Backing-up your files is something that is very important, especially in your digital life. You might want to go ahead and protect your cherished pictures, videos, documents, and other files. Your stuff matters—keep it protected by choosing a backup option that works for you, whether though third party software, or through Windows's own backup and Restore feature. The Windows Backup and Restore feature is probably one of the most easiest and most convenient way to backup your files because not only is it simple to use, it is also built-in into your computer. In this post, we'll be showing how to use Windows's Backup and Restore.
What are the steps to backing-up my files?
Step 1: Prepare an External Storage Drive
This is the first step when using Windows's Backup and Restore. You can use any external storage device/s, whether an SD card, Micro SD Card, external Hard Drive, or an External SSD (although we recommend an SSD or Solid State Drive for quick read/write speeds), as long as the capacity is right for your system. To know the capacity that you need, go to:
C:\Users\and right click the username of your user account. Click on Properties, and look at the size that is mentioned in the opened window. You'll typically want a drive that is 3-4 times larger than the size mentioned on the Properties window to make sure you have enough space for all the files that you'll be backing-up. After doing so, connect the drive to your computer.
Step 2: Configure your Backup Settings
To do this, click on Start, and then click on Settings, go to Update and Security, on the left side click on Backup, then, under Backup using File History click on Add Drive, after that Windows will go ahead and look for an external drive connected to your computer. Select the drive that you'll be using, and afterwards Windows will automatically turn on the option to backup your files. If you leave it at this level, the backup will then be performed automatically each hour. If you want to adjust more things about your backup such as the frequency of the time of backup, whether or not you want your backup to be deleted automatically, what folders you want or don't want to backup, exclude certain folders from being backed-up, if you want to change the drive for your backup, you can go to More Options and configure it from there.
How do I Restore my Backup?
Let's say you've accidentally deleted a file or folder, even from the recycle bin, that you didn't mean to delete. Here are the steps to restoring that file or folder.
Step 1: Navigate to the Parent Directory of the file or folder that you need to backup.
Step 2: Right click on the parent directory.
Step 3: Click on Restore Previous Versions.
Step 4: Select the backup that you wish to restore. (If you want only a specific file to be restored, click on Open, the click on Open With File History, then select the file/s that you want to restore, and click the green button at the bottom of the window.)
After doing so, the file/s or folder that you want to restore is now restored.
And that is how you can use the Windows Backup and Restore feature to backup and restore your files and folders. Backing up is really important because you never know, you may accidentally delete a file or folder that you actually need, and it maybe even your theses (ouch if you've deleted that). So remember to always backup your files, whether through third-party software, or through Windows's Backup and Restore.
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