Vista Previous Versions (Shadow Copy) vs Recycle Bin

If you own Windows Vista Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate edition, you may notice there is a Previous Versions tab for each files and folders. Previous Versions is a new system protection feature added to Windows Vista operating system. Previous Versions is based on Volume Shadow Copy service (also known as Volume Snapshot Service or VSS) which allows Windows to take manual or automatic backup copies or snapshots of files and folders on a specific volumes or drivers at any point of time.

Previously, Previous Versions was included in Windows 2003 as Shadow Copies for Shared Folders which can be utilized by Windows XP by installing a client software. Both functions automatically created incremental periodic snapshots or Deltas (differences) of changed files over time, allowing users to access, retrieve and restore the files as they existed at the point of time where the snapshot is taken. In other words, Previous Versions is a perfect feature to recover and get back any documents that you accidentally delete, or mistakenly modify or alter wrongly.

Recycle Bin on the other hand does not give users such as flexibility and functionality. Recycle Bin only temporarily hold deleted files, where once you empty the Recycle Bin, all erased files are gone forever. With Previous Version, you can still recover these deleted files as long as your snapshots available is old enough so that the a backup existed for the state before you removed the files.

Beside, Recycle Bin also does not provide any leverage against accidental modification of documents, spreadsheets, images and other files. Let’s imagine you make some changes to a document, and it’s a major changes, but only after finished the modification and saved then you notice that you either modify the wrong file, or suddenly been informed that no longer need to be modified, you’ll be totally stuck with just Recycle Bin without backup. There is no way for you to revert the changes, unless you’re using Previous Versions.

With Previous Versions, users will get to see multiple versions of a file for a limited history (bounded by disk allocation size), and then able to restore, delete, or copy those versions. It will definitely save you a lot of time, especially when you belongs to someone who always in this kind of awkward situation.

Related Articles

• Recover Files with Previous Versions (Volume Shadow Copy) in Vista Home Basic and Premium with ShadowExplorer
• Shadow Copy and Salvage Previous Versions of Files in Windows 2000/XP/Vista with FileHamster
• Exclude Files from Shadow Copies (Previous Versions and System Restore)
• Disable and Turn Off System Restore (Shadow Copy) in Windows Vista
• Change and Set Vista Shadow Copy or System Restore Disk Space Limit in Explorer GUI
• Vista: Reclaim and Release Disk Space from System Restore and Shadow Copies
• Rename Recycle Bin or Change Recycle Bin Name
• Hide and Remove Vista Recycle Bin Text Wording on Desktop
• Move Vista Desktop Recycle Bin to Sidebar with RecycleBin Gadget
• Restore, Recover and Show Recycle Bin Icon on Desktop in Vista

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 30th, 2007 at 12:50 am and is filed under Windows Vista. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.