Backup and restore in Widows 11 problem

[VicInUtrecht]

I wanted to make a backup my c drive and started the backup and restore app of Windows 11. Although I actually wanted to backup onto a local external drive, I did start the only option: backup in the cloud of Onedrive.

Result:

1. my Internet connection got very dominated by the process and I could hardly work on my browser.
2. when I stopped the backup process, I noted that all the directories on the backup (desktop, documents, pictures and videos) were practically empty.

3 With the help from the Microsoft support group the backup process was switched off and the app was permitted to synchronise. The result was that only the items that were on Onedrive were transferred to the Onedrive – Personal area. The many GBs that were not transferred remained lost.

I noted that copying the contents of the folders from the Onedrive – Personal area to the respective folders on the C drive showed some 49 GB less contents from the sum of the contents of the various folders on the C drive compared to the contents on the properties of the C drive.

 Who can help getting my files back?

[#2]

@VicInUtrecht Well, it's a good idea to backup the "C: drive" or also called a "system back up." And frequently. But unfortunately, the method you chose was not the way to do that.  

Windows 11 doesn't really have a built-in feature to do a system backup (or C: drive backup).

To do this, you're going to have to use a third-party app, and there are many to choose from. Some of them are free but with a limited feature set unless you purchase the full license. But some search will turn up some good results.

Here is something very important to know and keep in mind about the system backup process- you'll need to use the back-up app's emergency boot USB flash drive creator. Because if you lose access to your system drive you won't have access to your backups without the app's boot flash drive.

Or, if you simply want to restore your system to an earlier point that worked better, you can't do that restore while you're using the system drive "C: drive". You'll have to do this from the back app's boot USB stick that you've created.

So, a few points of guidance here:

1) Know how to boot your computer from a USB stick. The backup app will have an option, and usually encourage you to create a "USB boot stick". It will have a copy of the app on it and run in a special mini-OS, that will allow you to access your backups while your system is down, or you just want to restore to an earlier point. You'll need to know which key to hit when your computer first starts that will give you the option to boot into your USB stick (it's F12 on mine).

2) Don't backup to a cloud drive, it'll take forever, backup to an external drive, they're inexpensive, and indispensable, and can be accessed by the backup app from the USB boot drive when you need to get to your backups.

So, it's a bit of a learning process. But once learned, this stuff is a life saver.

[#3]

@RobertFBeck 

Thank you very much for your reply,RobertFBeck.

After the debacle of Microsoft NOT providing access to my back-ups from Windows XP, I used to make copies of my files on external disks with FreeFileSynch. It worked sufficiently to find back my latest versions, but could not go back to previous versions and I could not make a mirror image of the built-in drives. Fortunately I never needed those.

I plan to continue with FreeFileSynch, but will look into your advice for third party software.

Thanks again,

Vic