Following on from my blog about Windows Backup, here is a little known additional feature of Windows Backup. 
Despite what Steve Jobs and most Apple fans would have you believe, the ability to restore a file to a previous state was not invented by Apple. (The same goes for instant searches for things on your computer or network aka. Spotlight/Windows Desktop search…this was originally seen in early Alphas of Vista/Longhorn, months before apple included it in OSX)
Anyway, this feature was originally available in Windows Server 2008 and subsequently in 2008 R2 and Windows 7. If you have a backup routine (in the case of a Domain, to multiple HDD’s and Tape) with Windows Backup, you also get the option to restore a specific file or folder to a previous version.
Say for example you accidently deleted everything in your Documents folder. This is a common occurrence in my job, but it is a simple process for both Servers and your home PC.
Right click on the folder and go to the ‘Previous Versions’ tab. You will then see a list of every modification made to that folder, based on your backup and system restore points.
Its then a simple case of going to date when you know everything was there and restoring it back.
The same applies if you made a wrong addition or subtraction in a document. Find the right previous version and restore it to how it was.
Simple!
