windows 7 built in back up utility - any good? ?

[ThriceNightly]

i am yet to create a backup for my system and note that w7 has its own built-in back up utility.....i am aware of this via flag at bottom corner of desktop reminding me to set up back-up

is this utilty any good and will it back up data on other progams i.e itunes mp3s etc

am really keen to hear from anyone who has actually used this utility or has experience of it.

thanks.

 

[theheyes]

I use it all the time. It's not as fully featured as the paid for software and you can only back up to network shares with Pro versions and higher, but if you just want to take an image of the disk or back up your files to an external drive it's fine.

The only thing I don't really like is trying to recover individual files - that could be much improved. It still works it's just more of a chore than it should be.

 

[Cool Breeze]

Have used it and it works well, depending on what you want to back -up you can just do the usual documents and personal stuff music etc, or you can do a full system image and also the built in software will create a bootable recovery cd/dvd if you so wish.

Win 7 Pro allows back up to networks storage too if you have that edition.

All in all pretty competant, I have used to back up and restore an number of times no issue.

Now I have a home server I use that instead.

 

[ThriceNightly]

thanks for the replies.

sounds like it is easy enough to use....i will be backing up to an external usb hard drive.

couple more questions

1. for home use what is a good back up period....i.e once every month?

2. how long approx does it take to back up to external usb hard drive. lets say system and 250gb of data.

thanks

 

[theheyes]

A full disk image maybe once a month. You could do a differential file backup every night on top of that.

Backup speed may vary, starting with whether your external drive is powered or not. It would take a few hours to move 250GB of data but your system is still usable while it's going on.