How to Create a System Image Backup in Windows 10 

A system image is saving your computer the exact way it is at that moment, to an external hard drive. It saves your programs and registry and everything from that moment. I tell family members to get their computers the EXACT perfect way they like to run it with all the programs installed. Then perform a system image backup. If there is a virus or malware or even a computer held for ransom. Just restore back from this image and you will be exactly where you were before the trouble. Sometimes you need a rescue disk to access the image file for recovery. It saves hours of time reloading and configuring Windows and all your programs. Only issue is that you are logged out of everything so you will have to log in to get access to your Facebook or Amazon or whatever.

Really thank you so much for taking the time and the trouble of explaining this, you have done a great job as everything was step by step and so clear. CHEERS

I am on board with your great videos! My learning curve has gone up Thant's to you! Stay well!!!

This helped quit a bit. I had to put a new hard drive in my laptop and I created an install drive for windows 10 and just installed it and tried to recover the image from the settings menu. It was giving me a time lol. I went back and redid it picking the repair computer option and it let me use the backup image to install it. Thanks! Saved me some hassle of installing everything again.

My method has been to clone the HDD to another (using Acronis' disc utility). I once tried completing the backup strategy by plugging in the clone, and with some unanticipated reactions, it worked well. I clone it occasionally, and feel I can recover from a HDD failure within minutes (knowing some data had not been backed up).

Dude, your worth a million bucks. T/You for all your video's

Brilliant video, Brian. It's easy when you know how!! This helped me out a lot.

Thank you. This will be very useful and it's something I have to do with the free version of Windows 10 Pro I got after using the testing versions of Windows 10.

Aomei can even create boot disk and it helped a lot last time when my system crashed

Awesome video! I'm getting my Windows 10 computer in a few days. This will be the first thing I do. Thanks for the video!

Presented very good. Good video and audio quality. Thanks.

Hi Brian, Excellent video. If I have any problem with my pc , I always look up your answer. Thanks.

If I create the image backup on a CD when I get to "Automatic Repair" "Your PC did not start correctly" page in the advanced options remind me at, 5:58 can I have it open the disk drive to insert the disk or should I get a flash drive. I want to save it on an external source and not the machine itself preferably.

I benefitted from this tutorial! Saved me self $30 of technician service

Aomei is really useful in doing these stuff.

Thank you this is a very clear tutorial and I backup with aomei nicely.

I returned my PC with aomei backupper, not bad actually.

It worked for me without the need to burn the rescue media to a CD. Alternatively, use a win-10 system on usb as a boot disk, instead of "install", select "repair my computer" to restore the backup image to your pc. Superb video, Thanks always.

Another excellent video, Brian. Where did your Windows background screen that is above come from?

Hi Britec... I just want to say i have watched a lot of your videos, and i appreciate all your knowledge you share with everyone. I know myself you have helped me figure out many things to solve some of my computer problems. Was just wondering what you use to record your videos and how you were able to even record the part when you were in the Bios and Windows Installation portion?

I did backup C and D drive If my drive broken I can restore my data back to C and D exactly like before?

Just wanted to say thanks. Microsoft did a really great job of hiding this feature (tiny label in the bottom left hand corner several screens deep)... wow. I read a few technotes but I couldn't find it (Searching File History doesn't work in the later updates) but thanks to your screens I was able to find it.

Great Video content on Windows 10 Backup and Recovery...Thanks for sharing your expertise...

Thanks so much, very helpful!

Hello great video, I have a question. I want to image or clone my windows 10 OS to a ssd which has 24 gb leaving the data in my hdd, and my OS and overall settings in my ssd. How can I do that with macrium reflect??

Superb! I'm just upgrading to Windows 10, is this an actual proper backup of the whole hard drive like Acronis does it? I presume when you recover an image it also recovers the whole hard drive image? If so, is it actually worth using Acronis? Very informative video!👏

Thank you, very useful video and well explained.

This video is still useful in 2022.

Thanks man! It helped me a lot! Earned a sub and a like :D

Excellent. Thank you. May I ask you where did you get the gadgets on left screen window?

What are the widgets tht are u using on your desktop? plz reply

Hi, thanks, but can we update that system image recovery?(because of new updates for win10)

Great easy to follow video! I love the upper right of your desktop! How did you do that?

Please where can i download the gadgets and the wallpaper ??

will this work on a new motherboard? say the same type of chipset but bigger

I love the pause when he noticed the Windows 7 Backup and Restore lol

Thanks for the video, Brian! I thought that the image backup feature was only on 7.

I have question. So, those back up files we can put to recovery partition and run recovery Windows on our PC or it is different, has to be done something else?

hi how to add these stuff on the desktop like you the net tester and others

Thanks for your valuable information video

Hi my friend keep up the good work you doing great i lean a lot from you now i fix my own pc I don’t have to pay any more to get it fixed and now i also fixed many family computers for free to get more experience,i do thank you you are the best have a nice day

I have never done a system recovery before. But curious to know if the external hard drive with the system image should be connected to the system while you boot from the repair disc? or will there be a prompt? Din't notice anything like that from the video.

so i have one ssd and hdd i want to format the ssd with windows on it and some programs so i will make a partition on the hdd about 200gb and then make the image backup on it and in the option when i chose to format all disk can i only chose ssd and the restore from partision on hdd so the windows and programs will get installed on ssd again or it doesnt work like that

Fantastic video. I've searched many videos on youtube but no one mentioned whether this ''file history backup'' keeps the SETTINGS of softwares, apps, games... or not? for example let's say I have google chrome and I installed some add-ons extensions to it and I adjusted the SETTINGS of each extension to certain preferences, will that ''file history backup'' keep that SETTINGS exactly as it is the moment it captures it when I restore it in the future??

So say for instance I have items on my desktop and a wallpaper, will it save all of that information so if i were to plug it in to a fresh computer it would put all of that stuff in the right place . I just need to know how precise it is

Hello Britec09, thank you for the video. I have a question regarding my own system setup in terms of available backup drives, i have on SSD (OS System), a NVME SSD and an HDD. Now, when i access the file history screen the only drive that shows up as available to receive the system image/backup is the NVME SSD, the HDD is not available. But it shows up on the Explorer window normally. How can i make it show there so i can backup the system on my HDD? Many thanks for your support.

Thanks for another great video!! Keep up the good work!!

thank you very much

careful when selecting the option to format and repartition disks... I selected that option and it formatted all the partitions on that disk.. so If you have more than one partition DO NOT select that option.

so can I use this system to transfer my system image to a new windows 10 pc. also does the external drive have to be blank or can I put it on a drive that already has some files on it

Hi thanks for the video. I got question. How did you video capture when you're in the bios & dos screen? Which video capture software did you use? Mind to tell? Thanks.

tnks fo video fella how did you get that weather app and that other stuff on ya desk top m8

is there anyway to compress the image? mine says its over 500 gigs to make the backup on my hard drive!

Thank you for the tutorial! Small question. Do we save Windows 10 and all the files, apps, drivers in this way? Or just the version of Windows OS itself as it is at the first installation?

Microsoft has included the old Backup and Restore feature from Windows 7. This was deprecated in Windows 8 and removed in Windows 8.1, but it’s back. It’s also known as “Windows Backup". This tool will allow you to restore any old Windows 7 backups on your Windows 10 computer. But you can also use it to back up your Windows 10 PC in the exact same way you’d back up a Windows 7 PC. Unlike Microsoft’s new File History backup solution, you can use Windows Backup to more easily create a backup of practically everything on your hard drive. You’ll find this tool in the Control Panel - just search for “backup” to locate it.

also when i do this how again do i make sure im restoring just the one drive if i have like 2 other drives on my pc?

Great Video, helped me out a lot, what widgets are you using?

What widgets do you have on your desktop?

Sir, Whenever i want to select the Drive, The system by it self Selects C:drive and D:drive both, how to Un check the D:drive ? the Tick mark is highlight and i am not able to un check it ???

i'm really confused, what's the difference between system image and restore point? aren't they all restoring the system to a certain point?

Hi Brian, what is that weather widget and other info that is displayed on the right hand side of the screen there? how do I get it?

when you say create repair disc with your widows dvd does that mean the one that already has windows 10 on it ?

would i need to clean the usb drive for the image to store in the drive? or i can store other files in that same usb drive?

Will this work if I want to restore my image on a different hardrive. I am looking into changing my hard disk to ssd.

Can I share an external hard drive between my Mac Pro for time machine and my windows 10 laptop for this?

Good Video! Tnx! Two questions thou: 1) So You can't put image to extra partition on the same drive cause it will be overformated and ended up in raw partition? 2) If You create image to network location, You cant restore from network when You boot from cd, so You would have to move it from network to external HD before you can restore, right? Best Regards...

the windows 7 bit is not a issue it is using the same system that windows 7 did for backing up because it worked well, like Microsoft says if its not broke, don't spend money and waste bills time fixing it :)

Perfect, thanks

Thanks to you for your helpful video.👍👍👍👍

Can you please explain the differences between these three -create a recovery,system image backup and system repair disc. Which of these I want to choose in order install previous genuine OS version into pc when the pc has totally collapsed. Can u plz help me out.

Hi Brian , great how to vid as always. I followed your instructions to the letter and at the end it came up with Back up failed,because of this error( 0x80780151)' I googled this and found out that Bitdefender has to be uninstalled as it causes a conflict also used cc cleaner to remove any Applications or files left in registry by bit defender. It was also advised not to have windows explorer opened as this causes an error. I have now disconnected the internet and retrying the back up. Fingers crossed !!!

File History --> System Image Backup. Create System Image : Back to your external hard drive.

GOOD job Thanks.

hi there, love your desktop background shown c drive and memory and weather, can you please advise what app or link to download? thanks a lot

how to fix "The specified backup storage location has the shadow copy storage on another volume (0x80780038)" when Windows 10 backup failed...???

hey how do i get those widgets in my desktop for CPU and Ram? that would be very useful. also, are they accurate?

thanks Brian you''re the man love

Sir, thank you very much for your this video...this is very helpful for me. Sir, i have question just few ago i update windows 10 version 1709, now if i make backup image...it will backup old windows 10 version or new one which i updated windows 10 version 1709.

Very good, to the point

Every time I try to make a system image my computer freezes halfway through. Any fix?

great video thanks

From external hard drive, you saved it on DVD. And while booting did it ask you to change DVD after first DVD was executed as all back up data can't fit into a single DVD?

I have two windows 7 & 10 on two different drives, I want to make an image to only windows 10 and recover it without any change in windows 7 and keep the data on the other drives safe and without any change .... How to do this?

after the image and everything is complete do you technically have 2 versions of windows 10? 1 on the computer and one on the usb or at some point will you need a key so you cant just put that image from the usb on every computer you find?

Does this also back up all your programs and plug-ins as well?

good job, thanks!

do you have some kind of side bar on your desktop? it is pretty cool what is the program/app name?

So if i have 800 gb used on my drive, is that how big the backup image will be? Or is it way smaller?

In my friend's Acer Aspire e5-573g 380s, the Windows 10 files and other related system files are approximately of 30 GB (+/- 3 GB), but I don't have a 32GB pendrive (or higher) or in that matter any form of external storage device apart from a couple of 16 GB pendrives !!! Thus I wanna ask can use my 2 separate 16 GB pen drives to backup approx 30 GB of system files (including the Windows 10 backup) or do I specifically need a single pendrive of 32 GB (or higher) ?????? Furthermore please enlighten me can I use DVDs to do the backup (just like as it is done in HP laptops) ???????? Thanks in advance !!!!!!!

if I make the image of registered Original Video and whenever I will restore that image. my windows will be registered or not?

is the repair tool the same as the windows media creation tool? Im upgrading from a 240gb ssd to 1tb ssd so i have to reinstall windows.

there is a sign in the lower of the hard disk "the drive selected is on the same physical disk being back up if this disk fails, you will lose your backups" can i still continue the backup image

Have tried to do an image backup on new W10 laptop using memory stick (64Gby and also did reformat it again) and Seagate Backup but kept getting Error Messages 'Not NTFS Formatted media' stumped. Also thought of using hard disk and then copying over. But not sure on that one. Any ideas ?

I need to install Windows XP SP3 on my Windows 10 laptop. I guess I can save my Windows 10 image usage this method, install Windows XP, and in the future restore Windows 10 image if needed? I can copy image to my external drive.

I was using a 750gb HDD, and I just upgraded to a 3TB HDD. Can I use this method to copy my windows over to the new drive without having to reinstall drives and the windows setup?

I tried to do it and it said ' Backed up data cannot be securely protected for a network target' any help??

I cloned my drive cause it was full and when I did the new drive is the size of the old drive. So now I have a full disk on the partition. How do I fix this?

Why does my windows insist on having my other 2 hdd drives backed up as well? (there are no windows files there, only my musics and pictures etc)..

this was a very useful video .. thanks so much..

Hi Britec, Can you please give me link of themes you installed on your PC. I really liked it. Thanks in advance.