Win 7 User Backup

[aviwil]

I have a clean rebuilt Win7 - 64 . I backed up the User before simply as C:\Users\Username . There was not much - mainly Windows live emails , Contacts , etc , and I included AppData etc.
Is it sufficient to just copy this Username directory tree back to C:\Users , after having re-created the Username in Control Panel ?
Thanks .

 

[FishAk]

It's much better to keep user data outside of the OS partition. This way, you can keep a couple variants of your OS backed up (images), without making them too big to store. When a virus hits your OS, you can simply restore a good image back. The data will still be on another partition, and can be backed up normally.

Log in as the user you wish to set the user directory for.

Go to C > Users > the user name.

Right click a user folder ( Ex. Downloads), and select Properties.

Click the Locations tab, and change the drive letter of the location from C to the letter you wish to keep the user directory. Click OK a couple times, and the folder will show up in (the drive letter you selected) > Users > the user name.

Once you have moved all the user folders, simply copy the old data you previously backed up to the User folders in the new location. Explorer will merge the folders together.

 

[SimMike2]

The only user data I store on different drives is big program files and big audio/video files. I also keep a huge "download" directory on another drive. All the rest, I leave on my main OS SSD drive. I backup to another drive in my computer, so keeping the backup image small is a moot point. I make an image at least once per week. As an example of a big file, I have been using MS Outlook for a long time now. And I keep lots of old emails. The PST file is really big. But I have no intention of moving this big file off of my fast SSD just to get a smaller backup file. My point is don't move a bunch of files around just to make your OS boot image smaller. It can really hurt the performance of your computer, especially if your primary OS drive is a fast SSD.

 

[aviwil]

Thanks FishAk and SimMike2 . So , I understand , that just a simple full "copy back"/merging should restore all previous emails, contacts,accounts etc ?