Restore from Backup

[Hysteresis]

I have a Mextor Basics 500GB hard drive running with Vista as the OS.
I have backed up my system every month for the last 12 months or so.
I thought I was only backing up data but looking at the back up files on the hard drive there is all sorts of data and application software on there.
I have now reset my laptop to factory setting and want to re-establish the data as to what it was immediatly before I reset it.
What the backup appears to do is only backup modified or new files (I think). In order therefore to get all of my files as they were before reset, I am having to trawl through the hard drive to the first back up and dowmload the files, then download individually every file after that in order to get the new and modified files. As this process is a long and laborious one, I cant help but feel I am doing it wrong. But I have tried for 5 hours now to find a proper solution to what I am trying to do with out success.
Can any one advice me on haw to achieve my objectives.
I dont want to just do a restore as it appears that would install all of the application software I don't want anymore as this is the reason for my laptop reset, to try and clean the thing up from loads of redundant software.
Any Advice from anyone would be appreciated

 

[alwest197]

It is a problem when you do a full backup and then incrementals after that. Whilst I can't see any other way than what you are doing to get the data files back maybe if you restored the whole lot then took another full backup of just the data files they would all be in one place and easier to restore. What backup software are you using..? I use acronis to take a full backup and use the grandfather, father, child method of managing them. i.e. I replace the grandfather with a new child and then delete the grandfather....so backups 1 (grandfather) 2 (father) and 3 (child) are taken a month apart then 1 is replaced by the new backup next time... father becomes grandfather and child become father. Not sure I've explianed myself very well......

 

[Hysteresis]

Hi alwest,
I finally did managwe a restore, but I think I fell into the trap you describe. What happened was that I eventually restored everything including 'junk' I had deleted in earlier file management exercises. I did not expect this as I thought microsoft Back up and restoe functions would recognise the latset back up as the one to restore.
Following in your suggestion of Grandfather/fathe/son idea, what I was going to establish was a routine whereby before I execute a full back up, I do a External Hard Drive Format, which will of course delete all former backups and when i do a new back up then it will only contain what the files where at the time of back p and not all the rest of the deleted files.
Do you have any opinions on that regime of back up and restore.
In answer to your question of what back up system I use, well it is simply that provided by Vista, ie Control Panel/Back up and Restore utilitity. Restore being accomplished by advanced Restore facility.
Thanks for your Help and interst.

 

[joinerjohn]

I had to do a factory reset on my computer last year. Once done I thought I'd lost a lot of files/ photo's, software etc etc. What the computer had done was to create a new main user account and all of my stuff was there if I opened C drive up then went to documents and settings. The old user account is still there and I was able to transfer stuff I wanted to keep over to the new one.
I asked my older brother for help on this, as he's an IT manager and he told me that a factory reset just creates this new user account, but still retains all other info on the hard drive. Only other problem is that the hard drive is now somewhere around 85% full and defragmenting it takes hours

 

[alwest197]

Only issue I can see with that is that once you have formatted the drive you are vunerable because you have no backup at all. All depends on the size of the ex HDD I suppose, if you have the space I would inclined stick to keeping at least one backup whilst you are creating the new one. Remember that backups can become corrupted just like the internal HDD so having more than one is a bonus. Acronis is used the world over for domestic backups and indeed for companies with massive amounts data. I used to work (now retired) at a large outsourcing company and we used Acronis true copy for our backups. Domestic use Acronis allows you to look at (just like in explorer) and restore individual files as well as doing a complete restore and even clone the disk. Acronis is only £30 so well worth the money.

 

[ajrobb]

Why not split the external drive into 2 partitions? When you start a new full backup, format one partition for it and subsequent incremental backups. When you start the next full backup, format the other partition etc.

 

[Hysteresis]

Hi ajrobb
That sounds like a good proposition.
But how do I do it and after achieving two partitions, how do I choose into which partition the initial back up and subsequent back ups go.
Then it follows when I recover how do I choose from which partition to recover. I usually find these procedures are straight forward just as long as you know which 'buttons' to press, but one has to be very clear as to what is being achieved.
Thanks for the Help.