In this section I will show you how to restore personal files, and more precisely give an example of restoring a deleted file. So begin the restore process by first opening the Control Panel window and then click on the BACKUP AND RESTORE icon (control panel/program) to open the Backup And Restore window (Fig 1.1).

Fig 1.0  Click on the BACKUP AND RESTORE icon (Control Panel/Program) to continue




Fig 1.1  Click on the RESTORE MY FILES button to continue

When the Backup And Restore window appears (above) continue by clicking on the RESTORE MY FILES button. This will take you to the Restore Files window (Fig 1.2 below) whereby you can then search for one or more folders/files to restore. (undelete/put back). Although there are advanced options within the restore control panel, in this example I am using an every-day scenario of wanting to restore one file that I have accidently deleted.

Fig 1.2  Click on the SEARCH button to continue

The Restore Files window has three buttons on it. SEARCH - This allows you to search for folders and files, within the Backup file, by full name or partial name. If any folders and files with that name are found you can add each one to your Restore List. BROWSE FOR FILES - Allows you to browse the folders, within the Backup file, for one or more files. You can then add those files to the Restore List. And finally the BROWSE FOR FOLDERS button - It allows you to browse the folders, within the Backup file, for one or more folders to add to the Restore List. So if you do not want to manually BROWSE you can do an automatic SEARCH instead. In this example though just click on the SEARCH button to continue.

Clicking on the SEARCH button brings up the Search For Files To Restore window (below) which requires you to enter a full name, or partial name, to search for. In this example I entered the name: john and then clicked on the SEARCH button. A picture file called john.jpg was then found, within the Backup file. From there I put a tick inside its check box and then clicked on the OK button to add john.jpg to the Restore List.

Fig 1.3  Enter a full (or partial) name to search for and then click on the SEARCH button. If the file is found, tick it and then click OK.

You can search as many times as you like, by following the above process, until you are happy with your Restore List. When you are, click on the NEXT button to continue. In this example I am only going to restore one file (john.jpg) but as said (just to clarify), you can SEARCH, OK, BROWSE FOR FOLDERS, OK, SEARCH, OK for example. When you have your Restore List built click on the NEXT button to continue.

Fig 1.4  Click on the NEXT button when you are happy with your Restore List

If you want to remove certain folders/files from your list simply select them and then click on the REMOVE button, which will become active. The same applies to the REMOVE ALL button, but you do not need to select anything in your list. Simply click on the REMOVE ALL button instead. Once you are 100% happy with your restore list click on the NEXT button to continue.

The next step, before the actual restore, is to tell the restore wizard where you want your restore folders/files restored to (in which folder). You have two options: IN THE ORIGINAL LOCATION or IN THE FOLLOWING LOCATION. The second option allows you to select (BROWSE for) the destination folder, which could be a folder or hard drive for example, whereas the first option puts your restore folders/files back where they came from. So in this example I am using the IN THE ORIGINAL LOCATION option which means the john.jpg file will be restored (put back) in the PICTURES folders.

Fig 1.5  Click on the RESTORE button to continue

One thing to note here is that if an original folder/file still exists (has not been deleted), by the time you click on the RESTORE button, you will be given three choices as to whether or not you want it overwritten (copied over/replaced) by the restore folder/file, regardless if the restore file is older or newer than the original existing folder/file. The choices are self-explanatory and therefore do not need further explanation from me. Saying that; If you have many folders/files that require action you may want to tick the option called DO THIS FOR ALL CONFLICTS so that the same action is applied for all folders/files thereafter.

Fig 1.6  Click on a choice that suits the needs/requirements of the current folder/file, or of all folders/files

After completing the above steps click on the FINISH button of the following window. This means the restoration process has finished.

Fig 1.7  Click on the FINISH button - The restoration process has finished

Going back to the SEARCH feature. As said above; you can search for folders, files or a combination of both within the Backup file by using the BROWSE FOR FOLDERS and BROWSE FOR FILES buttons. Here are some examples uses, just to clarify, of what can be done.

Fig 2.0  The Backup file (compressed/zipped file) stored on my Flash Drive (F:) - Double click on it to see what is inside it




Fig 2.1  The folders within the Backup file - Double click on one to get inside it




Fig 2.2  Select files with the CTRL keyboard key held down and then click on the ADD FILES button to continue

At this point I have just navigated through the Backup file, via the Browse The Backup For Files window (file requester), so that I could select the john.jpg and john.png files. Clicking on the ADD FILES button will add those files to my Restore List. The above was done using the BROWSE FOR FILES button.

Using the BROWSE FOR FOLDERS button uses the same process as above but you can only select one folder at a time, using the ADD FOLDER button. So in this next example I had to BROWSE FOR FOLDERS twice. Once to select the RealPlayer Downloads folder and twice to select the DivX Movies folder.

Fig 2.3  Select a folder and then click on the ADD FOLDER button to continue

After selecting your desired folders/files click on the NEXT button and follow the steps from Fig 1.5 above and onwards to restore those folders/files.

Fig 2.4  Click on the NEXT button to continue

At the end of the day you have to experiment with, and look around, the control panel (program) you are using. Meaning. The above just outlined the basics of the Backup And Restore control panel, but it does offer more functionality that can be explained in this section. For example. Investigate the SELECT ANOTHER BACKUP TO RESTORE FILES FROM link - It allows you to restore from a Backup file that is on a Network.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.