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Dell SupportAssist OS Recovery User’s Guide

Back up files

Prerequisites

  • Your computer must be connected to a power outlet.
  • You must have an external storage device such as an SD card, USB drive, or USB hard drive to back up your files.

About this task

You can back up your personal files before you reset the operating system of your computer. If your computer is unable to start the operating system, the SupportAssist OS Recovery environment starts automatically. If you want to manually start SupportAssist OS recovery, see Manually start SupportAssist OS Recovery.

Steps

  1. On the SupportAssist OS Recovery home page, click Start on the Back Up Files / Disk Cloning tile.
    NOTE:If software encryption is enabled on your computer, you are prompted to unlock your computer before you start backing up the files on your computer.

    Perform the following steps to unlock your computer:

    1. Click NEXT on the page where instructions to unlock computer are displayed. The Microsoft account login page is displayed.
    2. Enter the Microsoft account login email or phone number, and then click Next.
    3. Enter the Microsoft account password, and then click Sign in.
    4. Select the user phone number, enter the last four digits of the phone number, and then click Send code. A message with a verification code is sent to the phone number.
    5. Enter the verification code in the Code field, and then click Verify. BitLocker recovery keys that are associated with your account are displayed.
    6. Right-click and copy, or make a note of the recovery key applicable to your device, and click ENTER KEY.
    7. Right-click and paste, or enter the recovery key in the Enter BitLocker recovery key field, and then click UNLOCK.

    Your computer is unlocked.

  2. Select Back Up Files and click Next.
  3. Click START BACKUP.
    The files and folders on your computer are analyzed and the file count and the file size of the default Windows libraries are displayed.
    NOTE:The file count and file size that are displayed may be greater than that of your user account. This is because the Windows libraries contain files of all the user accounts on your computer.
  4. Perform one of the following:
    • Select the folders that you want to back up, and then click NEXT.
    • To include or exclude specific files and folders for backup, click the Advanced Settings link. The Advanced Settings page is displayed.
      1. To include files or folders for the backup, select the check box beside those files or folders. To exclude files or folders for the backup, clear the check box beside those files or folders.
      2. Click NEXT.
    The free space that is required to back up the selected files is displayed. You are prompted to connect or insert a storage device to your computer.
  5. Connect an external storage device such as an SD card, USB drive, or USB hard drive.
    The free space available on the storage device and the space that is required to back up the selected files are displayed.
    NOTE:If the free space available on the storage device is less than the required free space, an error message is displayed. Connect a storage device with more storage space.
    NOTE:If you connect a storage device that is read-only, an error message is displayed. Connect a storage device with read/write access.
  6. Click NEXT.
    If you connect multiple storage devices, select the device where you want to back up the files, and then click NEXT.

Results

The backup process begins and may take several minutes to complete. When the backup process is complete, a message is displayed along with the list of files that were backed up. In the external storage device, a SupportAssist_Backups folder is created. Within this folder, there is another folder that has the backup date and time in the folder name, for example, Year-Month-Day_Hour.Minute.Second. This folder contains all your backup files.

After you back up your files, you can reset the operating system on your computer. For steps to reset your computer, see Reset your computer.

For steps to restore your data after resetting your computer, see the readme.html file that is available in the SupportAssist_Backups folder or see Restore data after resetting your computer to factory state.
NOTE:If certain files could not be copied during the backup process, an error message is displayed with the list of files that were not copied.

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