Chapter 24
Protecting Your Files
Some things on your hard drive are valuable. Pictures and videos from digital cameras are irreplaceable. Documents you spent hours creating required an investment of your time. You don't want to lose those things because of a technical problem or mistake, so keeping backups is a good idea. That way, if you lose the originals on your hard drive, you can easily restore them from your backup copy.
In addition to the files you create and use yourself, many system files reside on your hard drive. These are files that Windows 10 needs to function properly. If those files get messed up, your computer may not work correctly. So, you need some means of backing up those system files as well.
This chapter explains how to back up both your personal files and your system files. (We also cover the ability to save your system settings and configuration to your OneDrive.) Of course, the backups don't do you any good if you can't use them when you need them. So, we discuss how to use those backups if you ever need to get your system back in shape. We also discuss System Protection, which creates restore points to keep copies of some files around temporarily. This feature helps you fix minor mishaps on the spot without fumbling around with external disks.
Simple File Backups
A simple way to back up items from your user account is to copy files to an external disk. You can use any of the methods described in Chapter 21 for copying files to accomplish this kind of backup. Just make sure that the disk to which you're copying has enough space to store what you're copying.
To see how much material is in a folder in your user account, open File Explorer and then point to the folder you're considering backing up, or right-click that folder and choose Properties. When you point, the size of the folder shows in a tooltip. When you right-click and choose Properties, the size of the folder shows up next to Size on Disk in the Properties dialog box (see Figure 24.1).
Figure 24.1 A folder's size shown in the Properties dialog box.
To see how much space is available on a removable disk, such as a flash drive, connect it to a USB port and then open the root folder on your computer. With some kinds of drives, you see the amount of available space right on the icon. For example, drive C: in Figure 24.2 has 24GB free.
Figure 24.2 A disk's available space.
The layout for Windows 10 is very different from previous versions of File Explorer or Windows Explorer. In particular, Windows no longer puts libraries under Favorites.
If the disk has enough space for the item you want to copy, copy it using any method described in Chapter 21. If you ever lose or damage a file on your hard drive, you can get it back from the copy on the external disk.
That's the quick and easy way to make backups of important files. More elaborate methods exist. The next two sections discuss ways of backing up all your files, and even your entire hard drive.
Using File History
Windows 10's File History feature is an alternative to the simple method for backing up files described earlier and is an upgrade to the Windows Backup feature released with Windows 7. File History can back up individual folders, all files for all user accounts, or even your entire hard drive. It works with an external hard drive, USB drive, or a shared network drive. File History makes recovering files very easy because it allows you to access backed-up files from File Explorer.
Starting File History
File History is a tool for backing up files in all user accounts so you need administrative privileges to run it. If you're logged in to a standard account, log off, or run as administrator. Then log back in to an administrative account.
To launch File History, open Settings, launch the File History application and then click Backup in menu on the left. Or open Control Panel and click the File History option. File History can be accessed from Settings as shown in Figure 24.3.
Figure 24.3 The File History page from Settings.
By default, File History is turned off under Windows 10. A message on the main File History page indicates such. Also, File History recommends that you use an external drive for your backup storage device, or use a network location for backups. In fact, notice that the Turn On button is grayed out. You cannot even turn on File History until it recognizes a supported drive. In the example shown, File History has accepted an external USB hard drive.
To turn on File History, connect an external drive to your computer. Press F5 on your keyboard or click the Refresh button on the Address bar to refresh the page. If you would rather use a network drive than an external drive, click the Use Network Location link and follow the instructions in the next section, “Backing up to a network location.”
The next example here uses an external USB drive to back up files. Figure 24.4 shows what the File History page looks like after plugging in the USB drive and refreshing the page.
Figure 24.4 The File History page after connecting a USB drive.
Before turning on File History, note that File History backs up files from the following locations by default:
- Libraries
- Desktop
- Contacts
- Favorites
Its main purpose is to make sure that you can recover documents such as pictures, music, and videos if you lose the originals on your hard drive.
Click the Turn On button to activate File History. The Recommend a Drive for File History dialog box appears, asking if you want to allow others in your network homegroup to use this drive as their backup drive as well. (You learn about Windows 10 homegroups in Chapter 39.) If you want to allow this, click Yes; otherwise, click No.
After you activate File History, the File History page changes to show that it's turned on and that File History is making a copy of your files for the first time (see Figure 24.5). This initial backup may take several minutes or even hours, depending on the number of files you have in the folders being backed up.
Figure 24.5 File History is now activated.
As we mentioned, the first backup may take a while. But subsequent backups copy only files that have changed since the most recent backup, so the backups complete more quickly.
Backing Up to a Network Location
You can use a network location to back up files. This is handy if you have multiple computers in a location and want to use it as a shared backup location. Another benefit to using a network location is access to hard drives that may have large amounts of unused space. Typically, networked computers have larger hard drives than dedicated external drives. In many cases, you can use these larger hard drives to back up files.
To use a network location, click the Use Network Location link when you initially access the File History page. Or click the Select Drive link on the left side of the File History window. This opens the Select Drive window, as shown in Figure 24.6.
Figure 24.6 The Select Drive window for choosing drives where you want to back up files.
Click the Add Network Location link to display the Select Folder window (shown in Figure 24.7). Find the computer and folder to back up your files to. You must have network access privileges to access a computer and folder on your network. (Chapter 39 discusses sharing resources on a network.) Click Select Folder after you find the location on the network to back up your files.
Figure 24.7 Selecting a network location for backups.
The Select Drive window reappears, listing the network drive you just selected (see Figure 24.8). If it isn't selected, select it and then click OK to save your selection.
Figure 24.8 The Select Drive window showing the network drive we just selected.
For systems on which you've already backed up files to a drive (such as to a USB drive), File History prompts you with a message asking if you want to move your currently backed-up files to the network location. Click Yes to ensure all your backed-up files are available on the new network location. This move may take several minutes or even hours depending on the number of files on your backup drive.
If you use the Select Drive feature again and select a drive that you've previously used for backups (in the example, if you reselect the USB drive), you're presented with a list that shows at least one backup exists (see Figure 24.9). To ensure all your backed-up files are on the most recent drive selection, select an existing backup, choose OK, and then click Yes when prompted to reselect a drive you've previously used.
Figure 24.9 Reselecting a previously used drive shows existing backups on that drive.
Excluding Folders during Backups
There may be some folders on your computer that you do not need to back up. For example, you may find that all your music is backed up using a different backup utility or music program. In this case, you don't need to use File History resources (backup time and drive space, for example) to back up your music.
To specify folders that you don't want to back up, click the Exclude Folders link on the left side of the File History window. The Exclude Folders window appears, as shown in Figure 24.10. By default, folders are not excluded so your Excluded Folders and Libraries list will simply say No Excluded Items.
Figure 24.10 The Excluded Folders window.
Click the Add button to display the Select Folder window. Select a folder to exclude and then click Select Folder. File History adds that selected folder to the list of excluded folders. Continue this process until all the folders you want to exclude from backups are selected. In Figure 24.10, for example, we've added the Music, Videos, and Camera Roll folders to exclude in our backups. Click Save Changes to save your changes.
Setting the File History Advanced Option
To change File History advanced settings, click the Advanced Settings link on the File History window. Figure 24.11 shows what the Advanced Settings window looks like. The following paragraphs describe the settings you can modify on this window.
Figure 24.11 The Advanced Settings window.
By default, File History looks to see if you've made changes to already backed-up files every hour. If changes have been made, File History saves the most current file to your backup location. If hourly is not an appropriate length of time — too short a time or too long a time — change it by choosing a new time from the Save Copies of Files drop-down list. You have the following options:
- Every 10 Minutes
- Every 15 Minutes
- Every 20 Minutes
- Every 30 Minutes
- Every Hour (Default)
- Every 3 Hours
- Every 6 Hours
- Every 12 Hours
- Daily
One setting you may want to change is the Keep Saved Versions option. This instructs File History on how long to keep backup copies of your files. File History keeps multiple copies of your files so that you can restore a file to a previous date and time. This feature is great when you accidentally delete a file and want to return to a previous version of that file. The downside comes in the amount of space needed to store all so many multiple copies.
By default, File History saves all copies forever, as long as you have sufficient storage space. You may want to change this to a shorter period of time, such as one month or three months if you know that you won't need to return to all those multiple versions of the same file. File History keeps the last copies within the time frame you choose, so you have the option of returning to more recent copies. But you may not ever return to a version that is two years old, for example.
Your options for saved versions include the following:
- Until Space Is Needed
- 1 Month
- 3 Months
- 6 Months
- 9 Months
- 1 Year
- 2 Years
- Forever (Default)
You can choose the Recommend This Drive option. Use this option only if your computer belongs to a homegroup and you want others on the network to be able to use your drive to back up their files.
Finally, you view File History event logs by clicking the Open File History Event Logs to View Recent Events or Errors option. Event Viewer, which is shown in Figure 24.12, provides helpful information in case you encounter problems with File History.
Figure 24.12 View File History event logs using the Windows 10 Event Viewer.
When you finish modifying the advanced settings for File History, click Save Changes.
Restoring Files from a Backup
If you ever find that you've lost or destroyed important files, you can restore them from your File History backup. But understand that you need this method only if the files or folders are not in the Windows 10 Recycle Bin. Before you bother with the method described here, open the Recycle Bin and look for the missing file or folder. If you find what you need, right-click it and choose Restore. The deleted item goes right back where it was, and you don't need to proceed with the procedure described here.
If this method does not help you recover the lost items, you can restore from your backup. First, log in to the user account from which you lost the files. Open the File History application (type File History in the Search field, for example or open it from Control Panel), click the link Restore Personal Files, and then click the Restore to original location button in the center of the File History window.
The File History window appears, as shown in Figure 24.13. This window shows all your saved folders.
Figure 24.13 Restore a file using the File History window.
Find the file you want to restore by opening an appropriate folder. If you know the file is in a previous version, for example, you want to return to a version of a file that is several days old, and if you know it isn't the most recent version backed up, click the Restore button at the bottom of the window to navigate back in time to see previous versions.
The next dialog box, shown in Figure 24.14, gives you the following options:
- Copy and replace: This option replaces the current file on your hard disk with the backed-up version you just selected.
- Don't copy: This option instructs File History to ignore this file during the restore phase. The option makes sense only if you're choosing multiple files to restore or you suddenly want to cancel the current restore.
- Copy, but keep both files: Use this option when you want to see file details about the file you selected to restore and the file currently on your hard drive. From the dialog box that appears, you can select the file you want to keep or keep both copies. (A sequential number will be added to the filename of the restored file. Click Continue to complete the restoration process.)
Figure 24.14 Click one of the restore options that appear in the Copy File dialog box.
When restoring a file, you can click Preview to preview the file first. If you want to restore the file but restore it to a different location — which makes a copy of that file somewhere other than its original location — click Restore To and specify a location for it to be restored to. Click Select Folder after you select a folder and to complete the restoration of the file.
Not only can you restore individual or multiple files, but you can use the preceding instructions for restoring complete folders as well.
The following sections do not use File History, so you can close its window by clicking the red Close button (X).
Using System Protection
System Protection enables you to create a restore point, which is a way to back up important Windows system files. Unlike File History, System Protection doesn't require or use any external disks. Also, it does not back up any installed programs or all of Windows 10. Instead, System Protection creates System restore points that maintain copies of the most important system files needed for Windows 10 to operate properly, as well as hidden shadow copies of some of your own personal files.
The idea behind System Protection isn't to protect you from rare catastrophic hard drive disasters; it's to protect you from smaller and much more common mishaps. For example, you install some program or device that wasn't designed for Windows 10 on the grounds that “It worked fine in another version of Windows, so it should work fine here,” only to discover that it doesn't work as well as you assumed. Even after uninstalling the program, you find that some Windows 10 features don't work as they did before you got the notion to give the old program or device a try.
Another common mishap occurs when you make some changes to an important file, but they aren't particularly good changes. But you save the changes anyway out of habit, thereby losing the original good copy of the file you started with. Sometimes System Protection can even help you recover a file that you deleted and removed from the Recycle Bin.
Turning System Protection on or off
System Protection is turned on by default for the drive on which Windows 10 is installed. That means it's protecting your Windows 10 operating system and also documents you keep in your user account folders such as Documents, Pictures, Music, and so on.
If you have documents on other hard drives, you can extend System Protection to protect documents on those drives, too. However, don't try to use System Protection to protect a hard drive that has another operating system installed on it.
System Protection is an optional feature. You can turn it on and off at will (providing you have administrative privileges, because it affects all user accounts). And you can choose for yourself which volumes it monitors. (A volume is any hard drive or hard drive partition that looks like a hard drive in your computer's root folder.) To get to the options for controlling System Protection, first open your System folder using any of the following techniques:
- Type System Protection, in Search and then click the Create a Restore Point option in the results area of the Search page.
- Open the System dialog box from Control Panel.
The System Properties dialog box appears, with the System Protection tab selected (see Figure 24.15).
Figure 24.15 The System Protection tab in System Properties.
To ensure that system protection for Windows 10 and user account files is turned on, first look in the Protection Settings box to verify that the Protection column shows “On” for your system disk (typically drive C:). If the Protection column indicates that protection is off, click the Configure button to open the System Protection dialog box. Then choose one of the first two settings in the Restore Settings group. You can also specify how much disk space to allocate to system protection with the Max Usage slider.
If your computer contains other volumes, whether you apply System Protection to them depends on what's on the volumes and whether you find it worthwhile to enable System Protection on them.
After you've made your selections, click OK. You're finished. Nothing happens immediately, but Windows 10 creates restore points every 24 hours. Each restore point contains copies of your important system files and shadow copies of files on the volumes you specified.
System Protection needs a minimum of 300MB of space on each protected volume for restore points. If necessary, it uses from 3 percent to 5 percent of the total drive capacity. It doesn't grow indefinitely or consume a significant amount of disk space. Instead, it deletes old restore points before creating new ones. (Old restore points are of dubious value anyway.)
Creating a restore point
System Restore is the component of System Protection that protects your important system files — the ones Windows 10 needs to work correctly. System Restore automatically creates a restore point daily. It also creates a restore point when it detects that you're about to do something that changes system files. But you can also create your own restore points. This may be a good idea when you're about to install some older hardware or software that wasn't designed for Windows 10. This technique isn't required, but it's a smart and safe thing to do.
To create a restore point, get to the System Protection tab shown back in Figure 24.15 and click the Create button. When prompted, you can type a brief explanation as to why you manually created the restore point: perhaps “Before Acme widget install” if you're about to install an Acme widget. Then click Create. Windows creates a restore point, after which you can click Close. Click OK to close the System Properties dialog box.
Next, you install your Acme widget. Take it for a spin, and make sure it works. If it works fine and you don't notice any adverse effects, great. You can forget about the restore point and go on your merry way.
If you find that the change you made wasn't such a great idea after all, first you have to uninstall whatever you installed. That's true whether it's hardware or software.
After you've uninstalled the bad device or program, you can make sure no remnants of it lag behind by returning to the restore point you specifically set up for that program or device.
If you install other programs or devices after the bad one, don't skip over other restore points to the one you created for the new item. If you do, you also undo the good changes made by the good programs and devices, which will likely make them stop working! Be methodical: Set the restore point, install the program or device, and test the program or device. If (and only if) you encounter problems, uninstall the device or program and return to the last restore point you set.
Returning to a previous restore point
Say you installed something that didn't work out, you uninstalled it, and now you want to make sure your system files are exactly as they were before. Open the System Properties dialog box and select the System Protection tab. Click System Restore (see Figure 24.16).
Figure 24.16 Using a restore point can fix issues with the way Windows runs.
The System Restore starts. Click the Recommended Restore option and click Next. This launches the System Restore Wizard. Click Finish to undo the most recent update, driver installation, or software install (for example, our Acme Widget installation). Windows 10 makes those changes and then restarts your computer. Upon restart, you see a confirmation about restoring your system files.
Undoing a System Restore
If you use System Restore and restore points exactly as described in the preceding sections, the process should go smoothly. If you try to use it in other ways, you may not have good results. In fact, returning your system to an earlier restore point sometimes causes more problems than it solves. When that happens, you can undo the most recent restore. Here's how:
- Open System Restore.
- Click System Restore and then click Next.
- Choose the restore point labeled Undo and click Next.
- Click Finish and follow the onscreen instructions.
Your computer restarts, and you see a confirmation message about undoing the restore point.
System Restore and the restore points you've just learned about have nothing to do with your document files. System Restore does not change, delete, undelete, or affect document files in any way. You should use System Restore and restore points exactly as described.
Using BitLocker Drive Encryption
File History and System Protection ensure the availability of your files, in that they allow you to restore lost or damaged files by restoring from a backup copy. BitLocker drive encryption isn't about availability — it's about confidentiality If your notebook computer is lost or stolen, that's certainly a bad thing. But if your computer contains confidential personal, client, or patient information, that's even worse. BitLocker drive encryption ensures that lost or stolen data can't be read by prying eyes.
BitLocker drive encryption works by encrypting all the data on a hard drive. With BitLocker drive encryption active, you can use the computer normally. All the necessary encryption and decryption takes place automatically behind the scenes. But a thief can't access data, passwords, or confidential information on the drive.
BitLocker hardware requirements
BitLocker drive encryption uses an encryption key to encrypt and decrypt data. That key must be stored in a Trusted Platform Module (TPM) Version 1.2 microchip and compatible BIOS. Only newer computers come with the appropriate hardware preinstalled. You also need a USB flash drive to store a copy of the password.
In addition to a TPM chip, your hard drive must contain at least two volumes (also called partitions). One volume, called the system volume, must be at least 1.5GB in size. That volume contains some startup files and cannot be encrypted. The other volume, called the operating system volume, contains Windows 10, your installed programs, and user account folders. Both volumes must be formatted with NTFS.
Encrypting the volume
When all the necessary hardware is in place, setting up BitLocker drive encryption is a relatively easy task:
- Select BitLocker Drive Encryption from Control Panel.
If your hardware setup doesn't support BitLocker, you see messages to that effect. You cannot continue without appropriate hardware and disk partitions.
- If all systems are go, the BitLocker Drive Encryption window appears (see Figure 24.17).
- Click Turn On BitLocker. If your TPM isn't initialized, a wizard takes you through the steps to initialize it. Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the initialization.
- When prompted, choose your preferred password storage method, store the password, and click Next.
- On the encryption page, select Run BitLocker System Check and click Continue.
- Insert the password recovery USB flash drive (or whatever medium you used for password recovery) and click Restart Now.
- Follow the onscreen instructions.
Figure 24.17 The BitLocker Drive Encryption window.
The wizard ensures that all systems are working and it's safe to encrypt the drive. Just follow the instructions to the end to complete the procedure.
Make sure you password-protect all user accounts to prevent unauthorized access to the system. Otherwise, a thief can get at the encrypted data just by logging in to a user account that requires no password!
When the computer won't start
After BitLocker is enabled, you should be able to start the computer and log in to it normally. BitLocker only prevents normal startup if it detects changes that could indicate tampering. For example, putting the drive in a different computer, or even making BIOS changes that look like tampering, causes BitLocker to prevent bootup. To get past the block, you need to supply the appropriate password.
Turning off BitLocker
If you ever change your mind about using BitLocker, repeat the steps in the section “Encrypting the volume” and choose the option to turn off BitLocker drive encryption.
More info on BitLocker
The setup wizard for BitLocker drive encryption is designed to simplify the process as much as possible for people using computers with TPM 1.2. Other scenarios are possible, but they go beyond the scope of this book. For more information, search Windows Help for “BitLocker.” Or better yet, browse to www.technet.com or technet.microsoft.com and search for “BitLocker.”
Performing a System Image Backup
Performing a system image backup lets you capture your system's image and save it to a remote device. The system image is a copy of the drive on which Windows is installed. If some of the files get destroyed or the drive gets damaged, you may have to restore your system image as a last resort to getting back up and running. (The system image can be saved to any remote media, such as a DVD, or the same external drive used by File History.)
A system image backup combined with File History is an excellent and reliable (and free) alternative to a costly local or online backup service or software.
To capture your system image, click the Create a system image link on the bottom-left corner of the Backup and Restore screen (refer to Figure 24.4). A dialog box opens to allow you to select a remote device or location for the system backup. This is shown in Figure 24.18.
Figure 24.18 The backup in progress showing the backup location for the system image.
The next screen prompts you to confirm your choices and start the backup. (Notice that the System Backup is still the old System Backup from Windows 7 days. Looks like a good thing lasts forever.)
Wrapping Up
Any way you slice it, having two or more copies of important files is better than having only one copy. The reason is simple and obvious: If you have two or more copies, you can afford to lose one. This chapter is about different ways to make backup copies of important files. Here's a summary:
- To make simple backups of files on the fly, copy them to external disks as convenient.
- To restore an accidentally deleted file, first try to restore it from the Recycle Bin.
- To back up files in the Libraries, Desktop, Contacts, and Favorites folders, use File History.
- To recover deleted files, use the Restore Personal Files link on the File History window.
- Use System Protection to make automatic daily backups of important system files and documents. These don't protect you from a hard drive disaster because they're on the same disk as the system files and documents. But they provide a relatively easy means of recovering from minor mishaps without messing with external disks.
- To use System Restore properly, create a restore point just before installing new hardware or software. If the new product creates a problem, uninstall it. Then return to your restore point to ensure all traces of the installation are wiped away.
- For data confidentiality on portable computers, Windows 10 offers BitLocker drive encryption.
- Windows 10 includes features to let you take a system image of your computer. This image can be used to restore a “broken” system. Combining this feature with File History, you can get a computer that refuses to reboot or restore back up and running within an hour.