Which folders to backup

If you're prompted to back up your important folders Desktop, Documents, and Pictures , select the prompt to start the folder backup wizard. In the Back up your folders dialog, make sure the folders that you want to back up are selected. You can close the dialog box while your files sync to OneDrive. Or, to watch your files sync, select View upload progress. If you already closed the dialog, to open the OneDrive activity center, select the white or blue cloud in the notification area.

When your files finish syncing to OneDrive, they're backed up and you can access them from anywhere in Documents, Desktop, or Pictures. When you back up your Desktop folder, the items on your desktop roam with you to your other PC desktops where you're running OneDrive. Try Microsoft for free. You can also use the OneDrive mobile app to access your folders on any device. To stop or start backing up your folders in OneDrive, update your folder selections in OneDrive Settings.

To start backing up a folder, select any folder that doesn't say Files backed up , and then select Start backup. To stop backing up a folder, select Stop backup , and confirm your request. See important notes below. When you stop backing up a folder, the files that were already backed up by OneDrive stay in the OneDrive folder, and will no longer appear in your device folder.

To access your files, select the icon to open the folder in OneDrive. If you want those files back in your device folder and not in OneDrive, move them manually from the OneDrive folder back to your device folder. Note that any new files you add to that folder on your device won't be backed up by OneDrive after you stop the backup. To move the files. Here are a list of errors you might see when you set up PC folder backup and how to resolve them:. The following file type can't be protected : Outlook database files.

Folder protection is unavailable : A common reason for this error is that important folders on PCs that are connected to a domain can't be protected in a personal OneDrive account when you're signed in with a Microsoft account. For info about data protection solutions, contact your IT administrator. File exceeds the maximum path length : Make sure the entire file path, including the file name, contains fewer than characters.

File exceeds the maximum file size : OneDrive can't sync files over GB. My understanding is that if we don't include it it just means that applications have to re-generate temporary, cached files again next time they run, which increases run time and startup time but is harmless, right? Show 1 more comment. Perhaps it's a mount point. I'm very open to suggestions as to how I could make this better.

Elliptical view Elliptical view 8 8 silver badges 17 17 bronze badges. This is great when you're focussed on configurations and don't need the binaries, like you said they can be installed again and this is much lighter to export and than to reinstall askubuntu.

After the reinstall, I restore the parts from my backup, which I really need. Will it work if I backup root, that is everything?

That would be like a clone of what I'm using now. Community Bot 1. If you've made some changes there, it would be helpful to have an archive to get those changes from. Let's collect a list of files here. I've made this post "community wiki. Mine is used mainly as a web server and NFS server. Ubuntu launcher "Start Menu". Here is the daily backup script of what's important to me:! Modified July 7, Then when one need to get readable archive again, he need to decode it by base VedVals VedVals 3, 9 9 gold badges 28 28 silver badges 45 45 bronze badges.

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Linked 1. Related 5. Hot Network Questions. However, doing so will end up wasting space and make your backups take longer to create and restore. There's no point in backing up existing drivers. If you didn't know, a driver is a piece of software that allows Windows to interface properly with a hardware device, such as a keyboard. Since hardware usually differs from one system to the next, you won't need the same drivers. If you want, you can back up driver installer files for specific devices.

Even then, though, you'll want to install the latest versions on your new system anyway. You cannot simply copy and paste them to another system and hope that they'll work, so you don't need to back up either Program Files folder.

Programs rely on other data to work properly, such as Registry entries. The exception to this is if you've installed a portable version of an app. These are designed as self-contained folders, requiring nothing else for the app to run properly. Have a look at some of the best portable apps if this sounds interesting to you. Temp files are exactly that: temporary files. They're created for specific actions at a point in time and are no longer needed when that task is done.

Developers are supposed to clean these up over time, but they often stick around well past their intended use. In addition to the Windows system folder, the OS relies on many other components like the Registry and bootloader.

When you install Windows on a new computer, it will have to set this all up anew. If you want to back up your entire system in one snapshot, you can create a Windows ISO image that you can restore at a later point or on another machine. You'll notice that most of the important folders live under your account folder in Users. If you don't want to pick and choose, you can back this entire folder up to get most of your important data in one sweep. If you're still having trouble deciding what to back up, we recommend giving the cloud backup program Backblaze a look.

It automatically excludes unnecessary folders like the ones we discussed above, so there's nothing to decide on your end unless you want to. The service even backs up external drives! Then again, you might prefer to use a local backup system than cloud backup. Now you know what folders you should back up in Windows Anything that's irreplaceable, like personal documents, photos, and game save data is the most important.

You don't need to back up system files that Windows will replace on a new installation. Now that you know what to back up, how do you back everything up effectively? Follow our Windows backup and restore guide to find out.

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