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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)

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a gazillion of decent backup programs - supported by any flavor of windows 7 - will do that, thus the answer is yes. however, if you're asking whether Windows 7 Home Premium natively features backup to network shares, you should rephrase your question. :) – Molly7244 Oct 24 '09 at 16:03
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4 Answers

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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.

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If you look at this page you'll notice on the right side of the screen that it says:

Applies to all editions of Windows 7.

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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.

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I linked to that page in my question. If you look at the link in Alex's answer, it implies the opposite. I have done research into this, I simply want someone with HP installed to confirm. – Richard Szalay Oct 24 '09 at 15:55
sorry about that, missed the link in your post. – Pär Björklund Oct 24 '09 at 18:20
No worries. I'd say you're probably right regarding Windows Home Server. Anyway, I'm installing HP (legit) onto VPC now so I'll see if it works. – Richard Szalay Oct 24 '09 at 20:56
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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....

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This is not the same as its built-in backup. The built in backup tool can do full image backups; sync toy cannot. – nhinkle♦ May 10 '11 at 3:27
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protected by studiohack♦ May 10 '11 at 2:41

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