard drive images and will also allow you to restore your entire system easily.

If instead of backing up your entire computer, you just want to backup your files and don’t care much for system or application files, then you can chose one of the many backup applications available, some for free, some for a fee, but surely you’ll find one that meets your needs.