Everyone has heard horror stories about computer viruses wiping out hard drives, hardware failures causing loss of work, and other data woes. Performing regular backups remains the only solution. A good backup can get your computer back to working condition in a matter of minutes rather than hours or days. Windows Vista has a built in backup utility that can help you keep your computer settings, photos, documents, and videos safe. This article shows you how to use the backup utility.

Settings for Windows Vista Backups

You can access the backup utility via Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup Status and Configuration. When you use the utility for the first time, you will see a screen that says “Backups have not been setup”.

The backup utility makes copies of the file types you choose and places copies in a location of your choice. To begin the backup process, select “Setup automatic file backup”.

Open the backup utility from Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Backup Status and Configuration.

Choose Setup automatic file backup. 

Choose where to save your backup copies of your files. You can backup files to your Recovery partition on your hard disk, to DVD, to CD, or on to a networked computer’s hard drive. 

Now you need to choose the file types you want to backup. (Note: Backing up video’s might require a lot of disk space if you record TV on your computer.) From the available options, you should remove all checkmarks next to the category of files you don’t want the utility to back up. In our example, we leave a checkmark next to Documents. 

Click Next once you’ve selected the file category for your backup.

Now you need to choose how often the utility should run the backup. You can choose a frequency of daily, weekly, or monthly. You can also select on which day it will backup and what time of day. 

Once you have the backup schedule setup, click Save settings and start backup.

After you start the backup process, the utility will create copies of the files you specified. The initial backup may take a while to perform.

The last step states that a full backup will be created. A full backup means an exact copy of every file that meets your category criteria. The next time the utility runs it will determine if any files have been changed since the last backup, adding new files and replacing updated ones.

Many Vista systems come with a Recovery partition as part of the factory setup. This means a portion of your hard drive has been separated from the main drive volume. This separate Recovery partition houses your backup files and different manufacturer recovery tools for use if your computer becomes unstable. The backup utility can utilize this space for your regularly scheduled backups.