How to Easily Backup and Restore Files in Windows XP

Windows XP allows you to very easily create backups of your important files by providing a powerful Backup and Restore Wizard. We will take a step-by-step look at how this utility works. As we will see, one can use the wizard interface or take backups manually. You can choose the interface that you are most comfortable with. The steps below outline how to manually take backups using the Backup utility but we will also mention how to switch to the wizard interface if you so desire. The entire process is very straightforward though one needs to be sure about the options being selected as a wrong choice may lead to corrupt bkf files.

 

Let us first begin by understanding how to set up the backup utility.

1. From the Start menu option, proceed to All Programs, then Accessories, System Tools and finally click on Backup.
2. In the window that appears, click on Advanced Mode. One word of caution here ' if you are shown the Backup and Restore Wizard, you are running the utility in Wizard mode. You can choose to continue in this mode or prefer to use the manual mode.
3. In the Advanced Mode, you should click on the Backup tab and select a New Job. You will be shown the various drives, underneath which the files and folders residing on each drive will unfold. You can now select the specific checkboxes next to the files and folders you would like backed up.
4. Make sure that you select the checkbox next to System State right under My Computer.
5. You can also specify where you would like the backups to be stored by specifying a backup destination. You can store the backup files at another location on the same hard disk or on an external media.

 

This utility will allow you to append new backup files to previous backup files or simply replace old backup files with the new backup. If the media is being often rewritten on, there are chances that some of the backup files may become corrupted and you would do well to know a way of repairing corrupt bkf files.

 

The Backup and Restore utility will help you restore an original file if it is accidentally deleted or becomes corrupted. You would have also come across many recovery tools offering to repair damaged backup files. However, most of them can work with just one file at a time, work very slowly or not at all if the backup files are fairly large in size and finally, are not very reliable in their data recovery. It is important that you give careful consideration to all the tools before choosing one that gives you the best combination of all the features.

 

Consider Advanced BKF Repair from DataNumen for example. Easily able to handle files that run into a few terabytes, this application can work on a large number of files at once and can repair corrupt bkf files with minimum data loss. Applications such as these allow you to utilize the full power of the Windows Backup utility and to take secure backups.