How to Backup Personal Data in Windows

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How to manually backup your personal data (Vista, 7 & 8)

manual locate and copy

1. Locate important data files

Rather than explain how to find important data files located outside of your user folder (which would make this guide far too long), here are common examples

  • Find your Outlook data files (.pst .pab .ost .dat .xml etc)
  • Find your Windows Mail emails & data
  • Find your MYOB company files & backups
  • Find your Quicken company files

There may be more data files you need to backup, go through your programs and assess which ones do before proceeding, but most programs will (and should) store data files inside your Users > [username] folder.

2. Copy data to external drive

Plug in your USB or external hard drive

Open your user folder: Computer > System (C:) > Users > [yourusername]*

You should now see all your user folders (Contacts, Desktop, Downloads, etc)

Starting at the top of the list, right-click on the first folder

Mouse-over the Send to: menu item and Click on the USB or external hard drive from the list, it will usually be named the same as it’s brand, WD_Elements (E:) or Sandisk (F:) etc

Windows will now copy the selected folder and it’s contents to your backup drive

example list of common user data locations

  • c:\Users\Username\Desktop
  • c:\Users\Username\Contacts
  • c:\Users\Username\Favorites
  • c:\Users\Username\My Documents
  • c:\Users\Username\My Pictures
  • Windows Live Mail (export to empty folder)

Using Windows Backup

1. Go to Windows Start Menu Search and type “backup and restore“. Select the first search result which will be Windows Backup and Restore utility.

2. Select the destination where you would like to back up your user profile. You can either choose a drive in your computer or a network share. There is no option to select a specific folder to back up to.

3. Choose "Let me choose" radio button to select the profile to back up.

4. choose what you want to back up. un-check everything and only select the user profile folder that you want to back up.


considerations

Backup Your Users folder: either at C:\Users\Username for Windows 7 or Vista, or C:\Documents and Settings\ for Windows XP. This folder should contain all of your documents, settings, etc -- however, you shouldn't back up cache and history.

Your Data Folders: If you've created other data on your hard drives, you should include those as well.


cmd.exe command line / console commands:

  • sdclt.exe - Windows Backup and Restore GUI interface.
  • wbadmin.exe - Windows Backup and Restore console command.

Foolish IT Datagrab Utility

This is a 3rd party utility. The last version released is version: 2.1.1 and it doesn't appear the developer will do any further releases.

DataGrab is a utility to quickly retrieve only the *desired* data from a live or offline system for backup.

Testing: program failed to execute after installation on Windows 7.

Related

See also: Copying Files in Microsoft Windows

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