Day 17: Using Windows 7 Backup and Restore

This blog post continues on the backup topic of our step-by-step series. Today we look at Windows 7 Backup and Restore. While Windows 8 did not include this backup, Windows 10 again includes it under the name “Backup and Restore (Windows 7)”.

Key features of Windows 7 Backup and Restore

Windows 7 Backup has a similar feature set like Windows Server Backup. However, it does not support multiple backup targets. You have to select a single disk or file share.

Windows 7 Backup stores a system image and user data on a dedicated backup disk (recommended) or on a file share. The currently connected backup disk is visible and accessible by ransomeware.  You should disconnect the disk after each backup. This provides moderate protection against Ransomeware, as the only backup disk can be attacked at the time of backup and the older backups become useless.

You can restore single files and folders or entire disks. Bare metal restore is possible via boot from the installation media or repair disk.

Backups run on a fixed schedule, but only once per day! But wait, Lights-Out will help.

Lights-Out support

Lights-Out supports Windows 7 Backup and Restore out of the box. It detects Windows 7 Backup and Restore automatically. The only requirement is that Windows Backup is configured with a regular “Backup Schedule”.

Finally, Lights-Out adds some additional benefits to your Windows Backup:

• Especially relevant: Lights-Out can start your computer from shutdown, standby or hibernation to run a backup!
• You can configure and execute an action after backup. As a result, is it easy to save energy after a backup.
• Furthermore, Lights-Out allows you to run additional backups (scheduled or manually) if one backup a day is not enough!
• Lights-Out reports backup state, result and the point in time for the next backup (see screen shot below)

Summary

Windows Backup on Windows 7 and Windows 10 provides a basic solution to protect your data. Lights-Out gives you some additional features to do more backups and to better save energy without the risk of data loss.

Tomorrow we will look at Microsoft Azure Backup.

Here you will find the complete list of all days of our step-by-step series.