Windows Complete Backup
A while back, the hard drive in my new laptop started to make a scary-sounding clicking sound. Rather than wait for it to fail, I decided to contact my friendly IS rep and have the machine replaced.
Now, normally, this would entail a few days of reinstalling Windows, copying my data over, reinstalling all my apps, and tweaking all my preferences to get things back to normal. However, I’ve been running Vista Ultimate almost since the day it came out — and Ultimate comes with Windows Complete Backup. Time to put it through its paces.
I had already made backups on an external USB drive I keep for the purpose. However, like a moron, I’d never used it before to restore anything. No matter. I refreshed the backup with my latest data. Then I hooked the drive up to the new laptop and inserted the Windows DVD. After a few seconds, I was presented with a menu giving me the option to restore from a backup. I selected the external drive and hit ‘Go’. Thirty minutes later, the machine rebooted and it was exactly like before! Woohoo!
From my scientific sample of exactly one instance, I can conclude that Windows Complete Backup works and works extremely well. That being said, there may be some caveats. The machines I was working with were nearly identical. I’m not sure if it would have been so smooth if the machines had contained radically different hardware. Also, if you use BitLocker, your backup will not be encrypted and should be stored in a secure location. You will need to reinitialize your TPM and re-encrypt your new drive.
Compute safely!
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