user profile manual backup

What folders do you explicitly put files you care about in %userprofile%?

The %userprofile% seems to have a mix of system created temporary scratch
items, which seem to make up the vast majority of the files, but very few
manually placed user documents that I care about.

I've been noticing, over the past week I only seem to use these 7 folders.
# %userprofile%\Desktop (where I put currently used items)
# %userprofile%\Documents (where I save docs)
# %userprofile%\Downloads (my browsers use it mostly)
# %userprofile%\Favorites (which is pinned to my taskbar)
# %userprofile%\Music (where I put my audio files)
# %userprofile%\Pictures\ (where I put pictures, camera roll & screen shots)
# %userprofile%\Videos (where I put my videos)

I haven't noticed that I manually put anything else in my %userprofile%.

Specifically, I don't find I manually put any documents I care about in
"AppData" or in "Application Data" or in "Searches" or "Contacts" or in "3D
Objects" or in "Links" or in "Local Settings", or in "NetHood" or "OneDrive"
or "PrintHood" or in "Templates" or in "SendTo" or in "StartMenu" (or in any
other folder in my %userprofile%.

Did I miss an important location for manual personal file backup?

What else inside of your %userprofile% do you think that you would need to
manually back up when you do a fully manual backup of your personal files?

On 27/11/2018 20:58, Ratchet wrote:
What folders do you explicitly put files you care about in %userprofile%?

By default all your documents - word, excel pictures, videos etc are in
Documents so you can selectively copy and paste the files you want to
preserve. You can make a habit to put your important files in the
cloud. Microsoft has got its own cloud but you you may one of those who
hate microsoft so I suggest use Amazon S3 storage. The charges are
about 2 cents per month and if the amount is too small, Amazon won't
even bother to collect the amount from you.

People are scarred of the word Cloud as if it is something that requires
extra knowledge. That's completely rubbish and you need to try it to
know that is the easiest and safest for all your documents that are very
important to lose.

If the profile is Mozilla's then they are kept in the hidden folder
called "AppData". Without knowing what you are trying to do I can't be
explicit here.

Also, Microsoft Outlook eMails and other data are kept somewhere else.





I haven't noticed that I manually put anything else in my %userprofile%.

Specifically, I don't find I manually put any documents I care about in
"AppData" or in "Application Data"

AppData folder is a very important one but there is no point in backing
it up in full. You take the files selectively and the rest can be
recreated by the Apps.

In future please refrain from Cross-posting to newsgroups that are not
relevant. I assume you are using Win10 so I have removed 7. You must be
one of the trolls we avoid who knows with your changed identity.

Path: news.mixmin.net!news.neodome.net!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: Ratchet
Newsgroups: alt.comp.os.windows-10,alt.windows7.general
Subject: user profile manual backup
Date: Tue, 27 Nov 2018 14:58:09 -0600
Organization: Neodome
Message-ID:
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--
With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

Ratchet wrote:
What folders do you explicitly put files you care about in %userprofile%?

The %userprofile% seems to have a mix of system created temporary scratch
items, which seem to make up the vast majority of the files, but very few
manually placed user documents that I care about.

I've been noticing, over the past week I only seem to use these 7 folders.
# %userprofile%\Desktop (where I put currently used items)
# %userprofile%\Documents (where I save docs)
# %userprofile%\Downloads (my browsers use it mostly)
# %userprofile%\Favorites (which is pinned to my taskbar)
# %userprofile%\Music (where I put my audio files)
# %userprofile%\Pictures\ (where I put pictures, camera roll & screen
shots)
# %userprofile%\Videos (where I put my videos)

I haven't noticed that I manually put anything else in my %userprofile%.

Specifically, I don't find I manually put any documents I care about in
"AppData" or in "Application Data" or in "Searches" or "Contacts" or in "3D
Objects" or in "Links" or in "Local Settings", or in "NetHood" or
"OneDrive"
or "PrintHood" or in "Templates" or in "SendTo" or in "StartMenu" (or in
any
other folder in my %userprofile%.

Did I miss an important location for manual personal file backup?

What else inside of your %userprofile% do you think that you would need to
manually back up when you do a fully manual backup of your personal files?

Did you copy NTUSER.dat ?

What happened when you tried ?

*******

What happens if you use this ?

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...-turn-off.html

Make it copy your home directory, the whole thing.

Open the ZIP files it makes and see if an NTUSER.dat
is in there. There should be a folder, with a series of
roughly 200-300MB ZIP files in it.

There is also a button in the interface, to restore the
folder with all the ZIPs in it. So your entire home
directory could be restored.

If you like how that feature works, then you can turn
on the scheduler and make it do backups on a
regular basis.

*******

Always, always, always, test your understanding of how
backup tools work. Never accept what someone else tells
you. If the method doesn't work, you have only yourself
to blame - and by testing thorough, you can head off a
disaster.

Lord knows I've made enough mistakes. Like one day, out
of idleness, running "Verify" on some backups, and
the Verify failed. Which means the backup images are
ruined. And I can't use those backups. The root cause,
was the RAM in the computer was bad (a failure since
the last time it was tested). I never would have thought
testing backups was necessary... until that day.

Paul

Ratchet wrote:
[...]

Did I miss an important location for manual personal file backup?

Hi 'Arlen',

If you actually use TB and haven't relocated to a safe location, your
TB profile, i.e. including your mail.

What else inside of your %userprofile% do you think that you would need to
manually back up when you do a fully manual backup of your personal files?

Nothing you've not already mentioned, at least nothing general.

On 11/27/18 3:58 PM, Ratchet wrote:
What folders do you explicitly put files you care about in %userprofile%?

The %userprofile% seems to have a mix of system created temporary scratch
items, which seem to make up the vast majority of the files, but very few
manually placed user documents that I care about.

I've been noticing, over the past week I only seem to use these 7 folders.
# %userprofile%\Desktop (where I put currently used items)
# %userprofile%\Documents (where I save docs)
# %userprofile%\Downloads (my browsers use it mostly)
# %userprofile%\Favorites (which is pinned to my taskbar)
# %userprofile%\Music (where I put my audio files)
# %userprofile%\Pictures\ (where I put pictures, camera roll & screen
shots)
# %userprofile%\Videos (where I put my videos)

I haven't noticed that I manually put anything else in my %userprofile%.

Specifically, I don't find I manually put any documents I care about in
"AppData" or in "Application Data" or in "Searches" or "Contacts" or in "3D
Objects" or in "Links" or in "Local Settings", or in "NetHood" or
"OneDrive"
or "PrintHood" or in "Templates" or in "SendTo" or in "StartMenu" (or in
any
other folder in my %userprofile%.

Did I miss an important location for manual personal file backup?

What else inside of your %userprofile% do you think that you would need to
manually back up when you do a fully manual backup of your personal files?

I also agree with AppData holding a lot of valued info. Especially
Roaming.
I have AIMP (mp3 player), Audacity, Filezilla, Gimp, Libre Office has a
template for styles, of course Thunderbird and Firefox, .purple if you
us Pidgin IM, and Notepad++. These are folders I backup.

Paul wrote

Ratchet wrote:
What folders do you explicitly put files you care about in %userprofile%?

The %userprofile% seems to have a mix of system created temporary scratch
items, which seem to make up the vast majority of the files, but very few
manually placed user documents that I care about.

I've been noticing, over the past week I only seem to use these 7 folders.
# %userprofile%\Desktop (where I put currently used items)
# %userprofile%\Documents (where I save docs)
# %userprofile%\Downloads (my browsers use it mostly)
# %userprofile%\Favorites (which is pinned to my taskbar)
# %userprofile%\Music (where I put my audio files)
# %userprofile%\Pictures\ (where I put pictures, camera roll & screen
shots)
# %userprofile%\Videos (where I put my videos)

I haven't noticed that I manually put anything else in my %userprofile%.

Specifically, I don't find I manually put any documents I care about in
"AppData" or in "Application Data" or in "Searches" or "Contacts" or in "3D
Objects" or in "Links" or in "Local Settings", or in "NetHood" or
"OneDrive"
or "PrintHood" or in "Templates" or in "SendTo" or in "StartMenu" (or in
any
other folder in my %userprofile%.

Did I miss an important location for manual personal file backup?

What else inside of your %userprofile% do you think that you would need to
manually back up when you do a fully manual backup of your personal files?

Did you copy NTUSER.dat ?

What happened when you tried ?

*******

What happens if you use this ?

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...-turn-off.html

Make it copy your home directory, the whole thing.

Open the ZIP files it makes and see if an NTUSER.dat
is in there. There should be a folder, with a series of
roughly 200-300MB ZIP files in it.

There is also a button in the interface, to restore the
folder with all the ZIPs in it. So your entire home
directory could be restored.

If you like how that feature works, then you can turn
on the scheduler and make it do backups on a
regular basis.

*******

Always, always, always, test your understanding of how
backup tools work. Never accept what someone else tells
you. If the method doesn't work, you have only yourself
to blame - and by testing thorough, you can head off a
disaster.

Lord knows I've made enough mistakes. Like one day, out
of idleness, running "Verify" on some backups, and
the Verify failed. Which means the backup images are
ruined. And I can't use those backups. The root cause,
was the RAM in the computer was bad (a failure since
the last time it was tested). I never would have thought
testing backups was necessary... until that day.

Paul

Did you copy NTUSER.dat ?
No.
I don't even know what NTUSER.DAT is so I don't want to copy it.
I only want to copy files that I know I manually put in %userprofile%

What happened when you tried ?
NTUSER.DAT Size: 3.00MB
This action can't be completed because the file is open in System.

What happens if you use this ?
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...-turn-off.html

What happens is that it works good!

First it said "Windows Backup has not been set up."
"Set up backup" would not let me save the backup on the c drive.
"Let me choose" had a box to check for
Camera Roll Library
Documents Library
Music Library
Pictures Library
Saved Pictures Library (what is this?)
Videos Library
Additional Locations (which has all the folders I was talking about!)

I selected 3 locations as my first simple test.
I unselected the box to include a system image.
I selected the change schedule to Daily at 4am and then Save and run.
I can tell you tomorrow the answer to your question of what happened.

But it seems to be the perfect solution to the problem if it works good.
What do you back up that you manually put in %userprofile%?

😉 Good Guy 😉 wrote:
People are scarred of the word Cloud as if it is something that requires
extra knowledge.Â* That's completely rubbish and you need to try it to
know that is the easiest and safest for all your documents that are very
important to lose.

The cloud is someone else's hard drive, stupid. Use an external hard
drive and be smart, unlike you.

Ratchet wrote:
Paul wrote
Ratchet wrote:
What folders do you explicitly put files you care about in
%userprofile%?

The %userprofile% seems to have a mix of system created temporary
scratch
items, which seem to make up the vast majority of the files, but very
few
manually placed user documents that I care about.

I've been noticing, over the past week I only seem to use these 7
folders.
# %userprofile%\Desktop (where I put currently used items)
# %userprofile%\Documents (where I save docs)
# %userprofile%\Downloads (my browsers use it mostly)
# %userprofile%\Favorites (which is pinned to my taskbar)
# %userprofile%\Music (where I put my audio files)
# %userprofile%\Pictures\ (where I put pictures, camera roll & screen
shots)
# %userprofile%\Videos (where I put my videos)

I haven't noticed that I manually put anything else in my %userprofile%.

Specifically, I don't find I manually put any documents I care about in
"AppData" or in "Application Data" or in "Searches" or "Contacts" or
in "3D
Objects" or in "Links" or in "Local Settings", or in "NetHood" or
"OneDrive"
or "PrintHood" or in "Templates" or in "SendTo" or in "StartMenu" (or
in any
other folder in my %userprofile%.

Did I miss an important location for manual personal file backup?

What else inside of your %userprofile% do you think that you would
need to
manually back up when you do a fully manual backup of your personal
files?

Did you copy NTUSER.dat ?

What happened when you tried ?

*******

What happens if you use this ?

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...-turn-off.html


Make it copy your home directory, the whole thing.

Open the ZIP files it makes and see if an NTUSER.dat
is in there. There should be a folder, with a series of
roughly 200-300MB ZIP files in it.

There is also a button in the interface, to restore the
folder with all the ZIPs in it. So your entire home
directory could be restored.

If you like how that feature works, then you can turn
on the scheduler and make it do backups on a
regular basis.

*******

Always, always, always, test your understanding of how
backup tools work. Never accept what someone else tells
you. If the method doesn't work, you have only yourself
to blame - and by testing thorough, you can head off a
disaster.

Lord knows I've made enough mistakes. Like one day, out
of idleness, running "Verify" on some backups, and
the Verify failed. Which means the backup images are
ruined. And I can't use those backups. The root cause,
was the RAM in the computer was bad (a failure since
the last time it was tested). I never would have thought
testing backups was necessary... until that day.

Paul

Did you copy NTUSER.dat ?
No. I don't even know what NTUSER.DAT is so I don't want to copy it.
I only want to copy files that I know I manually put in %userprofile%

What happened when you tried ?
NTUSER.DAT Size: 3.00MB
This action can't be completed because the file is open in System.

What happens if you use this ?
https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...-turn-off.html


What happens is that it works good!

First it said "Windows Backup has not been set up."
"Set up backup" would not let me save the backup on the c drive.
"Let me choose" had a box to check for
Camera Roll Library
Documents Library
Music Library
Pictures Library
Saved Pictures Library (what is this?)
Videos Library
Additional Locations (which has all the folders I was talking about!)

I selected 3 locations as my first simple test.
I unselected the box to include a system image.
I selected the change schedule to Daily at 4am and then Save and run.
I can tell you tomorrow the answer to your question of what happened.

But it seems to be the perfect solution to the problem if it works good.
What do you back up that you manually put in %userprofile%?

I tested the Windows 7 version, and it did something
weird with the NTUSER.dat registry file.

It seems to have split it up into "transactions",
as if on a reboot, the file would be reconstructed
and returned to the original state.

One other thing you should remember, is the ZIP
files are split at roughly 200MB or so sections.

For example, I have a 480MB file in Downloads. If
I look in the backup area, I see

Backup Files 45\WIN7UPDATE.7z 200MB
Backup Files 46\WIN7UPDATE.7z 200MB
Backup Files 47\WIN7UPDATE.7z 80MB

If I use 7zip on each Backup FIles, and extract the
WIN7UPDATE file inside, and add some identification
numbers, I get this in my temporary unpacking area.

WIN7UPDATE_45.7z 200MB
WIN7UPDATE_46.7z 200MB
WIN7UPDATE_47.7z 80MB

If I use the copy command, like this, I get the original 480MB file.

copy /b WIN7UPDATE_45.7z+WIN7UPDATE_46.7z+WIN7UPDATE_47.7z WIN7UPDATE.7z

WIN7UPDATE.7z 480MB

If I verify the checksum on the original 480MB file
and the "reconstructed" 480MB file, they're the same.
So the copy/concatenate command did the job.

This means the ZIP files aren't even candidates for zipmerge.
If you want to select a file from the backup, you're
either going to have to use the Control Panel interface
to navigate there, or unpack a whole backup into
your reconstruction area, and get the file there.
When the tool unpacks my 50 or so ZIP files, it
puts them back together properly (not shown here).

https://i.postimg.cc/k4TSmRZ5/w7backup.gif

Still not a big win, in my book.

*******

There is one problem with ZIP files, in that the field
that describes the archive size, was never designed for
4GB files. There is some sort of "hack" that is used
to fix this, so there are ZIP files which can represent
large archives. It looks like (maybe) Microsoft punted
on this, and that's why there are a ton of these small
files. If there was a setting somewhere which would make
one large ZIP, that might be better. And more navigable,
even if the registry file is unusable in its current form.

Paul

On 28/11/2018 16:50, Big Al wrote:
These are folders I backup.


No wonder with your narrow thinking power and inability to think outside
the box, you don't backup another important folder called: ProgramData.
This folder contains very important files such as License keys for
certain Apps and SQL server and MySQL databases, not to mention the
global configuration files for Apps. My Visual Studio Help files are
also stored in this folder.

Frankly, the whole business of backing up can be avoided if users are
intelligent enough to use the Cloud servers that can sync data
automatically and can be accessed using any device. Sadly, not many are
intelligent in these newsgroups. They are still struggling with how to
format a hard disk or how to marry a pumpkin!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

7 removed from cross-posting as that pedo nymshifter is the author of
the original post.


--
With over 950 million devices now running Windows 10, customer
satisfaction is higher than any previous version of windows.

In message , Paul
writes:
[]
One other thing you should remember, is the ZIP
files are split at roughly 200MB or so sections.

For example, I have a 480MB file in Downloads. If
I look in the backup area, I see

Backup Files 45\WIN7UPDATE.7z 200MB
Backup Files 46\WIN7UPDATE.7z 200MB
Backup Files 47\WIN7UPDATE.7z 80MB
[]
There is one problem with ZIP files, in that the field
that describes the archive size, was never designed for
4GB files. There is some sort of "hack" that is used
to fix this, so there are ZIP files which can represent
large archives. It looks like (maybe) Microsoft punted
on this, and that's why there are a ton of these small
files. If there was a setting somewhere which would make
one large ZIP, that might be better. And more navigable,
even if the registry file is unusable in its current form.

Paul

Odd that they seem to have chosen around 200M as the chunk size, though!
I wonder what prompted that - maybe the larger [capacity] "zip drives"
perhaps? (Though IIRR, those were either 100M or 250M, so 200M seems an
odd choice.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Have you ever heard about a petition, disagreed with it, but been frustrated
that there's no way you can *show* that you disagree? If so, have a look at
https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/232770 - and please pass it on if you
agree, especially to twitter, facebook, gransnet/mumsnet, or any such forum.

"If you have ten thousand regulations you destroy all respect for the
law." - Winston Churchill.

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:


Odd that they seem to have chosen around 200M as the chunk size, though!
I wonder what prompted that - maybe the larger [capacity] "zip drives"
perhaps? (Though IIRR, those were either 100M or 250M, so 200M seems an
odd choice.)

It's odd on more than one front.

They could have made the ZIPs a part of a larger multi-part
ZIP, but they didn't do that either. That would have made
recovery of my 480MB file a "seamless" operation. As it is,
the ZIPs appear to be independent of one another, using
tricks to reconstitute them later.

I've not run into any comments about this design anywhere,
so can't begin to guess what they're up to.

They could easily have captured the "essence" of what
needed backing up, as a VHD file. Like their other flavor
of backups uses.

Paul

Paul wrote

J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:


Odd that they seem to have chosen around 200M as the chunk size, though!
I wonder what prompted that - maybe the larger [capacity] "zip drives"
perhaps? (Though IIRR, those were either 100M or 250M, so 200M seems an
odd choice.)

It's odd on more than one front.

They could have made the ZIPs a part of a larger multi-part
ZIP, but they didn't do that either. That would have made
recovery of my 480MB file a "seamless" operation. As it is,
the ZIPs appear to be independent of one another, using
tricks to reconstitute them later.

I've not run into any comments about this design anywhere,
so can't begin to guess what they're up to.

They could easily have captured the "essence" of what
needed backing up, as a VHD file. Like their other flavor
of backups uses.

Paul

Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

I don't yet understand why your backup is a zip file & mine not.
My backup seems to be a "special" file without extension.
The file is named MYPC where that is the name of my pc.

I have filename extensions turned on but there is no extension.
And there is no file size in file explorer either.
It's just a name.

But it must be a "backup" file of some strange format.

Right clicking gives me "Restore options".
Doubleclicking gives me 3 options
Restore my files from this backup
Restore files for all users of this computer
Manage space used by this backup

Only when I hit manage space can I see the file size.
It says "Data file backup: 239.56MB."
This gives a "View backups" button.
That button shows a "Backup Period" of "11/28/2018 to 11/29/2018."
And a file size of 239.56MB.

How do you know this is a "zip" file?
I have 7-Zip which doesn't seem to think it's not a normal file.

Is there a Windows command that will tell me what "kind" of file it is?

Ratchet wrote:
Paul wrote
J. P. Gilliver (John) wrote:


Odd that they seem to have chosen around 200M as the chunk size,
though! I wonder what prompted that - maybe the larger [capacity]
"zip drives" perhaps? (Though IIRR, those were either 100M or 250M,
so 200M seems an odd choice.)

It's odd on more than one front.

They could have made the ZIPs a part of a larger multi-part
ZIP, but they didn't do that either. That would have made
recovery of my 480MB file a "seamless" operation. As it is,
the ZIPs appear to be independent of one another, using
tricks to reconstitute them later.

I've not run into any comments about this design anywhere,
so can't begin to guess what they're up to.

They could easily have captured the "essence" of what
needed backing up, as a VHD file. Like their other flavor
of backups uses.

Paul

Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

I don't yet understand why your backup is a zip file & mine not.
My backup seems to be a "special" file without extension.
The file is named MYPC where that is the name of my pc.

I have filename extensions turned on but there is no extension.
And there is no file size in file explorer either.
It's just a name.

But it must be a "backup" file of some strange format.

Right clicking gives me "Restore options".
Doubleclicking gives me 3 options
Restore my files from this backup
Restore files for all users of this computer
Manage space used by this backup

Only when I hit manage space can I see the file size.
It says "Data file backup: 239.56MB."
This gives a "View backups" button.
That button shows a "Backup Period" of "11/28/2018 to 11/29/2018."
And a file size of 239.56MB.

How do you know this is a "zip" file?
I have 7-Zip which doesn't seem to think it's not a normal file.

Is there a Windows command that will tell me what "kind" of file it is?

If you click this link, you'll get a download from a long
time ago. Inside the ZIP here, is a copy of NFI, a Microsoft
NTFS utility.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150329...us/oem3sr2.zip

cd /d %userprofile%\Downloads
nfi c: list.txt
notepad list.txt

You can see here, it's a folder and it responds
to "Open".

Alternately, you can drill down below it, by
copying the path out of the list.txt file
and pasting into Explorer.

The Desktop.ini declares a custom action.

https://i.postimg.cc/J7fHyTYN/its-a-...esktop-ini.gif

And the word on the street is, that NTUSER.dat
is still a problem...

Paul

Ratchet wrote:


Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

I don't yet understand why your backup is a zip file & mine not.
My backup seems to be a "special" file without extension.
The file is named MYPC where that is the name of my pc.

I have filename extensions turned on but there is no extension.
And there is no file size in file explorer either.
It's just a name.

But it must be a "backup" file of some strange format.

Right clicking gives me "Restore options".
Doubleclicking gives me 3 options
Restore my files from this backup
Restore files for all users of this computer
Manage space used by this backup

Only when I hit manage space can I see the file size.
It says "Data file backup: 239.56MB."
This gives a "View backups" button.
That button shows a "Backup Period" of "11/28/2018 to 11/29/2018."
And a file size of 239.56MB.

How do you know this is a "zip" file?
I have 7-Zip which doesn't seem to think it's not a normal file.

Is there a Windows command that will tell me what "kind" of file it is?

There is a script on this page, that uses a VSS shadow
(temporarily) to copy registry files to %TEMP%.

To prevent naming collisions, the script renames the
outputs to keep them separated.

https://www.sevenforums.com/free-dev...using-vss.html


This isn't likely to copy all that well, so I'd
recommend copying this from the source page if
possible, and editing to taste.

*******
@echo off
REM
REM Tweakradje 2015 v1.3
REM
Cls
Title Creating Volume Snapshot for Live Registry Backup

Echo.
Echo Creating Volume Snapshot...
Echo.

REM Wmic.exe shadowcopy call create ClientAccessible,"C:\"
REM Executing (Win32_ShadowCopy)-create()
REM Method execution successful.
REM Out Parameters:
REM instance of __PARAMETERS
REM {
REM ReturnValue = 0;
REM ShadowID = "{7F3058E6-79A6-47D7-A6F9-04AF456ABEF1}";
REM };

For /f "tokens=3" %%s in ('"Wmic.exe shadowcopy call create ClientAccessible,"C:\""^|Findstr ShadowID') Do Call :CopyRegistry %%s
Pause
Exit /b %%s

:CopyRegistry
REM %1 like "{4BA387DD-5A18-4BFA-BBCB-071560ABC77E}";
Set VSSID=%~1
REM Check if left char is a {
If Not (%VSSID:~,1%) == ({) Echo "No valid Snapshot made!" & Exit /b
Echo.
Echo Snapshot succes. (ID %VSSID%)
Echo.
REM vssadmin list shadows /Shadow={a759180d-6bbe-4aaf-b3aa-57d219aa3e88}
REM vssadmin 1.1 - Volume Shadow Copy Service administrative command-line tool
REM (C) Copyright 2001-2005 Microsoft Corp.
REM
REM Contents of shadow copy set ID: {caf5cc6b-0c9d-4f88-abe8-83f89faf96bf}
REM Contained 1 shadow copies at creation time: 16-5-2015 15:44:13
REM Shadow Copy ID: {a759180d-6bbe-4aaf-b3aa-57d219aa3e88}
REM Original Volume: (C\\?\Volume{2bfd2d95-a745-11e4-9803-806e6f6e6963}\
REM Shadow Copy Volume: \\?\GLOBALROOT\Device\HarddiskVolumeShadowCopy23
REM Originating Machine: ASUS
REM Service Machine: ASUS
REM Provider: 'Microsoft Software Shadow Copy provider 1.0'
REM Type: ClientAccessible
REM Attributes: Persistent, Client-accessible, No auto release, No writers, Differential

REM Get the Shadow Copy Volume, Find the line in output with GLOBALROOT, divide line by : and take 2nd part

For /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %%s in ('"vssadmin.exe list shadows /Shadow=%VSSID%"^|FindStr GLOBALROOT') Do Set VSSVOL=%%s

Echo.
Echo Copying Registry files from %VSSVOL% to C:\Temp
Echo.

Echo|SET /p=software & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\Config\software c:\temp\hklm_software
Echo|SET /p=system & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\Config\system c:\temp\hklm_system
Echo|SET /p=components & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\Config\components c:\temp\hklm_components
Echo|SET /p=security & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\Config\security c:\temp\hklm_security
Echo|SET /p=sam & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\Config\sam c:\temp\hklm_sam
Echo|SET /p=default & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\Config\default c:\temp\hkcu_default
Echo|SET /p=LocalService & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\ServiceProfiles\LocalService\ntus er.dat c:\temp\hku_localservice
Echo|SET /p=NetworkService & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\ServiceProfiles\NetworkService\nt user.dat c:\temp\hku_networkservice
Echo|SET /p=SystemProfile & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\Windows\System32\config\systemprofile\ntu ser.dat c:\temp\hku_system
Echo|SET /p=CurrentUser (%USERNAME%) & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\%USERPROFILE:~3%\ntuser.dat c:\temp\hku_%USERNAME%
Echo|SET /p=CurrentUser Classes & Copy /Y %VSSVOL%\%LOCALAPPDATA:~3%\Microsoft\Windows\UsrCl ass.dat c:\temp\hku_%USERNAME%_classes

Echo.
Echo Done. Removing VSS Snapshot (ID %VSSID%)...
Echo.
vssadmin.exe delete Shadows /Shadow=%VSSID% /Quiet nul
If %errorlevel% == 1 (
Echo "Snapshot ID %VSSID% not deleted!"
) Else (
Echo "Snapshot succesfully removed."
)

Exit /b

*******

The NTUSER.dat in your home directory, corresponds to this file.

c:\temp\hku_%USERNAME%

VSS only works for this, if there is a provider on the system
for each subsystem you're poking. The Registry subsystem should
normally have a provider to make copying the registry possible.
And that could be, what the above script-writer was relying on.

You'd still have the problem, of putting the file back, which
might have to be done with an emergency boot CD (or from Linux LiveCD).

Testing that script, and seeing it work, would be a proof (of sorts)
that the Win7 Backup isn't working quite right (because it appears
to be backing up a transcript of some sort that would rebuild
an NTUSER.dat - but as end-users, we wouldn't know what to feed
that crap to, to make it work). Maybe you have to run the Win7 backup
sdclt from a Windows emergency boot CD or installer DVD, to get
to sdclt and access the backup tree that way.

*******

Everything in my home directory... could be handled by an IT guy :-/
Maybe. Doing it 100% right is the bar bet.

HTH,
Paul

Ratchet wrote:

Control Panel\System and Security\Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

I don't yet understand why your backup is a zip file & mine not.
My backup seems to be a "special" file without extension.
The file is named MYPC where that is the name of my pc.

I have filename extensions turned on but there is no extension.
And there is no file size in file explorer either.
It's just a name.

But it must be a "backup" file of some strange format.

Right clicking gives me "Restore options".
Doubleclicking gives me 3 options
Restore my files from this backup
Restore files for all users of this computer
Manage space used by this backup

Only when I hit manage space can I see the file size.
It says "Data file backup: 239.56MB."
This gives a "View backups" button.
That button shows a "Backup Period" of "11/28/2018 to 11/29/2018."
And a file size of 239.56MB.

How do you know this is a "zip" file?
I have 7-Zip which doesn't seem to think it's not a normal file.

Is there a Windows command that will tell me what "kind" of file it is?

Working manually with the backup folder...

https://www.sevenforums.com/tutorial...ndows-7-a.html

Paul