Backing up an iPhone back-up to an external hardrive

[griffmeister]

Hello all,

I have backed up the actual iPhone backup file on my Windows, to an external hardrive.

Question is this - I am going to wipe my computer and reinstall everything. Computer is playing up so want to clear any potential virus' etc. So once I reinstall iTunes and plug in a new iPhone - can I restore from back-up, the very copy I backed up to the hardrive? Which I would of course paste back in to the relevant file directory on my Windows computer. Will it contain all the data I had previously synced from my iphone to itunes? SMS'/Apps/Photos etc?

I am aware of iCloud, but I just wanted to know if the above method would work. If I didn't back-up the backup file externally, and wiped my computer, I assumed I'd lose the iTunes back-up completely. This is all with the instance of having a blank iPhone btw.

The file directory on Windows is:

AppData > Roaming > Apple Computer > MobileSync > Backup

 

[Shirasaki]

Well, I use tricks in here over Mac OS X
http://osxdaily.com/2016/03/04/backup-iphone-to-external-hard-drive-mac/

Similar concept in windows. But you may need to use "mklink" or other similar function utility to create a symbolic link on windows. Here is a link which could help you in this case: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

My idea: let iTunes do their job is better than just moving a folder around.

 

[griffmeister]

Well, I use tricks in here over Mac OS X
http://osxdaily.com/2016/03/04/backup-iphone-to-external-hard-drive-mac/

Similar concept in windows. But you may need to use "mklink" or other similar function utility to create a symbolic link on windows. Here is a link which could help you in this case: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/16226/complete-guide-to-symbolic-links-symlinks-on-windows-or-linux/

My idea: let iTunes do their job is better than just moving a folder around.

But that's the thing. ITunes cannot do a job if and when I wipe my hardrive.

 

[Shirasaki]

But that's the thing. ITunes cannot do a job if and when I wipe my hardrive.

However BEFORE you wipe your hard drive iTunes can do their jobs nicely. Copy paste is risky because you have no idea which file is missing or corrupted during the process, let alone having the risk of losing your data. There are so many cases which backing up data generated by an application by copy paste related folder does not Actually help.