W
Wayne Smith
Hi everyone,
I've recently upgraded to a new PC with Vista installed, I've been using XP Professional for a few years and pretty much know the operating system inside out, my knowledge of Vista however is fairly good, but far from what I would call in-depth.
After spending a fair amount of time reviewing the backup and restore options within Windows Vista, I'm left scratching my head wondering what on earth Microsoft were thinking when they designed this feature. I currently have three hard drive partitions set out as follows, drive 'C' for my main Windows installation, drive 'D' which I've labeled 'Software Library' and drive 'E' labeled 'Media Library', within drive 'E' I also have three folders for 'Pictures', 'Music' and 'Video'.
I also have an external hard drive 'F' which I use purely for backing up important files. Now with Windows XP I could create a backup set that would allow me to select any number of folders and/or files of my choice and back them up to a place of my choosing, in Windows Vista it seems (at least from what I can see) I don't have this option. If I want to backup just my 'Pictures' folder from the 'E' drive, I'm not allowed to do this - I have to backup every picture file from my main Windows installation drive 'C' without even having the option to select a) any other picture folders and/or files individually, and b) the option to backup to a drive and folder of my choice. I can point the backup to any of the drive partitions but it won't allow me to choose a backup folder within that partition - what's all that about?
Another gripe that I have with Vista backup is it seems to create a very untidy backup set with any number of zip files of 100MB each, yet with XP I had one clean simple file (which I could name) and save it to any drive and folder of my choice.
Am I missing something, or is this really the only way to backup your data with the software built into Windows Vista? if it is then it's horrible and begs the question of what was going through Microsoft's mind when they implemented this utility into the final operating system.
If I open the 'Backup Status and Configuration' utility, and change the settings, it gives me the option to either save the backup to one of my drive partitions or a CD/DVD media, or to save it to a Network Location - if I select the second option to save it to a Network Location and click Browse, select the computer I'm using and then select the external hard drive I use for backups, and select a folder within that drive called 'Picture Backup' and click OK followed by Next, Vista asks me to enter a Username and Password to access that external drive, which is connected to the same computer I'm trying to backup data from. By typing my Administrator credentials in the form of <SERVER\Administrator>, which I have configured through a Windows Domain Controller on the same network, and clicking OK, the following error message is displayed:
The network share could not be accessed for the following reason:
No mapping between account names and security IDs was done (0x80070534)
Please ensure that the network location is valid.
Well, I'm pretty sure the network location is valid because I can access that external hard drive from any other computer on my network, I've already configured the Share option by right-clicking the hard drive > Properties > Sharing > Advanced Sharing .. named the share and added 'Domain Admins' with Full Control to the permissions, so now I'm left sitting here scratching my head wishing I could just backup what I wanted to backup to where I wanted to backup, and with one single, clean backup file at the end of it just I used to be able to do with Windows XP.
I'm hoping that someone out there will tell me I've got this all wrong and my lack of knowledge with Windows Vista is obvious for all to see, I'm hoping that someone out there will tell me a really easy and simple way to achieve what I am trying to achieve .. but if I'm honest, I'm not at all confident I will get the answer I'm hoping for.
Any suggestions, pointers or help you can offer would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks in advance
Wayne
I've recently upgraded to a new PC with Vista installed, I've been using XP Professional for a few years and pretty much know the operating system inside out, my knowledge of Vista however is fairly good, but far from what I would call in-depth.
After spending a fair amount of time reviewing the backup and restore options within Windows Vista, I'm left scratching my head wondering what on earth Microsoft were thinking when they designed this feature. I currently have three hard drive partitions set out as follows, drive 'C' for my main Windows installation, drive 'D' which I've labeled 'Software Library' and drive 'E' labeled 'Media Library', within drive 'E' I also have three folders for 'Pictures', 'Music' and 'Video'.
I also have an external hard drive 'F' which I use purely for backing up important files. Now with Windows XP I could create a backup set that would allow me to select any number of folders and/or files of my choice and back them up to a place of my choosing, in Windows Vista it seems (at least from what I can see) I don't have this option. If I want to backup just my 'Pictures' folder from the 'E' drive, I'm not allowed to do this - I have to backup every picture file from my main Windows installation drive 'C' without even having the option to select a) any other picture folders and/or files individually, and b) the option to backup to a drive and folder of my choice. I can point the backup to any of the drive partitions but it won't allow me to choose a backup folder within that partition - what's all that about?
Another gripe that I have with Vista backup is it seems to create a very untidy backup set with any number of zip files of 100MB each, yet with XP I had one clean simple file (which I could name) and save it to any drive and folder of my choice.
Am I missing something, or is this really the only way to backup your data with the software built into Windows Vista? if it is then it's horrible and begs the question of what was going through Microsoft's mind when they implemented this utility into the final operating system.
If I open the 'Backup Status and Configuration' utility, and change the settings, it gives me the option to either save the backup to one of my drive partitions or a CD/DVD media, or to save it to a Network Location - if I select the second option to save it to a Network Location and click Browse, select the computer I'm using and then select the external hard drive I use for backups, and select a folder within that drive called 'Picture Backup' and click OK followed by Next, Vista asks me to enter a Username and Password to access that external drive, which is connected to the same computer I'm trying to backup data from. By typing my Administrator credentials in the form of <SERVER\Administrator>, which I have configured through a Windows Domain Controller on the same network, and clicking OK, the following error message is displayed:
The network share could not be accessed for the following reason:
No mapping between account names and security IDs was done (0x80070534)
Please ensure that the network location is valid.
Well, I'm pretty sure the network location is valid because I can access that external hard drive from any other computer on my network, I've already configured the Share option by right-clicking the hard drive > Properties > Sharing > Advanced Sharing .. named the share and added 'Domain Admins' with Full Control to the permissions, so now I'm left sitting here scratching my head wishing I could just backup what I wanted to backup to where I wanted to backup, and with one single, clean backup file at the end of it just I used to be able to do with Windows XP.
I'm hoping that someone out there will tell me I've got this all wrong and my lack of knowledge with Windows Vista is obvious for all to see, I'm hoping that someone out there will tell me a really easy and simple way to achieve what I am trying to achieve .. but if I'm honest, I'm not at all confident I will get the answer I'm hoping for.
Any suggestions, pointers or help you can offer would be very gratefully received.
Many thanks in advance
Wayne