The backup utility will run on its scheduled date and will copy new files to the location you specified. If you decide to create a once-off backup of a particular file type, photos for example, you could do so, but only by altering the main backup schedule. In order to do this, you need to return to the Backup Status and Configuration screen to perform a onetime backup.

The Backup Status and Configuration screen shows when the last successful backup was performed. Underneath that listing, you can see the option to “Change the backup settings”. To perform a backup of photos on the computer, follow the onscreen instructions as we previously mentioned, changing the file type to “Pictures”. Once you have the location and schedule set, click the “Save and start backup” button.

If the backup doesn’t begin and if you are returned to the Backup Status and Configuration screen, you can choose to perform a “Backup now”. You may see an information balloon open in the system tray saying the backup needs your attention.

If you chose to backup to CD or DVD then you will be prompted to insert a disk. The backup utility also gives a helpful label suggestion for the disk, so you can always find the data at a later date.

Testing a Backup

A backup should capture the data you want. Do you know for sure that it does? For instance, a folder may have been missed, corrupted or some other mishap of the backup utility. The fault wasn’t found until the time came to restore from the backup. You can all imagine how you would feel knowing you had been diligent, but were still left without important files when you needed them.

You can prevent this with the backups created by the utility. You can peruse the backed up files on the Recovery partition, external hard drive or networked drive to ensure the files exist. We provide instructions for reviewing the files on a Recovery partition. The instructions remain the same for double-checking an external drive or a networked drive backup.

Click Start > Computer. Open the Recovery partition. 

There should be a folder with your username and desktop in the title, like USERNAME_DESKTOP. Open this folder. 

Inside the folder, you will see a backup folder for each time you ran the utility. Each folder has the date in the title. Open the latest backup folder. 

Open the folder with Backup Files and the date in the title. Ignore the Catalogs folder. 

Here you should see three separate compressed folders. Open the third folder, and proceed to open subsequent folders to find your files. As you dig deeper into the file system, you should notice the same structure as your hard drive. From here you can open files, validating the backup.

Quick Tip: Do not update files inside the backup folder. Only use the method we described to ensure the backup has captured the files you wanted it to backup.