Windows 10 Backup: How To Restore Your System Image On A New Drive 

Dude!! Your 5 minute explanation is better then Microsoft and anything else I found on the web. Thanks!!

I hate to sound like a repeat, but three years later your video saved me. Hours of researching, forums and much more after having located and replaced my motherboard and doing a ton of other fixes..that didn't. Your information allowed me to get my PC back up and running. The link to the MS tool was what I needed as I had backups and couldn't get it to work for a week. I was on the verge of throwing a great PC (HP Omen) against the wall and purchasing a new one until I found this and was able to load windows onto my new 1tb ssd. Saved me a new PC and although a ton of headaches it's now over.

Why....Why can't everyone make things easy and helpful like you...Thanks man was looking all over for a walk though like this one.

I was updating for Win 11 but failed and my computer cannot boot now, and I don't have a backup or restore point, how do I get it back to normal?

My laptop hard disk (Windows 10) crashed. Have an older System Image created from Windows (7) option. Replaced hard disk & installed Windows 10. When trying to restore System image, Windows says "Image not found" though the USB which has the image is connected and displays in Explorer. Kindly help!!!

You are so clear and direct in your explanation of the process of completing this procedure. Thank you---job well done!

Oh my god - there is hope in this world. Followed it step for step and ended a three-day battle of computer nonsense. Thanks Kingsley! You a G!!

This way is still useful for Win11, we could still use the backup and restore from Win7, and also easier with aomei backupper to backup my system which I've used for long time.

I use to use Norton Ghost on floppy (yeah floppy) it was like witch craft.. It didn't seem possible but boy how helpful it was for at least the years floppy disks were a thing. I have been searching for something as simple and as good. This video is that moment. Thank you so much.. I am am sure it has saved many thousands in the time it has been uploaded.. No bloat and waffle just the details needed. Thanks again.

Bro you just saved my entire data, i was in depression but you just saved me, thanks for your miracle video, stay happy and healthy ☺️☺️☺️

How did you get this to work?? I'm going from HDD to SSD and keep getting "system image restore failed" error message. Do I need to partition the drive first?

Nice video, going to do this for the first time tomorrow, creating the image backup and win 10 USB then restoring it to a SSD

Thanks for this tutorial! If I want to swap the drive that contains my OS (my C drive) for a new one, do I have to do any specials steps for my PC to still be able to detect my current D drive that I am using??? (I'm assuming i can just image my C drive, boot that onto the new replacement SSD and continue using my extra D drive that I've had a for while without needing to image that one)

Thanks for video... Like windows image should I make image file of all software installed in pc?

Excellent video. Straight and to the point. I followed the directions step by step, and the process went through without a hitch. Thanks!

thanks for the help, clarified that i can use my windows install media to reimage a disk/system with a backup

You are a life saver I was looking to backup my system image . the build it image creator is useless it takes more than 2TB to backup windows installed on my 120GB SSD

Hello thanks for the tutorial, my question is.. is it better to do a fresh installation of windows or with system image ? I have not done a fresh installation of windows for the past 2 years now and my computer is showing all kind of problems.. sometimes it freezes up game would crash randomly etc. Recently I just did a software cloning from an old drive to the new SSD drive, however I find that the computer still acting buggy even after the clone, netflix would freeze up just like before. I'm about to do a fresh installation here, but just need some opinions from the expert before im doing it. Thank you

Nice one man. I'm a bit of a novice, but you're instructions are nice and clear. Fair play.

Hey man, got a lot of things I'm unfamiliar with, would you mind helping me out? So, I'm soon going to be building a xeon rig with an x99 motherboard, I need to get the files from 2 of my drives from my old computer to the new one, I have one C: drive which is on an m.2 and I want the files from it copied to the new m.2 I have. And also I have an hdd with a lot of files on it that I also want copied to the new one. what do I do? I didn't quite understand how to create a system image backup, and do I have to only do it once? does it backup every drive on a computer with its os? if so what do I do after that? for example the backup is now on the hdd, do i plug it in with the rest of my drives to the new pc and from there follow what you did in the video? will the system backup correctly spread what was on the m.2 drive on the old computer to the m.2 on the new computer and what was on the hdd to the new hdd? and is that going to be it? will everything be fine with the new drives and the previous drive that had the system backup? sorry for bombarding you with questions but its my first time transferring data from drives to drives. thanks for any help in advance! eagerly awaiting your reply :)

Excellent, this is how all Videos should be.

I know this an older vid, but solid today! Had to do this on new m.2 with Win 11, worked out without needing to reinstall everything. Just started building a new pc this week and move this old m.2 to wife's comp and was wondering how to do it without needing to clone. I didn't know how to use back up image in the past and always had to do fresh restalls just to get going on same system.

Great video, especially the point about removing your boot media immediately after Windows 10 installation begins to restart. If you don't remove the boot media during the restart, then Windows might boot up from the installation media and start the Windows installation process all over again.

Awesome guidance! But I need help. I had a hard-drive failure. Now, I had backed up my files by using the Back-up and Recovery (in my old Windows 10 days with my old and failing hard-drive) by creating a System Image, to an External Hard Drive. After taking the necessary back-ups, I have replaced my old hard drive with a brand new one. The factory reset has caused my PC to revert back to a fresh Windows 8.1 OS. Queries: 1. My new Hard Drive shows a single Windows C Drive. Should I make partitions on it before restoring? 2. Should I need to be worried about the fact that my System Image is created on an External Hard-drive? Whats steps (if any) should I take at the booting process (during repair) for the system to recognize my External Drive? 3. I am currently upgrading my Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. Should I cancel this upgrade and, instead, download the installation media creation tool, or both? HELP! Thanks in advance. :)

I just did the Image off my working Lenovo workstation to try get out of the small BIOS Menu ( in my Lenovo BIOS SCREEN ) as my Laptop s packed with goodys and need to run loads of programs to repair like a USB -Creation or The System Image from this Lenovo Workstation,which is getting better after cutting most out the O-S that's never used then did the Image . I just hope it might bring back my Laptop 430s Lenovo on the dame set-up ''only stuck-in BIOS'' ...CHEERS 10/10 VIDEO HAS HELPED SO MUCH ...TA

What's the difference between using that program you downloaded and just using the built in system image backup in the control panel (or whatever it was) that you were showing at the beginning of the video?

Do you have a video that shows how to select system image in the reimagined your computer and run it.

Great video! Thanks for giving me the idea of installation media, I had no idea that existed

I want to restore an image to my SSD (which I backed up earlier to my HDD). But I have data on my HDD. If I restore it like this, will I lose the data on my HDD? (My system is installed on the HDD and the SSD is empty)

Thank you for this . But I have a question can I restore my back up to a new hard disk without a OS ? thanks

So does this mean this process re-images your windows profile and settings but not the files right?

So if I got a new computer pretty much the same one as I had before will I be able to install my system image backup? And you said something about and install media? What’s that

Dynamite video. Clear, concise instructions. Most helpful!

I notice there's no mention of picking which drive the backup is installed on. I hope it's just whichever drive I don't exclude.

What about if your hard drive simply ran out of space and you want to restore on a new drive?

Can you use the drive with windows on it as a backup drive as well? Basically can I put a new blank drive in my laptop, connect the one with all my data externally and use a drive with windows on it as a backup drive too? Or should I just buy an sd card for my laptop

This is a good way although I have Aomei on my computer therefore it's an better alternative for me to backup.

Just what I have been looking for....thank you!

Yes it can let me backup but what if it cannot boot how to restore it?

How do you change your boot up process?? And this would work if i had a system image and then went and bought a new laptop and wanted to have everything all set up on my new one??

You are awesome and this an awesome explaination

Exactly what I was looking for! Thank you!

Could I do the first process on a ssd partition instead of USB .. like a partition on the same disk as the image drive…?

I was having a problem doing usb start up repair saying it was failing because I need to run it from windows when running. I could'nt run in from a running windows as the problem was it would not start, just kept going into recovery windows and nothing would work. Any tips for future reference or for people having the same issue? Cheers.

hi i had a new hard drive installed on my inspiron laptop. so when i try to install my system image on the new one, i get an error message saying: To restore this computer windows needs to format the drive.... boot it from a windows installation disc or a system repar disc.

The is a great video but I do have 1 question, does this method require a windows 10 key if I’m upgrading all the hardware?

So if I had to upgrade my laptop from hdd to ssd can I follow the same process?

Should I format new drive to NTFS to install this OS or does it automatically format it to NTFS?

Hi! I'm planning to move my OS drive to my new SSD. Will this format my current OS Drive?

Your explanation is perfect for all beginner just like me. I use Acer desktop these SSD harddisk is coming full. It is planned to change a new one with larger size. As all restore data including Window reinstallation files and Acer’s software is preloaded in this SSD, This existing SSD is I would like to know how to restore all Data with Acer software to new SSD.

So if my original version was 7 and it was allready installed when I bought computer from Walmart.. I will need to set this up with Windows 7 option ? Is that correct?

How does the Volumes look before and after ?

Does this work the same when your system image covers two initial hard drives (in my case one SSD and one HDD)?

I have a quesrion my windows is on a loop. I have a lenovo. I want to get it up and running but i dont wanna lose anything. How can i bypass it.

Hey bro tnx for ur explanation I have an doubt whether we have to format the disk which has the image b4 inserting it in PC and we have to make bootable or just insert and use it as is it whether it has other files with the windows image

hmm wondering if i trust this over acronis...nope!!, but for someone without acronis not a bad plan, especially if you use windows storage spaces with a mirror array and backup the image to the drive, that might be a worthy backup implementation.

Im confused, so it automatically saves the files in the new drive? Is that it? Dont i have to set it up or something? Sorry dude im just not knowledgeable enough when it comes to pc im just a newbie builder

Thank you! Saved me a big headache!

I'm a bit confused. I've done this process a couple years ago to repair a P.C. that had a bad drive..No problem! Now, this time around I have a system image from a BAD P.C.... In other words, the P.C. motherboard is bad, not the drive. Given Windows 10 looks at the hardware it's installing to, is this utility going to allow me to restore my files to the NEWLY purchased P.C. or am I screwed?

Would this method work on a Windows 10 Bootcamp partition?

Question. Will doing system image backup keep my emails from outlook as well? I have IMAP and want to convert to pop but I'm struggling because the online tutorials don't work.

Halo Kingsley what BIOS you have? I never see the interface BIOS like you use. Now I'm using American Megatrend, how about you? By the way our Flasdisk is same, and I use it in same case to recovery image, I'm so shock Lol :D

Straight to the point. Much appreciated brother. 😎👍

Havin to make a recovery usb and an image is annoying, but hey,such is life. thanks for the concise video!

I’m trying to restore my windows via image from ssd to nvme but I’m getting an error about the firmware being different. Where am I going wrong?

I know this video is old but i wanted to know if this works with a different motherboard cuz i want to upgrade motherboard but don't want to lose everything I've done. Pretty sure i can but want to know for sure before doing it. Running windows 10

I'm following the same steps, but the problem is when the recovery file is loading, it said that the image recovery cannot be used. When I did it, everything was right what do you suggest?

Thank you Sir, I was going crazy! Have a great day.

can i create system image on the drive i want to use and run it on that same drive?

Thank you for your tutorial, it's useful to me.

Your windows 10 media installer only goes to the latest version. Latest versions are often buggy. What if I want the version immediately proceeding the latest version?

can i just back up 1 partition image (C and boot partition)and restore to say suppose c drive and keep the rest of partitions not formatted,like an upgrade or reset?

mine is still asking for the drivers. any idea where i could find them?

You don't need to create windows on usb If you have a hard copy of the windows on disc and a DVD drive on your pc

Windows won’t detect the image file on my external drive.... should I place the image file on my desktop?

Just one thing, i backup a system image to say a secondary 1tb drive in my pc, so i can restore it on another completely unknown to the system drive. i remove c, start repair mode through my usb, but where will the system image go and install itself on? i have a 1tb samsung ssd i want to copy my windows to cause of lots of problems ive been having, ill try and hope it automatically installs the iso onto my new ssd.

Thank you! I was having a hard time finding a video for this!

Wow. Perfect!. Thanks, Kingsley.

Really great video! Congratulations 🎉 Windows can make you go crazy sometimes but you have cleared the path in 5 mins 🥋👍🏻 Big Thanks 💪🏻

Helped me thank you boss man

If you want to upgrade from 32 bit to 64 bit Win 10 can you use a back up and recovery image of files created in the 32 bit version?

do i need to put back up image recovery in the hard drive that i want to use it for my new windows?

Thank you for a great video. However, I have run into a problem. I thought I was very proactive and made a new disk image every month and backed up all my files with file history. When I try to read back my image file as you describe I get an error message that says the image was created on a computer with EFI and my current computer is using BIOS. This is weird since it's the same computer. Does it matter that the original image was made from a Raid 0 drive? Grateful for any input.

great info , been looking for this guide

If I changed may hard drive? Can I use this "Install Now"?

Hi I currently have a 750 gb hdd. I want to back up all files currently on the hdd and install a 256gb ssd and do a fresh install of windows. Then format the 750gb and add it as my secondary drive. If I do a system image restore will the files go into my ssd and then on to the hdd as my hdd has around 650gb of stuff saved on it and my ssd is only 256gb?

I created a system image for only c drive and I just want to format and restore only c drive so what options should I select.

Hello, Thanks for this detailed tut. I have one question though, my system image in backed up on an ext HD. During restoration, would this external HD be formatted? I'm concerned because I have other important files stored on it.

brilliant, saved me a lot of time and hassle

I just create an image of my laptop, saved in external ssd, connected via USB to my pc but when I try to recovery the pc (same situation of your video at 3:51) the system is not able to find any image, same if I select "select a system image option " it only looks inside the ssd inside the pc and i'm not able to select the external one connected via usb... can u help me?

Note: If you still have a working PC you don't need to go to Windows website to create recovery drive. 1: Go to Control Panel 2: Choose "big icons" on the right corner 3: Click on "recovery" 4: Click on "create recovery drive"

what if i want to change the computer can i restore that system image on the new pc if i getting rid of the old one?

You are a life saver!!! Thank you!

Hey King, i have an issue, i did not create a system repair disk but I created a system image...will I be able to recover my OS and apps ...to another drive..

I have a repair disc, but is it possible to use the original USB with the Windows 10 installation on it?

Can you use the image on another pc?

So how about the partitions ..

Thank you so much, the explanation was clear.

i have a question man why they keep asking me to create a system repair disc a have created 2 of them and nothing happens

Hi My 2TB hdd which has been imaged needs to be copied to a new hdd of the same capacity and was originally designated as drives C and D; (one TB each). using this cloning method, will my copy to the new drive also have separate C and D as well? TIA.