How to Back up Your Computer Automatically With Built-in Windows 10 Tools
If you are not backing up your computer, you should. You never know when your hard drive will fail, your files will be accidentally deleted, or, God forbid, malware will infect your machine – and you don’t want to be left empty-handed without all that valuable data.
If you don’t already have a backup system, today is the day you create one to run on a regular schedule. It’s pretty painless on Windows 10, and there’s really no excuse not to .
The main feature of Windows 10 backup is called File History . The File History Tool automatically saves multiple versions of the same file, so you can “go back in time” and restore a file before it was changed or deleted. This is especially useful for files that change frequently, such as Word documents or PowerPoint presentations.
Earlier versions of Windows had a tool called Backup and Restore that creates one backup of the latest version of your files on a schedule. It also requires a “system image” or snapshot of your entire system — operating system, programs, documents, and everything else — so that you can easily restore everything if something terrible happens.
Backup and Restore is still available in Windows 10, although it’s a deprecated feature. You can use one or both of these functions to back up your machine.
Of course, you still need an out-of-office backup , either an online backup or a remote backup to another computer. However, restoring files from a local backup will be much faster, and with a system image, you can almost immediately get your entire computer back to the way it was before the system crash.
Without further ado, let’s get started. You will need an external hard drive, NAS (network attached storage), or another computer on your local network as your backup storage.
Use file history to back up specific files and folders that change frequently
By default, File History backs up all folders in your account folder (C: / Users / [accountname]). These include your desktop, documents, downloads, music, pictures, and a few other folders. Most importantly, File History keeps track of changes in these folders and automatically backs up any files that are added or changed, similar to Time Machine in OS X.
How to set up and enable file history
- Go to Start> Settings> Update & Security.
- Select “Backup” and click “Add Disk”.
- Select the drive or network location that you want to use to back up your file history.
Now click on Advanced Options. This is where you can start backing up, change the time to back up your files, choose how long to keep your files backed up, add or exclude a folder, or switch your file history to another drive.
Click the Back Up Now button to start your first file history backup.
One of the options you might want to change in the settings, depending on your preference, is how long the file history backups are kept:
- The default is set to Forever , which means File History will keep creating and saving backups until your disk is full. At this point, you will either have to use a different drive or manually run the cleanup from Control Panel (under System and Security> File History> Advanced Settings) to free up space.
- If you switch to ” Until space is needed “, File History will automatically delete the oldest versions of files backed up when your backup disk runs out of free space .
- If you switch to one of the other timeframes, for example 1 month or 2 years , file history will delete the oldest versions when files reach that time.
That’s all there is to it. In the future, the file history will run in the background.
How to restore file history from backups
To recover individual files or folders, or revert an older version of a file, enter “recover files” in the taskbar and click “Recover files using file history”. You will be able to flip through different versions to find the one you want to restore.
If you click Recover, the file will be saved to its original location. Right-click “Recover”> “Recover To” to select a different folder or location.
You can also restore previous versions of a file without opening the File History Recovery tool . Right-click the file, select Properties, and go to the Previous Versions tab.
Conveniently! But for this feature to be useful it needs to be enabled.
Use backup and restore to create complete system images
You may remember “Backup and Restore” from earlier versions of Windows. In Windows 10, this feature is actually called Backup and Restore (Windows 7), so you know it’s an older tool. Even if you have file history enabled, it is recommended that you also use Backup and Restore to periodically create a system image on a different drive. In addition to quickly backing up and starting up in the event of something like a boot disk failure, you can use the system image to upgrade to a new disk and get back to work without reinstalling everything or losing your settings.
Use a different drive than the one you are using for file history to ensure redundancy in your backup system. Remember, redundancy is key when it comes to backups.
How to set up and enable backup and restore
- Open Backup and Restore. It’s in Control Panel, not in Windows 10 Settings, but again, you can press the Windows button and then type “backup and restore” to find the tool.
- Click “Configure Backup”.
Select the drive to back up. Or, alternatively, click the Save Online button to select a network share.
Then choose if you want Windows to select the data to back up or if you want to select folders yourself. If you let Windows choose, it will save the files on your desktop, in your user folder, and in your libraries, and it will also create a system image.
The simplest solution is to let Windows choose. However, if you’re worried about free space or want to customize which folders are included, select “I’ll choose”. You can then deselect libraries that have already been backed up using File History and let the tool create only system images on disk.
Click the “Save Settings and Run Backup” button to start the first backup.
The best part? After the first backup, it will run automatically on a schedule that you can configure.
How to restore a system image
To restore Windows from a system image, go to Settings> Update & Security> Recovery and restart your computer in Advanced Boot Mode. From there, you can navigate to the system image you want to restore from and select it.
If you just want to restore specific folders or files from a backup, go back to Control Panel> Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and click the Restore My Files button.
If your computer is not working and you cannot get into either Control Panel or Settings, you can start your computer from a Windows installation disc or USB drive , system repair disc or bootable USB recovery drive and use the recovery tools on that drive to recovery from a Windows system image. This WinHelp article explains the difference between a recovery disc and a recovery disc and how to create one.
File history, backup and restore are not the most reliable backup and restore tools you can use, but they are simple, free, and already built into Windows. Throw in an online backup service like Backblaze and you have your 3-2-1 backup needs covered .
This article was originally published in March 2016 and was updated in February 2020 with the most recent information.