Backup

14 posts

Windows 10 File History Multiple Drives Backup Hack for Disaster Recovery

File to file backup software for Windows 10 computers appear to be few and far between as well as expensive when loaded up with features one may never need. Windows 10 File History Backup was not designed as a backup in the sense of restoring data to another computer after a computer failure. However, this Windows 10 File History Backup hack, fully supported by Microsoft, gives us folks that do not want to use pricey Internet backup or expensive backup software a viable option for emergency file recovery.

Download a PDF of Windows 10 File History File to File Backup Hack for Disaster Recovery

Windows 10 File History Backup is designed to grab earlier versions of files after one realizes they deleted a file or damaged a file in some way. Restoring a file or files is straight forward as shown below.

Select “Restore files from a current backup”

Then, select the folder or file(s) you need and select “Restore to original location”

This hack shows that Windows 10 File History Backup can also be used to recover data to another computer in an emergency. The following series of screen shots detail how this can be done.

Insert a large USB drive for use as a backup drive

Select “Settings”

Select “Update and Security”

Select “Backup”

Select “Add a drive”

Select your USB drive

Select “More options”

Select the timing you need under “Back up my files”

Select “Until space is needed” under “Keep my backups.

One can add or remove folders under “Back up these folders.

To start a backup, select “Back up now”

If the backup up application does not auto close, click the “X” in the top right corner

The backup will complete in the background. The more files you have, the longer the back will take to complete. Check status of backup by looking at “Last backup:” date and time under “Overview”

One can manually trigger a backup anytime by selecting “Back up now” on the Back up options screen as well as learning the date and time of the last backup and space available on the drive.

One can rotate multiple drives for an extra level of protection. Generally, Windows 10 File History Backup using multiple drives works by formatting a previously used drive and starting the backup process over with the newly formatted drive. One should carefully follow these instructions.

1 – Start with two external USB drives. Label them Backup One and Backup Two.

2 – Insert Backup One and format the drive using the right click contextual menu in File Explorer. Then set it up as a file history drive using the instructions above starting at “This hack shows that Windows 10 File History Backup can also be used to recover data to another computer in an emergency.”

3 – Determine a backup drive rotation that works for you. Consider how out of sync you might be if you lost your laptop and your stored backup last completed several weeks ago. I prefer to be no more than a week behind but you may think differently. So, for this example, I will pick one week.

4 – After one week, check your Backup One drive for the current backup process to be complete on the “Backup options” screen. You might also want to reconcile several random files before you remove the drive.

5 – Select “Stop Using Drive” also on the “Backup options” screen and then remove the drive and place it in another location far from your laptop; your home safe works well.

6 – Insert the Backup Two drive and complete a drive format like in Step 2 above.

7 – Set up the Backup Two drive as a file history drive using the instructions above starting at “This hack shows that Windows 10 File History Backup can also be used to recover data to another computer in an emergency.”

8 – After one week, check your Backup Two drive for the current backup process to be complete. You might also want to reconcile several random files before you remove the drive.

9 – Select “Stop Using Drive” and then remove the drive and place it in another location far from your laptop; your home safe works well.

10- Insert the Backup One drive and complete a drive format.

11 – Set up the Backup One drive as a file history drive using the instructions above starting at “This hack shows that Windows 10 File History Backup can also be used to recover data to another computer in an emergency.”

12 – Then off you go again with another fresh backup drive. Repeat this process every week alternating between Drive One and Drive Two.

Now, if you lose your computer from some unfortunate circumstance, find the latest Backup One or Backup Two USB drive and plug it into another computer.

You can easily restore files and their many older versions to another computer by browsing the drive’s “File History” folder for needed files and copying them to your new computer.

It can be confusing because of many multiples of time stamped files with the same name. But, cut through the confusion by paying close attention to the time stamp appended to the file name, restoring only the most current file. In most cases, rarely changed files will only have one file with no versions in the file history folder.

However, DO NOT use the “Restore files from a current backup” function on the “Backup Options” screen to restore files to another fresh Windows 10 computer and new user profile. As easy and intuitive as it looks to restore, it does not work. You will get an error message.

Remember, the proper way to restore your files to a another computer in the event of a disaster is by browsing the drive’s “File History” folder for needed files and copying them to your new computer.

Backup

Backup

Backup LEARN

Will your backup restore your business after a disaster?

Most likely not. Many businesses fail every year because they cannot recover from a disaster, even though they were convinced that they had “good backups”. If you are not loosing sleep over whether or not your backup will work to accurately recover your business after a catastrophe, you probably should be.

Only one proven methodology, “Disaster Recovery Confirmation” can validate your backup so you don’t loose sleep! Once a month, restore a sample of your critical business files to a computer and open them in the application that you do business with. Every month, you will be secure in the knowledge that your files are recoverable.

The number of times the tragedy of backup tapes remaining on top of a local server and are both consumed in a fire is unbelievable. Backup is a lot more than insuring the tape gets swapped out and removed from the building every night or that you cheat a bit and sign up for Mozy Home unlimited.

You need the two biggest pieces of a backup strategy in place to survive data loss. Contact us to discuss our “Off Site Out Of Region Backup” and “Data Recovery Confirmation” services.

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Google Apps Account Access Temporarily Disabled

Backup Business Systems Support Google Apps

More than 22.7 million U.S. businesses are one-man or one-woman shows. Each of these tiny firms has a single owner, but no paid employees at all. The US government calls these businesses “Nonemployer” businesses.

If you are one of those 22.7 million U.S. businesses, you probably know about Google Apps for Work, the professional email, online storage, shared calendars, video meetings, voice telephone service and more, built for business, by Google.

More than 5 million businesses have gone Google. You may be a Google Apps for Work single user and account holder. If so, you need to know about Google’s account access problem.

You may have experienced or will experience in the future the dreaded “Account access temporarily disabled” message when you log in to your Google Apps for Work account. Imagine your business’ risk if you depend on all of Google Apps for Work’s services including business telephone service and you find your Google Apps for Work account arbitrarily disabled. You can be out of business in the blink of an eye.

Google’s account access problem lies in it’s “catch 22” process to re enable your account, should you find yourself out of business. It goes like this;

Upon attempting to log on to your Google account, you get Google’s version of the “Blue Screen of Death”

Since you are the only administrator, you seek the “24/7 phone and email support,” that you pay $5 to $10 a month for, from the “Google Support team”

Unfortunately, you cannot email support because you cannot access the “Admin Console.” But, you would want to call the “Google Support team” anyway because of the urgency to re enable your Google account. So you go about the business of locating your PIN because the “Google Support team” requires your PIN in order for them to answer their telephone. But, you see a page that states, “To locate your PIN: Sign in to the Google Admin console.”

So now, you’re stuck. You cannot call or email the “Google Support team” without access to your disabled Google account for their email link or PIN. That’s some strange paid “24/7 phone and email support.”

Fortunately, when Google’s account access problem happened to me, I located an obscure form at https://support.google.com/a/contact/admin_no_access that opened a support ticket. Unfortunately, 48 hours into the support request, my Google Apps for Work remains disabled.

Let me be the first to say that I like Google Apps for Work’s features and general performance. I especially like the ability to wipe a lost smartphone. I also like using Google Voice for calls using a computer headset. I’m not a Google Apps for Work reseller, but I have set up many businesses with Google Apps for Work.

But, single user Google Apps for Work accounts require a different approach. What can one do to protect one’s self from Google’s lackluster Google Apps for Work support?

Google Apps for Work “Nonemployer” business folks should always have two admin users in their account, with strong passwords and be well documented. The second admin user can be used to re enable the primary admin user when that user experiences “Account access temporarily disabled.”
Never use a Google Voice number as your primary business telephone number. If you have done that, immediately port your number out of Google Voice to a more dependable carrier, either a local telco service provider or a national VOIP provider with a demonstrated excellent support track record.
Back up your primary user’s email, contacts, calendars, tasks, voice calls, chats, drive and any other data you may have in Google Apps for Work. One can use Outlook sync for manual and limited backup or go the distance with backupify, the leader in Google Apps backup.

Have you been stunned by the dreaded “Account access temporarily disabled” message? If so, what was your experience?

Update 11.26.2014: The account was re enabled at 5:30am, four days after the initial disabling. Once I correct the DNS workaround that will flow my email back into the account, if will be an entire week down, a service level that I would understand for free services, but not a paid business service. Also, my android phone was rendered useless during the process because the policy app on the phone. I’m certainly glad that this was not a business related account. When a “Nonemployer” business person needs paid “24/7 phone and email support,” they deserve not to wait a week. My conclusion, I will seriously reevaluate Google Apps for Work for my businesses and will not recommend Google Apps for Work to any other “Nonemployer” business person.

Will your backup restore your business after a disaster?

Backup

Home users can try out the backup-restore process with a Free 2GB Online Backup account from Mozy. Please use referral code F2YX90 when you sign up. I get a bit more space on my account that way.

Business users need to look at backup a bit differently than home users. The number of times the tragedy of backup tapes remaining on top of a local server and are both consumed in a fire is unbelievable. Backup is a lot more than insuring the tape gets swapped out and removed from the building every night or that you cheat a bit and sign up for Mozy Home unlimited.

Your business needs the two biggest pieces of a backup strategy in place to survive data loss.

Register online for any of the MozyPro subscription plans to achieve Off Site Out Of Region Backup. You can opt for yearly subscriptions that carry a substantial discount compared to monthly plans.

Some Serious Backup

Backup Business Systems Support

We live and work in hurricane country, which incidentally, its season is right around the corner. The past several years have proven to be a profound test of our ability to execute business continuity. Some of us have not fared so well.

I’ve experienced business continuity failure because a business continuity plan was not in place and executed. Although I stood ready to bring up a DR Data Facility within hours, disaster recovery was completely compromised because of the lack of a business continuity plan.

If you would like a Business Continuity Plan template at no cost, head over to bakupz.com and download the template. It provides a great start for a small to medium sized business. Most importantly, go through the steps to make it real.

The most important part of successfully implementing a Business Continuity Plan is to understand that it is a team effort and not the responsibility of your IT guy. And, there’s more to disaster recovery than your tape backup. In my case, I had duplicated the primary line of business servers, segmented the network to facilitate turning up another data center and synchronized database servers. I understood the need for DR infrastructure.

In the past, my biggest enemy to pull off disaster recovery was time. Besides needing production ready servers, in time, one might download files from one’s online backup service or recover data from an archived tape, but you cannot use files and data if your infrastructure is damaged. What I would have given to have a production-ready virtual network for active disaster recovery and failover, with “active” production-ready infrastructure images, backed up at regular pre-determined intervals and in real time, and stored for use any time.

If you’re in IT or just very interested in IT, you need to watch this video. It shows how quickly server recovery can occur if the right disaster recovery technology is deployed. In the event of major system failures or hardware destructive disasters, simply fail over by switching your infrastructure to redundant production-ready images in the virtual network. Your systems are back online in minutes, enabling your business to recover and maintain its pace.

Watch Failover In Under Five Minutes From Doyenz

Preaching Backup Again

Backup Business Systems Support

WD My Book World Drive The Western Digital My Book World Edition 4 TB (2 x 2 TB) Network Attached Storage Drive is WD’s latest device to add a remarkable amount of storage capacity to your local network.

Although the design squarely hits the home network sweet spot, it would be a great economical addition to a small office network to aggregate both computer backups and shared files to one office device. It even comes with all of the backup software.

Check out this video. Western Digital specs read:

Automatic and continuous backup for all the computers on your network

Centralize all your family’s digital content

Best-in-class performance cutting-edge technologies to deliver high performance read and write speeds ideal for the most demanding users.

Built-in media server for streaming music, photos and movies to any DLNA certified multimedia device such as Playstation 3, Xbox 360, wireless digital picture frames, and connected audio receivers. DLNA 1.5 & UPnP certified.

iTunes server support to centralize your music collection and stream to a Mac or Windows PC using iTunes software.

This drive even sports remote access to your files. It needs to find it’s way to your office.

When Is Backup Really Backup

Backup Business Systems Support

I find myself easily drawn to new and better technology, but when does a product not quite get you there?

The Seagate® Replica™ 500-GB System bills itself as a "complete PC backup system, Effortless, automatic backup for everything on your PC, including the operating system, programs, and settings." This sounds easy and the device looks pretty nifty. But, the devil is in the details.

Seagate tells me that the Replica will automatically backup my entire hard drive without my having to configure anything. I’m almost sold. So what pushes me over the edge?

This thing is so cool looking. It will look great sitting on my desk quietly backing up all of my data. So I make the purchase, plug and play, automatically backing up my stuff so that I am completely protected from any data loss, right?

Wrong… The Replica has it’s place, like it’s ability to save the file you accidently deleted on Friday but knew it was correct on Tuesday. So, just restore Tuesday’s copy of the file. You can also restore a complete snapshot of your computer’s drive in the event you are wiped out by a virus. But what about the really big catastrophes?

The big ones prove the need for a bullet proof backup and recovery system for not only your pc but your entire business. It’s not out of the question that when your computer is destroyed in a disaster, your cute little Seagate Replica will also be destroyed at the same time.

I would like to see this Seagate Replica device not only backup your computer automatically but also push a backup to the cloud, an off site out of region data center. Imagine loosing both your computer and Replica in a fire, but having the ability to restore your files from the cloud back to your new replacement computer.

Then you would have a true backup. Combine frequent file restores with testing of those restored files and you then have a bullet proof backup and recovery system.

No Third Rate Computer Backups Here

Backup Business Systems Support

Opps… Sunday afternoon and I’ve just discovered that I damaged three files on my home PC. Not to fear… I have these files backed up. Mozy allows me to get the versions I know were there two weeks ago… just like on TV, right?

Unfortunately, Mozy didn’t work as advertised this time.

Here’s a picture of mozy.com when I needed it the most.

And a picture of the the Mozy blog where I went for a status update.

I gave up recovering the three text files I needed after about a half hour. I will stop trying and look at Mozy later.

Looks like I need to regroup on the backup strategy for this particular computer. Except, I’ve recovery tested random files every month on this computer. I’ve confirmed that they will open after I recover them. I’ve chosen a well known home pc backup solution from Mozy. I made the right decision. Time to back off and wait.

One hour and thirty-five minutes into this, suddenly three text files restore and I finally have my files. Guess this will serve as this month’s recovery testing. I also noticed Mozy’s website bounced back. I guess I’m not the only one with occasional systems problems.

Mozy has a great no charge to home users 2GB Online Backup plan. Give it a try. It’s never let me down, even this time. And, please use referral code F2YX90 when you sign up so I can get some more space on my account..

One Easy Way To Destroy Your Backup

Backup Business Systems Support

As you leave the office this chilly afternoon, I’ll give you one more thing to think about, courtesy Yahoo Finance and The New York Times, "Eleven Easy Ways to Destroy Your Company". Don’t let an extension cord destroy your business data backup.

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve read and heard about business people allowing their tape and disk backups to stay on top of the computer they are backing up. When your computer burns up, your backup burns up.

Please use an online, offsite backup product to backup your data. Then, recover your backup every month to demonstrate the viability of your backup-restore process.

Trouble With Outlook PST Files?

Backup Business Systems Support

This Microsoft Support article “How to manage .pst files in Outlook 2007, in Outlook 2003, and in Outlook 2002” is the best knowledge base article that I know about.

This article describes how to use personal storage folders, also known as .pst files, to back up data that you created in Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, and Microsoft Office Outlook 2002. You can back up messages, contacts, appointments, tasks, notes, and journal entries in .pst files.

If you know about other great Outlook resources, please comment.