How To Use Windows 10’s System Image Backup
Windows 10’s System Image Backup is an intuitive and versatile tool for creating a Windows 10 backup and is ready to use right away if you’re running Windows 10. It’s somewhat of a legacy feature and is no longer maintained by Microsoft, but it still functions as it ever did and for now at least, remains one of the best ways to create a Windows 10 image backup.
If you want to save your backup to an external drive, make sure it is connected before beginning this process.
Press the Windows Key+I to open the Settings menu.
If it doesn’t work, take a look at this guide to fix it.
Select Update and Security.
In the resulting Settings window, select Backup from the left-hand menu.
Under the heading Looking for an older backup? Select Go to Backup and Restore .
This is an original Windows 7 feature, it is not something that you can only use if running Windows 7.
A new Control Panel window will appear. On the left-hand side, select Create a system image.
In the new window, under Where do you want to save the backup, use the various toggles and drop-down menus to select whether you want to store your image on a hard drive , a series of DVDs, or on a network connected drive somewhere on your LAN. Then select Next.
Select which drives you want to include with the backup using their relevant check boxes. Then select Next.
Look over your selections, then when you’re happy and ready, select Start backup to begin the process.
How Do I Perform A Back
There are lots of different ways to perform a backup of your computer. You can use a cloud system, an external drive, or a clone backup.
Each will offer you a way to recover your data in case your computer gets lost, stolen, or damaged. You may want to test a few different methods to see which one you prefer or you can use various methods at the same time.
How you do it is up to you its important that you do it and keep up with it on a regular basis.
Choose Where To Save The System Image And What To Back Up
With the system image backup, you can either choose a drive location, save it to a network share or folder.
Next, you will need to decide if you want the recommended default settings or itemize what you would like to back up by drives and user data.
The final step in configuring your Windows image backup is to verify your settings and adjust the schedule as needed.
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Create An Exact Copy Of Your Windows Pc
The other option you have when it comes to backing up your PC is to create what’s called a system image of your computer as it is right now. The image will include every app, setting, file or folder all of it.
The benefit of using this method is that if your PC crashes and you have to set it all up again, you only need to restore the system image and you’re back in action. The downside is that the image you create is from that specific moment in time, so if it’s been awhile since you last created an image, you’ll lose any changed settings, newly installed apps and files you aren’t storing in a cloud service or backing up to a different external drive.
You could create a system image once a month, or every few months on the same drive you’re backing up files to, as long as it has enough space.
A system image reflects a specific moment in time for your PC.
Plug in your external drive before creating the backup image. Then open the Control Panel by clicking on the start button then typing control panel. With the Control Panel opened, go to System and Security> Backup and Restore )> Create a system image on the left side of the window.
You’re then asked where you want to save the backup image select your external drive from the On a hard disk dropdown. If your PC has a DVD-RW drive, you can use that along with blank DVDs to store the system image if you’d prefer. Click Next after selecting the backup location, followed by Start backup.
Backup Laptop Files With File History In Windows
File History is a new backup tool in Windows, first introduced in Windows 8. You can use it to restore the historical version of files, as well as creating a backup of laptop files to the external hard drive. Below we will show you how to backup laptop files to external hard drive using File History on Windows 10.
Step 1. Access File History
First, connect an external hard drive to your laptop and go to the Start Menu > Settings app. In the Settings app, go to Update & Security and then click on “Backup” to access the File History tool.Note: In Windows 8, you can access the File history tool from Control Panel > System and Security > File History.
Step 2. Select a specific drive
Now, click “Add a drive” and select the external hard drive which File History will use for backup.
Step 3. Make automatic backup
Turn on the “Automatically backup file my files” toggle to automatically backup laptop files when you connect the external drive to the computer.
Step 4. Set up backup
Step 5. Select files to backup
Now, click the “Add a folder” button under “Back up these folders” to specify other folders that will be backed up beside user libraries, desktop, and downloads folder.
Step 6. Exclude folders
To exclude some folders from backing up, add them under “Exclude these folders” section.
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Manually Back Up Your Files And Settings To Removable Media Or To A Network Location
The simplest method is to manually back up your files and settings to removable media or a network location. You can specify the files and settings that you want to back up and how often you want to perform a backup.Note Examples of removable media include external hard disks, DVDs, CDs, and USB memory cards. You can back up files to a different computer or a network device if your computer is connected to a network such as a wireless network.To manually copy your files to a network location or to removable media on a computer that is running Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003, follow these steps:
Click Start , click Computer and then double-click the drive where you currently have Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, or Windows Server 2003 installed.
Open the Users folder, and then open the user folder that contains the files that you want to back up.
Copy the necessary folders from the user folder to a network location or to removable media.
Notes
Functions Of Usb Flash Drive
- Store data: Most people use USB Flash drive to store data such as a document, photos, videos, audio, games, executable file, and many more.
- Transfer: The major function of the USB flash drive is to transfer any type of stored data from one device to another by plugging it into the computer.
- Backup data: You can also use the USB flash drive as a backup storage device. As we said earlier, data loss can happen at any time. You can make a backup of important files on the USB flash drive using the USB backup tool to protect it from the uncertain situation.
Further Read:
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How To Back Up To Local Usb Storage
Simply plug in a USB drive and use File Explorer to copy files from your computer to the removable drive.
This method is completely manual, but if you set a reminder to do it once per month and leave it copying while you’re off doing other things, it really doesn’t take much effort. Plus, once the backup is done and the drive is disconnected, it’s offline and safe from ransomware attacks.
For a more automatic option, try using the built-in File History feature in Windows 10. Alternatively, install some dedicated backup software which will automate the process .
To avoid having to plug in a USB drive each time, you could buy a NAS drive. This is almost the same as a USB drive, but it attaches to your router instead of via USB. This is better because it is accessible to all computers in your home so you can set all of them to back up to the NAS automatically. Far from being just a storage device, they’re like mini computers, and have a basic operating system with – among other things – backup tools.
Keeping Different Versions Of System Images
You can keep several versions of system images. On internal and external hard drives, older system images will be deleted when the drive runs out of space. To help conserve disk space, delete older system images.
If you’re saving your system images in a network location, you can only keep the most current system image for each computer. System images are saved in the format of drive\WindowsImageBackup\computer name\. If you already have a system image for a computer and are creating a new one for the same computer, the new system image will overwrite the old one.If you want to keep the old system image, you can copy it to a different location before creating the new system image by following these steps.
Navigate to the location of the system image.
Copy the WindowsImageBackup folder to a new location.
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Backups Needn’t Be A Chore: Here’s The Easy Way To Make Copies Of Your Files
By, Contributor| 31 Mar 2022
Every 31 March is World Backup Day. It’s another one of those manufactured days that’s ever-so-slightly irritating, but it does serve as a reminder to back up our files.
Cloud storage has made this a lot easier: files, photos and other documents sync automatically to Google Drive , Microsoft OneDrive, Dropbox and other services, but you still need to set that up in the first place.
It’s surprising how many people still haven’t taken that step, perhaps assuming that their phone and laptop will never break, get lost or stolen, or even that backups are somehow happening – magically – and they don’t need to do anything.
But you could be just one hard drive failure away from losing photos, videos, documents, or other important files that can never be replaced.
Then also the threat of ransomware, which encrypts your files and literally holds it to ransom until you pay up .
All of these stomach-turning scenarios are avoidable though, if you take a bit of time to choose a backup method, and set it up.
To help you, we’ve put together this guide to demonstrate that it’s easier than you might think, and doesn’t have to cost any money. .
We’ll also explain how it’s possible to backup your entire PC or laptop, so that if disaster befalls you, there’s still a way to restore things just the way they were.
How To Back Up An Entire Pc Or Laptop
The first two methods we’ve outlined will back up certain files, but they’re not sufficient to get your PC or laptop up and running after a hard drive fails, or if Windows completely stops working .
Making a backup of all the files on your hard drive is also known as a ‘disk image’ and you’ll need specialist software to do this. This needn’t be expensive though, as there are free and paid versions available.
Again, you’ll find options in our separate roundup of the best backup software, because most of these apps offer both file / folder and full PC backup options.
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Backing Up Your Iphone
iCloud backup is usually the main method for backing up an iPhone, as it directly integrates with iOS, but you keep your data in Google Drive if you want.
To back up iPhone data with Google Drive, youll need to use several different apps. You can back up photos by downloading the Google Photos app from the App Store. When you sign in to your Google account, photos will back up to the service. They will then be available on other devices with the Google Photos mobile app or the web app on desktop.
There is no dedicated Google Contacts app for iOS that will allow you to back up your contacts. However, you can sync contacts through the iPhone settings app. Tap Accounts & Passwords> Add Account> Google, enter your login credentials, and open your Contacts app to start syncing. Find detailed instructions and troubleshooting on the Contacts Help page.
Schedule Regular Backups Of Your Most Important Files
Backing up your PC is a very important task, but one thats very easy to put off. It would only take one hardware failure, theft, accident or ransomware attack for you to lose access to all the important files on your PC.
Thankfully, creating a backup doesnt have to be difficult or time-consuming, and if you set aside a little time for it now, you can automate the process so you never have to worry about it again. Then, if disaster strikes, everything will be right there waiting to be restored.
Our preferred software for the task is Easeus Todo Backup. There are free and premium versions of the software available, but the free one will be enough for most standard home users.
The premium version includes a disk cloning tool, the ability to transfer your system to a different PC, Outlook mail backup and recovery, and event-based scheduled backups , but you can still schedule backups by time using the free software, and restore then when necessary.
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Back Up With Windows Backup And Restore
Windows 10 users can use the existing Backup and Restore tool to backup data and user profiles. You can take back up to the network drive, external hard drive, or any other offsite location. With this method, the user can create a system backup image.
Here are the required steps to create a backup with Windows Backup and Restore .
Step 1: Open Windows Settings from the Start Menu, and then go to Update & Security. Now, you will see several options like Windows Update, Windows Security, Troubleshoot, and many more on the left side of the new screen, but you have to select the backup section. Now under the Looking for an Older backup? Section, click on the Go to Backup and Restore option.
Step 2: Click on the Create a system image option from the left panel. Select the On a hard disk option. Use the hard disk drop-down menu and select the required location to export the Windows 10 full backup. Click on the Next button, and select any hard drive to take backup files .
Step 3: In this section, you need to select the folder and drive you want to backup. You can select individual folders and connected drives.
Step 4:Click on the Next button, review the backup settings and choose how often you want to backup. This must be based on your work.
Step 5: Once done, click on the Start Backup button. After the complete process of backup, click the Close button.
How To Take A System Backup Of Your Computer
If you want to take a complete backup of your entire Windows 10 system, this is called a “system image.” You can save this system image to an external hard drive for safekeeping off of your computer’s internal drive. Should you ever need to recover your computer, you can use this system image to recover your operating system and all settings.
Taking a full system backup requires much more space than a partial backup which only includes files and folders. The size requirement depends on your system files, so make sure to clear out the cache and log files to reduce this space requirement. Expect to use over 200 GB for this backup, so you’ll need an external hard drive with free space of 250 GB or more.
Type “control panel” and select the Control Panel app.
In the Control Panel, select Backup and Restore .
Select Create a system image from the left navigation menu.
In the Create a system image popup window, select your attached external hard drive in the On a hard disk dropdown.
In the next window, you’ll see a list of system partitions that will be backed up as part of the system backup on the external hard drive. Select Start backup to begin the backup process.
Depending on the size of your system, the entire backup process may take a while. Give it time and check back later. Once the backup is complete, you can disconnect the external drive and store it in a safe location.
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Trust And Reliable Backup Software Is Indispensable
To backup laptop files in Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP or Vista, you can use the built-in tool, such as, Backup and Restore, File History. But if you want to backup hard drive for laptop, you need to ask help for third-party backup software. Because there is no built-in tool that can backup entire disk containing system reserved partition, hidden partition and recovery partition in a laptop.
For backup software, you can use AOMEI Backupper Professional. Itâs popular used by many users in the worldwide, so you donât need to worry about anything. With it, you can backup laptop to external hard drive, portable HDD, USB flash drive, cloud drive, NAS or network share, as long as the device can be detected by Windows.
Next, Iâll introduce you some useful features you may need:
For advanced users, AOMEI Backupper offers command line backup and restore. Download the free trial and have a try.