How to Backup Files and Folders
using Macrium Reflect
File and Folder Backup: A file and folder backup is a useful
way to backup your working files, personal files and any precious data.
Unlike many other backup solutions Macrium Reflect can even backup
open/locked files by using Microsoft Volume Shadow copy Service (VSS).
In this tutorial I’ll take you through the steps to create a full
backup of your ‘Outlook pst file’ (an e-mail file) and save the backup
definition as an XML file for easy re-running and scheduling.
Note: If you wish to backup your Operating System,
Do Not use a File & Folder Backup, you
must use an Image Backup.
You cannot restore Windows Operating System files using a file and folder
restore. A File/Folder backup is not suitable for Windows Operating
System files.
| 1. |
Start Macrium Reflect and within
the 'Backup Tasks' options select ‘Backup files and
folders into a…’ to start the backup wizard. The backup
Wizard starts. Click on ‘Next’.
|
| 2. |
In the next window leave the option as
‘Full’ (the other options are Incremental and Differential,
but these are covered later). Click on ‘Next’.
|
| 3. |
You can now choose the folders(s)
you wish to back up.
Note: Folder selections
are recursive. This means that all folders underneath the selected
folder are included and any new folders in the future will be automatically
included. So, if you backup your 'Documents' folder then any new
folders you add underneath 'Documents' will be included when you
run the backup again.
You can select multiple folders, in
this example I have just selected my outlook data folder.
Click on ‘Next’ after making selection.
|
| |
Note: in
selecting the Outlook folder I had to show hidden folders before I
could find the Outlook folder as it
was hidden.
To show hidden folders: Open Windows
Explorer: then in Windows 7 or Vista select 'Folders
and Search Option' in the Organize
Tab or in Windows XP select 'Folder Options'
in the Tools menu.
Now select the View Tab and scroll down if necessary so you can
select 'Show hidden files folders (and Drives)'.
While you are in this Tab it may help later if you also display file
extensions :- Remove the tick against 'Hide extensions
for known file types'. Click on 'Apply'
and then 'OK' (just 'OK'
in XP). Close 'Windows Explorer'.
|
| 4. |
Having selected the folders, in the next
window we select the files needing to be backed up within the
folders. You can use standard DOS wildcard formatting
to select files to include and exclude. Multiple selections must
be separated by a semi colon.
e.g, *.doc;
*.xls
Other examples are shown below:
|
| Example |
Meaning |
Example |
Meaning |
| *.doc |
All .doc WORD files |
*.jpg |
All jpg files |
| *.xls |
All .xls Excel files |
*.* |
All files |
| Letter2010C.doc |
File name: Letter2010C.doc |
*.doc; *.xls; *.jpg |
WORD, EXCEL and jpg pictures |
| *.pst |
Outlook e-mail file |
*.doc; *.docx |
All WORD files |
| |
See here
for a list of most common file extensions.
In wizard window below
all .pst files were chosen by entering '*.pst'.
Normally we leave exclusions and ticks unchanged at defaults but in this
case remove the tick against 'Exclude Hidden Files and
Folders' as .pst files were within hidden folders.
Click on ‘Next’
|
| 5. |
The next window enables the destination of the backup to be selected,
you need to select one of three options (a), (b) or (c):
|
| (a) |
If you select ‘Local Hard Drive’ click on ▼ to get a
drop down menu where you can search partitions, external hard
drives, memory sticks (flash drives) etc to save your backup,
you can also create a new folder there if needed.
|
| (b) |
If you select ‘Network’ you can search for another PC
or Network Attached Storage etc. to save the backup. |
| (c) |
If you select ‘CD/DVD Burner’ you can select
which Drive to save the backup.
Leave the Backup file name unchanged. Click
on ‘Next’ to finalise backup process.
|
| 6. |
The next window shows backup selection. Click on ‘Finish’
to start backup. If you have chosen CD/DVD burner you will be prompted to
insert disk.
|
| 7. |
In the next window you should enter an XML file name
for the backup definition. Using this XML filename you can
easily find it the XML Tab if you either want to re-run the backup
without going through the wizard again or want to schedule the backup.
Now click on ‘OK’.
|
| 8. |
The next window below shows progress while backing
up the file(s) and folders. When backup is complete click OK to close the small completion window and also close the progress window.
|
| |
File & Folder Backup now
Complete
Now the Task is Complete,
if you wish, you can look at the log, there is a 'Log' Tab
in the main Reflect window to check what you have done.
In the next tutorial I'll show you how to backup
only the files that have changed since this full backup was made, by creating
an 'Incremental Backup'.
References:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Show-hidden-files
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/tips/hiddenfiles.mspx
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