Win 7 backup and restore

If I have set a feature that is a red flag I would appreciate being advised. Thank you -backup weekly -let windows decide what to backup(I need to be able to pickup a dropped file + system recovery in case of catastrophe). -let windows handle space which means no backups will be removed until about 1/3 of my hard drive is reached -1T. The other option would have removed all but the last backup

Windows 7 is usable but doesn't hold a candle to Macrium or Acronis. I believe you stated before you had problems with Macrium and/or Acronis but I firmly believe either is better than Windows Backup. Perhaps you need to look at them again.

If you want to continue to use Windows Backup then I disagree with this one:

-let windows decide what to backup(I need to be able to pickup a dropped file + system recovery in case of catastrophe).

You decide what you want backed up or it's quite likely that what Windows decides will not be what you need if a problem arises. Were it me, I would be doing a complete backup of my boot drive and if you have a separate data drive then back it up as well. I don't remember if Windows Backup is capable of incremental backups, but if not, do weekly full backups and have at least two you work with, rotating them each week so you always have one good backup. If you have the space, three or four would be good. If you can do incrementals then maybe keep a weeks worth in one folder then swith to another folder for the next week and rotate them.

I have 4 weeks worth using Acronis so I always have a minimum of three weeks I can go back to.

Thank you for replying. Can you use more than one backup program so if one does not function you could use the other? When Acronis and Macrium failed, Win 7 surprised me and created a perfecy recovery. I agree that it is lacking. Not to mix issues up but if you remember,I have haqd rtrouble with restore points. I think I have it worked out now but recently it turned off again. Does Win 7 back up and recovery have anything to do with these restore points? I appreciate your comments regarding this issue and hope to resolve it quickly.

Sure, you can use as many backup programs as you want, as long as none of their components are running in real time and interfering with each other.

So, I could image with Win 7 backup and restore and also with Macrium/Acronis. If one failed during recovery, I could use the other. The reason I asked this is because I had all three on my machine when my system restore issue was going on and, when all went awry, I tried Acronis first, then Macrium. When neither recovered, I used Win 7 B + R which recovered successfully. Perhaps having three programs in the system caused the failure of the 1st two, and b/c Win 7 B + R was last, it succeded. I know it is baseless conjecture but I do not have the knowledge to form a better hypothesis. I shall use two and hope I have no occasion to use either. Thank you P.S. Do you know if system restore and Win 7 B +R have anything to do with each other?

I believe they are totally separate.

You may also want to look at Volume Shadow Copy and Shadow Explorer.

Unless you have turned off the Volume Shadow Copy service you can access snapshot backups of your files using Shadow Explorer. Works for me. On my C: drive, System Volume Information, aka Volume Shadow Copy occupies 5GB. Using Shadow Explorer I can access 10 generations of files, from 1/13/2011 to 1/26/2001.

Some people disable it because they don't like it eating up hard drive space but I think that is very short sighted. Why cripple a way to recover a file that does not involve doing a full image restore or even System Restore?

At this point I have Acronis backed up as well as Win 7 B=R. I will read about the outher information you have provided. Thank you