An essential part of owning a device is taking every precaution possible to preserve your data. Thankfully, Windows 10 takes some stress out of the process by offering some out of the box features that can help ensure that your data security is handled professionally.
So, how can you potentially recover your data on a Windows 10 system and what configuration can you use to help prevent issues further down the line? Let’s explore further…
Anyone who has worked for hours on a word document only for it to be left unsaved or deleted due to file corruption knows the price of data loss. If a system is being used professionally, this can result in the loss of valuable man hours and increased confusion about what documents are being used and potentially reputational damage for clients. This can range from proposals, transcriptions, detailed project breakdowns, instructional documentation and more.
When it comes to personal use, this can mean the loss of valuable possessions and treasured memories such as videos, voice notes, photographs, creative projects, and other materials. This makes ensuring that all your devices – not solely your Windows 10 system – are fully backed up or have a method to save and restore valuable content absolutely critical.
Thankfully, the process to restore data on your Windows 10 system is relatively straightforward. While this can help, there is no guarantee that it will restore all lost or corrupted information but giving the process a try can help being back your required materials.
This involves the following steps.
1. Setting your backup:
First of all, it is important to designate a location that will be used for backups on your system. This is set by hitting the windows key in the bottom left of your dashboard and navigating to the settings bar under the cog icon. From here, select the ‘update and security’ option and select your backup option, choosing the ‘add a drive’ option. This will let you back up your system information to another drive and restore them from that location.
2. Execute the backup:
When ready, select the drive and the backup will restore. When you need to restore your system, simply attach the drive to the system and navigate to the same location with the drive attached or accessible on your network. When you are ready, select the drive and the backup will initiate. This can also allow you to backup and restore from previous versions of Windows, giving you improved flexibility when accessing your work. Additional options can also be selected from your recovery panel from within the configuration options, allowing you to fine tune the process as required.
If you need to capture and restore specific files or folders, you can choose to restore your content by looking at your file history, allowing you revert to a previous version of a file to revoke significant or unneeded changes.
3. Activate your settings:
In order to turn on file history, click the windows icon at the bottom left of your desktop taskbar. Once open, type the phrase ‘restore your files with file history’ this will open the file history panel. From here, check to see if file history is activated. If it is not currently on, click to select the ‘configure file history settings’ option. This opens your dedicated file history panel and allows you to save copies of your system files to restore them when needed. From here you can set a network location that files are to be collected from. As with a full system restore, this is normally carried out by attaching an external drive to your system.
4. Locate your files:
Once the backups have been configured correctly, navigate to the file history panel and you will be able to see versions of all the files that you have selected. From here, you can select the file that you wish to restore from the list and select the specific version that you wish to save to your drive.
This can be further helped by creating what is known as a restore point on your system. This is automatically created by default on the system. If you want to manually set and restore, you can carry out the following steps.
– Create your restore point: Click to select the windows icon from the bottom left of your taskbar, then open your control panel and open the system and maintenance settings, select the ‘system’ option. From here, select the system protection settings and choose to ‘create’ a new restore point.
– Restore: When you are ready restore, revisit the system and maintenance options, and select the ‘backup and restore’ option. From here you can select the ‘restore my files’ and follow the onscreen prompts to restore your manual system image.
One of the best ways to avoid data loss is to configure your Windows 10 system to work through the cloud. This is possible by deploying your OneDrive on your system or using platforms like G Drive to store mission critical content.
In addition to formal backups, working from a cloud data backup can help ensure that your information is correctly secured. This can also be shared with colleagues, allowing you to collaborate more effectively and enforce version control.
If you want to learn more about data recovery or find a professional to help you, our team at Everything Tech is here to help. With many years’ professional experience, we work with you to source a solution to your unique needs and make sure your technical infrastructure is set up to withstand data loss, damage, malicious attacks and more.
You can view our full list of services Or, if you have specific questions or queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch directly and let us know exactly what you need to optimise your current setup and help avoid future issues for your home or business.
