© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 1 Explain the importance of routine backup and maintenance. Objective Course Weight 4%

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 2 Backup & System Image  A backup is a secured copy of files and folders commonly saved using compression to reduce storage size.  Backups exist so that a user can restore the files and folders in the event of data loss.  A special type of backup is a system image.  System images are snapshots of an entire hard drive that includes all the files and folders needed to completely restore a computer.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 3 How Windows Handles Backups  Microsoft provides the Windows Backup and Restore utility with Windows 7 and later operating systems.  The Backup and Restore utility allows creation of two types of backups:  File and Settings  System Image  The Files and Settings backup type exists so a user can select specific files and folders to backup.  During a Files and Settings backup a user can also opt to create a System Image.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 4 Backup and Restore Utility

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 5 Backup and Restore Utility The utility allows a user to backup data to one of three locations:  Secondary Local Disk  Removable Media  Network Locations NOTE: Starter and Home Editions do not support network backup.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 6 Backup and Restore Utility  The recommended option backs up Files and Settings and creates a System Image.  Should you only wish to create file backups choose the second option.  We will demonstrate the second option.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 7 Backup and Restore Utility  At this stage manually select the files and settings to backup. NOTE: If this is your first backup, Windows wants to create a System Image as well.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 8 Backup and Restore Utility  All user files and settings are ready for backup.  The Backup and Restore utility will perform the backup once a week by default.  The schedule is easily manipulated should a user choose to do so.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 9 Backup and Restore Utility  Upon finishing the prompts, the Backup and Restore utility immediately begins to run.  If a Files and Settings type was done the time of the backup process will be proportional to the number of files being secured.  If a System Image was included, the backup process could take considerably longer.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 10 Backup and Restore Utility Once the backup is complete several options become available:  Turn off the backup  Change the backup location  Run the backup on demand  Change the schedule  Restore backed up files

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 11 Backup and Restore Utility: Restoring  Restoring files is done by clicking the “Restore my Files” button.  Search or Browse for the desired files, then follow the prompts to select where to restore them.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 12 Restoring Files: Another Method  Thanks to the Backup and Restore Utility any files backed up can also be retrieved individually from the Properties dialog box in a tab called:  Previous Versions  If you make a mistake, go grab an old version and start again!

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 13 Creating a System Image Only  Another feature of the Backup and Restore utility is the ability to manually create a System Image.  System Images are excellent to have in case of drive failure. NOTE: In order to restore a System Image, a Windows installation disc or Repair disc is needed.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 14 Creating a System Image Only  Creating a System Image and creating a Repair Disc are both begun from the same location.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 15 Creating a System Image Only  Choose a location to save the System Image, Confirm the settings, and Start backup.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 16 Restoring a System Image  If your computer boots up, but fails to start Windows, it is a perfect time for restoring a System Image.  To get the System Image back on to the PC, a user must perform a recovery boot using one of three methods:  Pre-installed Advanced Boot Options menu  Windows Installation disc  Repair Disc

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 17 Repair Disc  Many users do not have the first two options.  Anyone with a functioning Windows 7 machine, a DVD drive, and a recordable DVD, can create a Repair Disc.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 18 Repair Disc  To create the Repair Disc select your DVD drive and click Create Disc.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 19 Repair Disc  Booting from the Repair Disc will eventually bring a user to this menu from which the System Image can be restored.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 20 System Restore  System Restore is a tool used to roll back your system files and applications to a time when the PC was working.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 21 System Restore  The System Protection feature of Windows creates Restore Points for System Restore. They are:  Used to roll back your system to an earlier point in time.  Created automatically on a weekly basis.  Created any time you make a change to your computer (installing applications or device drivers).  Can be created manually.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 22 System Restore  Access System Restore from the Control Panel’s Recovery applet or System applet.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 23 System Restore Settings  From the System Protection link, System Restore settings are accessible.  A user can manually create a Restore Point if about to make a change to the computer but uncertain of outcome.  Configuring the automatic settings is also accessible.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 24 System Restore Settings  System Restore can be reduced to file backup only or completely turned off.  The amount of disk space System Restore consumes can be controlled.  If System Restore runs out of room it deletes the oldest Restore Points.  If a PC is running low on storage space all Restore Points can also be manually deleted.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 25 System Restore: Restoring  After opening System Restore, the utility will prompt for selection of a specific Restore Point.  Select a point for restoration, click Next, and a confirmation window will appear.  Clicking Finish in the confirmation window reboots the computer at the Restore Point.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 26 Other “Backup” Options  Windows has several other options that provide backup-like fail safes.  These options are accessed from the Advanced Boot Options menu.  To access this menu repeatedly tap the “F8” key during boot up.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 27 Recovery/Advanced Boot Options  Repair Your Computer  Windows Automatic repair solution.  Use if missing or corrupt system files are the problem.  Safe Mode  Starts Windows in a limited state loading only the necessary drivers and files.  Great for when a software installation goes wrong.  Last Known Good Configuration  Boots the last configuration known by the OS to work.  Uses settings saved in the Registry during the last successful shutdown.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 28 Windows Built-In Maintenance Tools Now that we have a good grasp on the variety of tools in place to help us with Backup and Recovery tasks let us shift our focus to some built-in maintenance tools.  PCs often seem to slow down over time.  This is usually due to poor maintenance.  Microsoft provides tools to solve this problem.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 29 Windows Built-In Maintenance Tools  Disk Defragmenter  Disk Cleanup  Task Scheduler  Action Center  System Information  Check Disk

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 30 Disk Defragmenter  A utility that improves computer performance by moving sectors of data on the hard disk so that files are stored sequentially.  This minimizes the movement of the hard disk arm thereby increasing the speed of data access.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 31 Disk Defragmenter  In Windows 7, the utility is set to run automatically once a week.  Solid state drives (SSDs) differ from hard disks in that they never require defragmentation (the Samsung840 is an SSD)

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 32 Disk Cleanup  A tool that removes unnecessary files from your computer.  It checks many locations for such files, including but not limited to:  Downloaded program files  Temporary Internet files  Files left after software installation  Unlike Disk Defragmenter it is not scheduled to be run by default.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 33 Disk Cleanup

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 34 Task Scheduler  A tool that enables you to schedule and automate a variety of actions.  It is possible to  Start programs, scripts, and batch files.  Display messages.  Send s.  You create a scheduled task by specifying a trigger and an action.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 35 Task Scheduler  Triggers are events that cause a task to run.  Actions are the tasks themselves.  There are two ways to create tasks in Task Scheduler:  Create Basic Task With this method a Wizard walks you through the essentials of creating a task.  Create Task With this method the Create Task dialog box appears in which a user manually creates the task. Provides more control and options.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 36 Task Scheduler  To begin creating tasks choose one of these two options.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 37 Create Basic Task  Use the Create Basic Task Wizard  Note the basic steps:  Trigger  Action

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 38 Create Task  Use the Create Task Window.  Note the tabs  Trigger  Action  Conditions  Settings  Allows for more configuration.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 39 Action Center  Provides a single interface in which you can view the status of security and maintenance features.  It also alerts you to problems you need to correct and generally provides a ways to fix them.  In Windows 7 notifications of any pending issues are displayed by a red X under the flag in the notification area.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 40 Action Center  In this section we will focus on the maintenance features.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 41 Action Center There are four tracked features:  Check for solutions to problem reports:  From here you can check for solutions, view the Windows 7 privacy policy, change settings to choose how often to check for solutions to problems reports, and view a graph of the system’s reliability history.  Backup:  This section provides information about the status of Windows Backup.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 42 Action Center  Check for updates:  This section refers to Microsoft Update, which provides updates to the operating system and many installed programs.  Troubleshooting: System Maintenance:  This section displays messages related to the automatic troubleshooting feature in Windows 7.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 43 System Information  A utility that displays details about computer hardware components, software, and drivers.  System Information can be used to gather information about your computer or to diagnose issues.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 44 System Information  System Summary  Displays general information about your computer.  System name, OS, processor type, RAM, etc.  Hardware Resources  Displays details about hardware address mapping.  DMA, I/O, IRQs, Memory NOTE: Thanks to PnP we pay little attention to these.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 45 System Information  Components  Displays information about hardware devices and their drivers.  Disk drives, network adapters, computer ports.  Software Environment  Displays details about system software.  Drivers, current print jobs, network connections, services, startup programs, and other system related items.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 46 System Information - Cool Feature  Can be exported to a text file to send to another technician, or to post on a support site.

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 47 Check Disk  A command line utility.  Checks the file system integrity.  Only “checks” the disk by default.  If you want it to repair the disk as well you must specify an option.  Command to execute: chkdsk  Most common option: /r  short for repair

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 48 Check Disk  Must run command prompt with elevated privileges (as Administrator).

© ExplorNet’s Centers for Quality Teaching and Learning 49 Check Disk  Cannot be run on a disk that is currently in use.  Must reboot in order to run on the system drive.  Scan will occur at boot time. This example will perform a check on the C: drive and repair any errors it finds upon the next reboot.