Vista Home Premium Backup & Restore

[charles cashion]

I decided it is time to read the manual on Vista Home Premium Backup &
Restore (VHPB&R). So I started by searching microsoft.com for a Vista
Backup and Restore Manual. What I found makes me wonder. It is not clear
if B&R is really a part of Vista Home Premium. I have used B&R for over
a month, and it IS saving something to my external drive. I have NOT
tried restore. Am I going to find out that restore is not there because
I am not running Business or Ultimate?

If reference is made to this page
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/backup.aspx
Note that there is not a check mark beside Basic or Home Premium.

I guess this is really two questions...
Q1: Will restore work in Vista Home Premium?
Q2: Where is the (best) manual for Backup & Restore?
Thank you,
Charles

 

[Rich Raffenetti]

Complete PC Backup and Restore is not a part of Home Premium, either Vista
or Windows 7. I investigated this since I wanted to upgrade to Windows 7
and wished to do a full backup before putting my system at risk.

The backup system Home Premium does have only backs up user files, not the
system files. Personally, I believe MS made a mistake in not including an
option for full backup and restore. No one wants to do a piecemeal restore
if their PC hardware breaks!

Anyway, Macrium Reflect has a version for complete image backup and restore
which is free for personal use. I have done a couple of test restores but
have not yet had a chance to put it to the final test.