How do you make sure not to lose data during frequent operations? From Windows 7, you can schedule daily backup with a built-in tool, which has some limitations. So you can try the second way as well...
In the use of Windows 7 or other OS, you’ve definitely experienced data loss or system failures that can’t be solved easily. At that time you might be thinking, if only you had made a backup of the files or system in advance. But after that, you are very likely to ignore data backup as always. That’s why it’s necessary to set up an automatic task, such as daily backup in Windows 7.
And the process is not as complicated as it sounds. All you need to do is set up a Windows daily backup schedule for once and fulfill the first-time full backup. That’s it. Here I will show you how.
To auto backup Windows 7 files daily, you can try following 2 free ways. Method 2 is more recommended for its fast speed and high compatibility.
Windows 7 comes with a Backup and Restore tool, which has also been used in Windows 10. It allows you to set up a backup task for selected libraries and folders with a schedule, including daily, weekly and monthly.
It can meet the basic needs of Windows 7 automatic backup but also has some limitations, for example:
You can specify the source folders or partitions, but cannot accurately backup the operation system.
There’s an option to create system image for Windows 7 system image recovery, but you can’t schedule it.
It takes a long time to complete the backup. The speed of my other operations was also affected.
Sometimes you can't set up a backup for some reasons such as Volume Shadow Copy Service error 0x80042302.
If any of above situations bothers you, please turn to Method 2 for an easier, quicker and more flexible solution.
If you are okay with it, here are the steps to do daily backup in Windows 7 with the built-in Backup and Restore.
How to daily backup Windows 7 with Backup and Restore:
1. Click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance to find Backup and restore, or you can directly search it in start menu.
2. Here in the main page of Backup and Restore, click Set up backup if you haven’t created any.
3. Choose where to save your backup. An external hard drive is more recommended than local disk, or you can click Save on a network... to specify a network location. Then click Next.
4. Choose what to backup. You can choose Let Windows choose to backup libraries, desktop and default Windows folders, or select Let me choose to customize the folders or partitions you want to backup. Click Next to continue.
5. Review the backup settings, and click on Change schedule to create an automatic backup task.
6. Choose the backup frequency from Daily, Weekly and Monthly. To create a daily backup task in Windows 7, select Daily and a specific time to start backup automatically. Click OK to confirm your settings.
7. Review all your settings including the schedule, click Save settings and exit to start backup.
8. Wait patiently till the progress has been completed. You can then modify the scheduled backup by clicking Change settings.
As mentioned earlier, this approach is more flexible and faster than Method 1. You can backup selected files, partitions, operation system or the entire disk, and there are more schedule options that enables you to configure the Windows 7 daily backup in detail.
This method requires a scheduled backup software, AOMEI Backupper Standard. It provides a complete data protection and disaster recovery solution for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/Vista/XP, and the backup speed is pretty good. At least in my use, the scheduled backup runs quietly in the background without interrupting my other operations.
How to set daily backup in Windows 7 with AOMEI Backupper:
1. Download, install and launch the software, select Backup and choose the backup mode you want. Here I choose File Backup as an example.
โTips:
2. Click Add Folder or Add File to specify the source data you want to backup.
3. Select a backup destination. To better protect your important data, you can backup files to cloud drive, external hard drive, USB, NAS, etc.
4. Click Schedule Backup and choose Daily in the select box. You can also customize the specific time to perform daily backup, or Intervals if you want to backup multiple times a day.
In Backup Scheme tab, you can also select the scheduled backup mode. It’s incremental backup by default.
Performing daily backup in Windows 7 for a long time may lead to insufficient computer capacity. So optionally, you can upgrade to Professional edition to automatically delete older backups with the Scheme you set.
5. Then click Start Backup button, and click Finish when it’s complete.
โOther helpful features:
โ Compress or split backup images: you can manage more settings in backup Options.
โ Scheduled backup triggered by events (advanced edition): in addition to time-based schedule, you can also Schedule automatic backup when USB plug-in, or Event triggers (like auto backup at system shutdown).
โ Include or exclude files with certain extension (advanced edition): suppose you want to back up all the files in a folder with certain extensions, or with extensions other than this, the Filter settings could be a big help.
Your memory isn't always reliable, and it's inefficient to manually configure the same backup settings every time. In this case, the best way to keep the newest data safe in Windows 7 is to setup a scheduled backup.
If you don't use computers very often, a lower frequency such as weekly or monthly may be sufficient. However, it might be a smart decision to do daily backup in Windows 7 if you meet any of the following conditions:
Using a computer frequently for daily work;
Working on an important project;
Making major operations or modifications to the computer every day, etc.
In Windows 7, you can schedule daily backup, weekly backup or monthly backup automatically, the same goes for Windows 10. But the built-in schedule backup isn’t very flexible. Besides, it takes pretty long time to complete the backup and might slow down your computer during the process.
To make up for these shortcomings, you can use a free alternative, AOMEI Backupper to set up daily backup. It contains complete backup & restore features with various practical modes and options. In case the computer suddenly fails to start due to system errors, you can also create a recovery disk or USB to boot it into Windows PE, then perform a restore with earlier system image.