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Windows Vista Home Premium supports automated back ups to a network share, so I would assume the Windows 7 Home Premium would also have this feature. However, several pages on the Microsoft site make it not-so-clear to whether the feature made it into RTM.

Can anyone with Windows 7 Home Premium installed confirm whether or not you can set an automated backup to write files to a network drive? Failing that, can you trick it by using a network mapped drive?

(I currently have the Ultimate RC installed and am trying to figure out which RTM version to by)

Richard Szalay
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4 Answers4

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Having just installed Home Premium onto a Virtual PC, I can confirm that not only does Home Premium not support backing up to a network share, but that mapped network drives do not show up in the "Backup Location" list.

Richard Szalay
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Microsoft offers a solution to this problem for free but will not tell you about it. It's called Sync Toy. It is a free application on their website in the download center. Here is the link.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=c26efa36-98e0-4ee9-a7c5-98d0592d8c52

It allows you to "sync" folders over your home network and even an external drive....

studiohack
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John
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There's a page at Microsoft's website to compare editions and it clearly states that only Professional and better has the backup to network feature.

It is my belief that Microsoft want you to buy a Windows Home Server to be able to backup over the network at home. If you already own a home server then you're good to go.

Paxxi
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Richard Szalay is completely correct in every account. However, there is a workaround that enables you to backup your Windows 7 Home Premium machine on to a network drive.

  1. Right click on "My Computer" and hit "Manage".
  2. Select "Disk Management"
  3. Click on "Action" and select "Create VHD"

Image of creating a VHD

  1. Set the location to be on the network
  2. Choose a size large enough to store your backup
  3. Right click on the words "Not Initialized" to initialize the disk

Image of Initialize Disk

  1. Format the disk by right-clicking where it says "Unallocated" and select "New Simple Volume"

Format disk

This virtual disk will now show up in Backup and Restore!

Source: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-networking/how-do-backup-a-windows-7-machine-to-a-network/e733818b-0219-4037-b04d-166cff901dd7

Moshe
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