How to Restore from a Backup of your Hard Drive

Good evening! Here's the companion piece to the "backup you will" piece by Bonnie Ornitz. How do you restore a backup (Mac and Windows 7)

Lost and Found...

by Valley Mac Solutions on Saturday, January 28, 2013 at 9:03am


In the last article we talked about how easy it is to backup your data on both MACs and PCs.

You bought the external disk drive and set up your system to backup automatically.  Awesome!

So now that you’ve prepared for the inevitable, what do you do when you or someone with access to your computer accidentally deletes important files/folder?

This article covers the steps necessary to restore deleted files and folders on both MACs and PCs.


Mac Users:
Open the folder that contained the files/folders you want to restore.
Launch the Time Machine application from either the dock (single click) or from the Applications Folder (double click) on your hard drive.
On the right side of your screen there should be a dateline.
Click within the timeline to jump directly to a date/time (displaying the folder’s contents on that date).
Click the file/folder to restore to select it.
Click the “Restore” button at the right side of the Time Machine button bar. If you want to restore all the contents of the folder, click the “Restore All” button instead.
Your files/folders will appear in their original location. Restore time depends on the amount of data being restored.

PC Users:
Open up Computer from the Start Menu.
Click “Control Panel”.
Click “System and Maintenance”.
Click “Backup and Restore”.
Click “Restore my files”.
Your choices are Search, Browse for files, Browse for folders.
Now you can browse or search the most recent backup for your deleted files or folders.  Select files/folders that you wish to restore.
Next you can restore them back to the original location or choose a different location.
Click Restore.
The window will display “Restoring files” and a progress bar will display the status of the restore. Restore time depends on the amount of data being restored.
Your files/folders will reappear in either their original location or the alternate location that you chose previously.

In the event of an actual hard drive failure, there are steps involved prior to restoring depending on the type of failure and severity of data loss. Some disk drives are user replaceable and others are not. You may also need to recreate the base OS (Operating System) on your computer. Please contact the manufacturer’s web site for details.
Meanwhile, aren't you glad that you backed up your computer?

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Thanks,
  Bonnie

Bonnie Kay Ornitz
Valley Mac Solutions
(818) 217-0122

Fast Mac and Apple Product Solutions

http://valleymacsolutions.webs.com
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