Thank you I really appreciate your clear video explanation. I have always used Windows System Images as my weekly backup system. I actually have the external drive a clock timer that turns on at a specific (undetermined time), when task scheduler makes the backup, then a bat file runs and renames the file appending the current date on the end so it won't accidentally be overwritten and then the clock turns off external drive so that it is OFFLINE except for the few minutes it makes the backup. This process hardens our backup system making it impenetrable to ransomware and other types of attacks. Finally, I also use a 3 drive manual weekly rotation for redundancy.
This is VERY useful! I am upgrading my sisters 1 Tb Mechanical SEAGATE (vomit) hard drive and a 480gb ssd. I WAS using Apricorn and their SSD to USB connector with EZ Gig to transfer. I have spent 2 nights trying my hardest to get it working. Didn't get far. But using the system image backup and restore WITHIN Windows helps a LOT! I had almost forgotten about doing this. Thank you!
In my opinion, it is a good idea to keep all your personal and other important files on a physical SSD drive separate to the C: drive, internal or external. ... But, if you for any reason have to keep some folders on the C: drive, then be sure to make a copy of them on the other drive right before restoring. Then, you can copy them back onto the C: drive after restoring the system image. I am keeping my Documents and Outlook folders, for example, on the C: drive, as normally, and copying them onto the other drive every now and then, when there have been some important file changes. This way you are having two copies of your important folders, while the system image is your backup for the whole C: drive, which you'll need when something goes totally wrong. If for example your D: drive is as fast as C:, then it is also a good idea to have the software files on C: and your other files on D:, because that way software and data can be accessed most efficiently. In addition, by reducing the usage of the C: drive , you'll increase its lifetime.
My issue is many programs I have need to be installed on my C: drive. When I reset, I have to reinstall all of these programs. It’s a massive hassle. I want to be able to restore my windows and have the programs already installed.
@@Patronesofly The system image backs up EVERYTHING into a vsd win7 or vsdx win10. You can then Attach the drive for viewing to copy files if needed using Computer Management.
This does not make sense to me. The system image has all of the files on the c: drive. It seems easiest to keep your files also on the c: drive all in one folder called my documents with many sub folders. Then copy the c:/my documents folder to another drive. Windows has a second my history way of saving files that does not seem to work well. Instead of copying the files it renames files when it copies them and it has very limited restore options. It also does not save all of the files.
Thanks for the video , my computer won’t start, but I made a image a week earlier, and after watching your video, I was able to retrieve it from my spare drive. Thanks.
On thing people need to know is that sometimes Windows will not recognize the External drive, if that happens install the drive internally just for the restore and re-run the restore process.
My grandparents are getting a new computer - if I do the back-up on the current computer, and restore it as shown in the video on the new computer, will all programs, documents, etc. be completely restored? And can I use a W10 backup image to restore into Windows 11? Thanks in advance! :)
If I understand your question correctly, you want to system restore a windows system 10 image onto a different (newer) window system 11 computer. The answer is no. It's not that it has windows 11 on it, it's that the drivers that operate the basic functions of the new computer will not be in the old computer's image. But there is a way to to this using one of the third party programs. I did it using a product named PCMover, you'll have to pay for it though, cost $25 to $50 depending on how many uses etc. you need. You can do it either wifi or laplink, laplink is the fastest and most reliable but be sure to get a cable before you begin the process. I did it by wifi once and it took a full 24 hours, laplink will get it done in an hour or two depending on the size of the drive.
i got a question... if one ever should restore his system infested by virus... plugging in an external drive containing a sys image wouldn't contaminate that drive also ?
Thanks for the video! Here's the issue I am having. I have a valid image file saved to an external hard drive (E:). When I go through the steps, all is fine except E: does not appear (as shown in your video...4:35). Instead, a very old image file appears and I can't figure out how to path-out to the external drive. Suggestions? Thanks!
@Tech Bern how much storage on a flash drive is best to create this? including the repair just which I believe you skipped business video. Will a 120 gig flash drive be sufficient or perhaps a 256 gig flash drive? I have Windows 10 I traded them to gig flash drive but I had trouble using some of the features in the restore Drive menu so that's why I thought other larger capacity drives such as 256gb. This is kind of new to me. I would like to create both parts of this.
Hello TechBern, I had Windows Image Backup on drive D: Can I format drive C: complely, then install the image from drive D: ? If so, first do I have to reboot the computer and use System Repair Disc for format drive C: ? Thank you
I get to the part were I select System image recovery and the screen changes to where I would select Laptop ("but because my laptop screen is broken I have to use tv as my monitor through a cable") so I end up just seeing a blank screen on the TV monitor while my broke pc screen is bright in the background.
My laptop got SMART disk error I had made system recovery in flash drive and system image recovery for windows 10 os Will my hard disk work when I format it and load original OS will it ask key again? With a new hard disk can I load older original OS windows 10 ?
At 4:52 when I'm at that step it show the same choose additional restore point but it show create something and I can't click next. the next button is all gray out. also in the video I can see install drivers button and advanced... button. But for me in my case I see nothing of sort except create something that require dvd reader or something. what should I do?
I don't understand I did exactly as you show my disc C is 250GB and has only windows on it - 50GB used 200 free and I have 1TB disc D with 600GB free space and I wanted to do image on that disc and I have error msg saying there is not enough space to do image? how come? there was info earlier that this backup won't take more than 52GB and I gave him 600GB free space on disc D and he's saying its not enough................ for a 52GB backup.. wtf
Question: if after I made a system image, I changed my laptop password, when I restore from the system image and if asks for the password, Do I have to put the old password or the new one?
Great video. Question, I have an external drive and I have two PC's, one with Windows 11 and the other one with Windows 10, can I save the images on the same SSD external drive? So if I ever need to do an image restore, the PC can select which one wil work? Or does each image drive have to be saved on two different external drives?
Hello. Could you please tell me where the setup information file is located? I want to install drivers because i had a power outage during a system restore. So I'll be clicking on install drivers instead of next towards the end of the video but I have no clue where the "setup information" file is located. Thank you.
I have a system image on an external hard drive but my internal hard drive has failed and must be replaced. I also have a repair disk on CD and a recovery drive on a flash drive. I made those when I first bought the computer. So how do I get started restoring the image when I don't have an operating system? Thanks for any and all help.
Hi is the bootable system repair disc or drive will be compatible both with win11 & win10? Incase I will bootup the windows repair? i would only need one bootable USB?
question when i click on make image id does not showing me the drive where OS is located just the others that i have ? Drive name is LOCAL DRIVE C ssd, i see all the others includind ssd and usb one
Did you find solution i tried to install windows first on the ssd but it didn't restore and then i try to do the same from windows installation and it worked
What if your drive crashed with Windows 10 on it? Can I install a different drive and install the backup image on that as long as it's on the same computer?
The only way it will work is if you get a clean install of windows and then run the image.. Provide the machine sees the external hard drive to run the image file
@@GENNARK ok so this suggests that this "image" is clearly not a disk image but only a "system" image ...how do you create a **disk** image of a Windows 10 disk?
If i want to create backup on the drive, that already contains some data, won't my data get wiped? I mean... I don't have any empty drive, I need a backup, but i don't want to lose my data from target drive...
@@AbeerMalik I don't understand my disc C is 250GB and has only windows on it - 50GB used 200 free and I have 1TB disc D with 600GB free space and I wanted to do image on that disc and I have error msg saying there is not enough space to do image? how come? there was info earlier that this backup won't take more than 52GB and I gave him 600GB free space on disc D and he's saying its not enough................ for a 52GB backup.. wtf
I have 2 hdd But I want to restore second drive backup image contains c and d drive and efi portion I do not mess with first hdd and boot partition of first it contains Linux If It is possible to restore windows backup up to second hdd only . Or doing restoring backup I need to remove first hdd.?
Is a system image the same as a system save point, been advised to download software when i setup my laptop and not connect to the internet for any other reason but to download Macrium Reflect, but i’ve always just made restore points manually every few months and reverted back to them if ive had trouble or the computer plays up, they said to not connect to the internet on the initial start up and bypass all the network stuff so you dont have to install all the available updates that could create issues, is it the all same thing, should i back it all up to a drive cus in struggling eith understanding that side of it, and really dont get partitions
so if i were to completely destroy all my files and ruin my initere pc(software wise) i could just recover a system image that i took before i ruined everything. i am also going to refund my laptop because the fan is broken so my question is can i make a system image of my laptop right now and with the new laptop, wich will be fully wiped clean, i could just recover my system image that i have on a external drive?
@@LandersWorkshop Yeah. It sucks. But my computer is thankfully up and running again now - just without my games save files. I decided to upgrade my HDD to an SSD now that I had to freshly install Windows anyways haha.
I reach the point where it asks me to put my password and even though I put the correct password it's telling me that my password is incorrect. Anyone any clue what's happening?
EDIT: Ignore the old post below but not gonna stop you if you decide to read it. Now that I'm on Windows 11 finally, I realized the real mistake I made when creating System Images with Windows 10. When I created my first System Image with Windows 11, I was about to setup Windows Backup and I said to myself, "Hell NO!" Feeling nervous and uneasy, I decided to just click on "Create a System Image" in the left panel. And guess what? It only takes on average 10 - 20 minutes to create a System image instead of 12 or sometimes 16 hours or longer! 😀👍 I am never setting up Windows Backup ever again! EVER! 🤨👎 _____________________________________________________________________________________ Don't know if any have had this issue when creating a Windows 10 System Image but I tried to successfully create a system image 5 times and each time the status would reach 97% then stall and never fully complete. Then a thought dawned on me and that was to NOT hide my desktop icons and make sure the "Show desktop icons" was selected from the right mouse click desktop context menu. I was finally able to create a Windows 10 System Image after much frustration! 😃👍
be proactive and create a system image (and startup disk) *before* you have problems..9 out of 10 it's quicker to just format and restore a clean image. saves a lot of time..."but there's info on that hard drive I need !!!" you also prolly shouldn't store the OS ont he same disk as your media/files.....ounce of prevention....
be proactive and create a system image (and startup disk) **before** you have problems..9 out of 10 it's quicker to just format and restore a clean image. saves a lot of time
I have this stored on a partition of my HD, but I was not allowed to select that drive, it was greyed out, and the system image was not detected. Had to do a total reset.
