Will backup restore deleted files and folders?

[JimT99]

Hi, I've been doing a lot of organizing of my personal files and folders. While I've been doing this, I've been backing everything up using the backup program supplied with Windows 2k Pro. I first did a normal backup, then I did one or two diffential backups. And, lately I've been doing incrimental backups to save space. My question is: If I have to restore the backup, will it restore my files and folders as they were at my last backup, and not restore any of my deleted files or folders? Thank you much. --Jim

 

[rclarke250]

See if this explains it for you.Link

 

[JimT99]

Hi, Thanks for sending the reply. However, I don't see anything in the link you provided about the files that I've deleted. If all or some of those deleted files are restored, all my organizing will have been in vain. Do you know if backup remembers my deletions, and therefore won't restore them? Thanks again. --Jim

 

[rclarke250]

OK, During the original restore, it will restore all of the files from the restore, doesn't matter if you deleted them later and took an incremental BU of it. A backup of any type will not delete the files again for you. Why would they, If you accidentally deleted a file, and were trying to restore to get that file back, and the program just deleted the file again upon restore, it defeats one of the purposes of having the backup. So After you get everything strait, make another full backup and start your incremental from there, and do a full backup once in a while to create a new set.

 

[JimT99]

OK, Thanks for the clarification. The problem is, I've got lots of folders and files, and I'm allways re-organizing. I guess I'll just have to do full backups quite often. Thanks for your help! --Jim

 

[JimT99]

Hello Rclarke250 - You know I think you might be incorrect about the deleted files and folders being restored. I did a little test on a folder from which I knew I’d deleted a sub-folder after the original backup, but before the first differential backup. I created a folder called “Backup test,” and used it for an alternate location in which to restore the folder in question. First, I restored the folder using the original backup. Of course the deleted sub-folder was also restored. Then, leaving the restored data in the alternate location, I went to the catalog for the 1st differential backup. I noticed the deleted sub-folder wasn’t listed. I restored the main folder again to the alternate location, using this 1st differential backup. When I checked the alternate location, the deleted sub folder in question had disappeared. I tried this using 2 of the 3 restore options, ie, “Do not replace the file on my computer (recommended),” and “Replace the file on disc only if the file on disc is older.” They both worked the same.

This means that you can organize your folders as much as you want, and backup will remember which ones have been deleted, and not restore them. It would be a nightmare, if it did, because most of your organizing work would be for naught.

I suppose if you accidentally deleted something by mistake, and didn’t realize it until later, you could restore it from the recycle bin, or if that had been deleted you could go back through your backups until you found it in the catalog, and restore it from there. Let me know what you think.

 

[rclarke250]

so would it restore the original files, then delete files to match the last bu job done? hmmm, not sure I like that way too much. I don't use that method, I do a complete image of my drive to my nas every week, and sync my user files to my skydrive, and then offload to other cloud storage from there. It's boring but what else am I going to do on a Sunday night while the wife is at work, lol.

 

[JimT99]

Yeah, apparently the subsequent backups remove anything that's on the previous backups but not on the later ones. It works well for my situation. But, there could be a problem if something has been deleted that wasn't supposed to be deleted. However, it could probably be restored from the recycle bin or the original backup that was done, before it was deleted.

I've got a few questions about how you backup your stuff, if you've got the time to answer. Some of the terminology escapes me:

How do you do a complete image of your drive? Is that just copying it to another media, using Windows Explorer?
What is your "nas"?
How do you "sync" your user files to your "skydrive"?
What is a skydrive?

Thanks for your reply.

 

[goombawaho]

Image backup is done by a program like Acronis True Image or Ghost where it takes a snapshot of your entire drive and puts it into a single file sort of like a ZIP or RAR file but proprietary to the product. It will put your PC back exactly to the date the image backup was done (operating system, data) 100%.

NAS - is a Network Attached Storage device. In its simplest form it's like a hard drive sitting on your network that accepts data from one or more computers and can have different folders with different permissions. If it's on your home network, it could accept data from all the PCs you have and even hold your data and/or image backups.

SkyDrive
Link



I thought our little wild time had just begun.

 

[JimT99]

Looks good. I'll have to check it out furnter. Thanks for sending that.

 

[goombawaho]

I should have noted that the image file is NOT stored on your main/boot hard drive. It goes onto a DVD, external hard drive, NAS device, 2nd internal hard drive or on another computer. That way it doesn't get whacked if you main hard drive dies.

I thought our little wild time had just begun.