Using a Windows 7 VHD as your Backup destination – Or How to get Win7 Backup goodness without the data leaving your PC

How-To Geek - How to Backup Your Data to a Virtual Hard Drive in Windows 7

“Having a solid backup plan is a must if you have important data on your PC that you don’t want to lose. Today we take a look at a unique way of using a virtual hard drive in Windows 7 to back up some files.

Create a Virtual Hard Drive (VHD)

The first thing we need to do is create a VHD. In this article we are concentrating on how to backup your data to a VHD, we’ll briefly cover how to create one, but make sure and check out our full tutorial on how to create a VHD in Windows 7.

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Yeah, it’s kind of oxymoronic to “backup” your notebook or PC to the same device, but I also see it as brilliant. Like say backing up your notebook to a VHD on a 2nd HD in your drivebay. And having it in a VHD means the backup “device” is easily portable if needed. All automated, scheduled and simple. I think this is a cool thinking for road-warriors and/or remote workers.

Drive space is pretty cheap, whereas your work isn’t. Having an automated yet secure backup (say on a Bitlocker’ed or PGP encrypted 2nd drive) might just save your bacon.