Vista Tutorial - Backup Complete Computer

Strange.

You should see a WindowsImageBackup folder first on the external drive. In that folder you should see this (backup drive letter)\WindowsImageBackup\(your computer name)\Backup (year-month-day) (time) folder.

Heh, truly odd. On the ext drive, I can see the four *tib files for MyBackup and SystemBackup, but nothing else. I will run again. Every menu comes up just like the demo above, and at the finish, an spash icon appears in the LR toobar saying backup was successful.

I'll keep looking.

Well I said I would report back and so I shall.

If you made a complete backup with Vista and you want to do a selective restore, you can. It's a little complicated, but it can be done.


Here are the basic steps:

1. Download Virtual Server (trialware) from Microsoft
2. Download Virtual PC (trialware) from Microsoft
3. Install Server, then PC.
4. Run Virtual PC.
   1. Create a virtual drive (dynamic) to install an operating system on. You only need as much space as is needed to install a basic operating system.
   2. Use the same O/S as the one you backed up with, if possible.
   3. In virtual PC settings, make sure the physical CD/DVD drive is checked to be used by the virtual machine.
   4. Browse to and select your backup.vhd (or whatever it's named) file and set it to mount as drive 2 (not drive 1!)
   5. Insert your licensed install CD or DVD into your CD/DVD drive and install just like you would on a "real" computer.
   6. Click on networking in the virtual settings and select your wireless adapter if you have it or wired if you're wired. This will allow you to network the virtual machine with the real machine.
   7. Install the "extras" for the operating system you installed. Don't worry, you will see how to do this in virtual machine.
   8. Share a folder on your real machine.
   9. Map the shared folder in your virtual machine.
5. Go to "Computer" and open your mounted backup.vhd - it should be drive D: and your Mapped drive should be F: (the CD/DVD should be E
6. Open your mapped drive.
7. Now you should have two explorer windows that show your backup.vhd files and your "real" computer files inside your virtual PC.
8. Copy/Paste or Drag/Drop to your heart's content.

I hope I didn't miss any steps, but it's a fairly intuitive process. Don't give up, you CAN do this.

Jeff

Brink, it has gone beyond strange. Twilight Zone? I began from sratch, used the menu to full complete backup, and did not select augment or whatever, but a fully new backup. It did note the ext G drive. It then went through the long progress bar and I watched the files and folders zip by. At the end, it said successful backup.

I cannot find it anyplace.

Worse, I returned to the meny to restore the backup I just made, it the folder is empty. Worse2: it will not show me the ext drive, only the C and D.

Bottom line, I sure hope acronis backup works, because it appears that all I have.

I have Vista Business and have made complete PC backups. But my concern is NOT what should happen if my laptop breaks, but if it gets stolen.

Should the worst happen and my laptop gets stolen, what can I do to restore a brand new laptop to my stolen laptop's settings?

Hell Dazp, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You could backup to an external USB hard drive, and keep that in safe place.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

Thanks for the speedy reply! My concern is two-fold really:

Firstly, if I use the complete PC backup option in Vista Business it seems it is useless unless it is used on the same machine that made the backup (i.e. it can't be used on a new PC).

And second, all those settings that I have painstakingly got to just how I like them would be lost.

Is there any way around this - perhaps with 3rd party software?

Any full drive image backup can be installed on a different hard drive, but should only be installed on the same computer since all the installed drivers and motherboard chipset driver would be only good for that same computer anyway.

Other than some 3rd party backup program like , you could also use Windows Easy Transfer (same in Vista) to copy everything over to the new computer as well.

So if do a complete backup using Acronis True Image Home and if I restore my laptop using that same backup I won't loose a single file? I mean, I have lots and lots of files and installed programs and even bookmarks on my browser that I really really don't want to loose, but I have to do a restore anyway...Stupid laptop

And of course, thanks for the tutorials

Hello grrrrrr,

You would only lose what was not included at the time you created the backup.