Windows 10: Windows Backup - odd behaviour

I thought I understood Backup but it seems I don't. I have 2 problems:


1. Creating the list of folders to back up is hit or miss. MS Support tells me that I can't change the list without stopping the use of the external drive and re-doing the whole list. They also say that if I edit the list by adding a folder I can't see whether this is working until I do a backup and then look at it using Restore. Is it really this cumbersome? Over the last 30-odd years I have used numerous backup apps and nothing has been this weird.


2. I want to back up my Documents folder, which has all the subfolders for various things. So I created a new backup job and carefully selected Documents. Some other folders were also selected, and I ran the backup. Had a look via Restore, and all the selected folders had been backed up, except for Documents which was there but empty. Windows Explorer shows me that the path C:\Users\Les (ie me) has the following folders (among others):


Contacts (empty as I don't use it)

Desktop - contains all the files it should do

Documents - empty

Music - contains all the files it should do


But these are I suspect just placeholders that point somewhere else, and that Documents isn't pointing where I want it to. Despite carefully selecting the correct Documents with all the subfolders, Backup insists on selecting this placeholder that is useless.


I should mention that Documents is also synced with my OneDrive account. That all works fine, but would it have any bearing on this? MS Support emailed some links to help pages but they were uselessly brief, and two went to the same place.

:)

 

N96 Odd rotate Behaviour

I've stopped using the carrying case for a few days and I stopped getting that odd behaviour so I was sure it was the case. I'll go look for a better one this time.



thanks for replies.

 

Odd software behaviour Lumia 720

I'm the proud owner of a Lumia 720 since July. I'm facing some odd software behaviour recently though. Without notice or any pattern, the current app changes to another one, sometimes four or five times while my phone vibrates like mad. It happens two, or
three times a week, and there's no significant pattern but this weird "phone on speed" behaviour always ends in the Bing app. I thought rebooting was the answer but it doesn't. Does someone has any clue?

 

Using network hard drive for backup

It depends what sort of backup you want to do. If you're happy just backing up regular files, then there are a bazillion (really, that many!) different bits of freeware to do that. There is a good list here:

Download Back Up Tools for Windows - MajorGeeks

and pretty much all of them can do network backups. Some even have fancy options like encryption. Really, the most useful thing is just being able to schedule them and know they ran OK.

You may also want to make a system image backup too, and you'll find that software in the very same list.

I don't have Windows 8 as yet, so I'm afraid I can't suggest any for that platform. Personally, I use Clonezilla for image backups.