Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 USB Backup - How to Create and Restore System Images and File Level Backups 

Thank you so much! With computers there are usually a number of different ways to accomplish the same, or similar, task(s). I try to use my professional experience to save people that vetting process time. I'm glad I was able to do this for you.

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"Backups don't matter... until the day they do." On behalf of all IT people out there.... thank you. 🙂

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I'm glad to try and help. It keeps me on my toes :) I appreciate you watching, as well. There are really only 2 other things I can think of: 1. When you're creating the backup, are you doing both the file level backup, and a system image backup? There's the option to "include system image" when you're setting up the file level backup, and the 2 of those backup types combined would most likely exceed 128GB if you have 99GB used on your system disk. This is of course depending on how large your file level backup is. On a 128GB USB, about 118GB or so will actually be usable space, so that would mean that if your file level backup is 20GB or more, there wouldn't be enough space on the USB disk for both backup types. You could try doing either just the system image, or just the file level backup and if either of those worked with that USB disk, then you would know for sure it's just a storage space issue. 2. The USB disk could have gotten corrupted. I've seen this happen many times. Sometimes reformatting it will fix it, but sometimes it's the flash storage itself that has failed. You could verify that it's working fine, by just copy/pasting some random files on it. If you get it working, please let me know what worked. I'm curious to know for future reference.

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Thank you for watching. And yeah, it's really a good idea to dedicate the drive for backups only. It's too easy for external drives to get damaged, or lost, or even stolen. I've seen a lot of broken ports on external drives. When they stay in an isolated environment, they are actually very reliable though, and that makes them a really nice inexpensive backup option.

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Hi, and thanks for watching! Here are my answers to your questions. 1) Does System Image backup file need to be stored together with Windows 11 ISO image file on the same Thumb drive? No. They should actually be completely separate drives. The bootable USB drive created from the Windows 11 ISO is used for the restoration process, because in the advanced recovery options it has the option to restore an image. When that option is used, the recovery environment will scan all the drives attached to the computer, and look for an image to restore, and it will see the backup image on another external drive. Also, I believe if you had a bootable USB drive with windows 11 on it, and you wrote a backup image to it, it would make the drive no longer bootable. 2) What is the preferred storage of Thumb drive to perform initial backup after purchased new laptop ? It all depends on how big your image will be. A backup image of a clean install of a Windows 11 OS would easily fit on a 64GB thumb drive. But if you have added data to that clean installation of windows on he new laptop, the backup image will get larger and larger as the data it contains becomes greater. I recommend getting a 2TB external hard drive to store both the backup image and the differential file backups. For most users this will be large enough to have daily differential backups for over a year. 3) If I create my System Image backup file on local storage, will it wipe out all my data at local storage ? No. It will not wipe out any data. You can do this if you want, but I advise against doing it, because one of the reasons you may want to restore that image is if your local storage (such as an SSD or HDD) fails. If the backup image is stored on a local drive, and that drive fails, the backup image won’t be available anymore, to restore.

Hi and thank you for watching! You can disconnect the backup drive anytime, as long as you don't plug it into another windows computer that is running. And I recommend always using the eject option by right clicking the external drive in windows file explorer, so that it's not reading or writing anything when it's unplugged. If the external backup drive is plugged into another running Windows computer, the other computer will rewrite the NTFS permissions for the files on the backup drive, and that will prevent the original computer from being able to see the backups. I made this mistake in the past, and it is possible to manually change the NTFS permissions back so that the backup can be seen by the original computer, but it's much easier if you don't have to do all that But if you're just unplugging it and plugging it back into the same computer, you will not have any issues because the permissions will not be changed on any of the files. So yeah, it's totally fine to unplug it from time to time as long as it always goes back into the same computer.

Hi, and thank you for watching. Here are the answers to your questions: 1) How exactly would that work? Would I literally just repeat the process in the video for creating the initial image exactly the same way, without any changes? Yes, but only the creation of the system image part, since the file level backup part is already set up. 2) Wouldn’t that wipe the initial image? Should I keep the initial image? As I start running out of space on the image/backup drive, can/should I delete the older images and/or backups? No, creating an additional system image will not overwrite any of the existing system image files, or the file level backup files on the external backup drive. But if the backup drive becomes full, then the file level backups will stop running, and you also won’t be able to create additional system images due to lack of space to store the additional data. You can delete image files to free up space for new ones if needed, but you actually have to grant yourself NTFS permissions to the backup drive/backup folder on that drive in order to do so. I do have a video up here showing how to create shared folders, and I show how to change NTFS and share permissions in that one. In this particular case, you would just add your windows user as an administrator to the backup drive and you would then be able to actually see the system image files, and file level backup files, and delete older system images if you wanted to. But that is a little deeper, so just be careful if you do that. Here’s that video if you want to check it out. It’s very informative regarding share and NTFS permissions. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-gKdWxfoiH1w.html What I usually do if/when the backup gets full, is just verify that I have everything I need in my computer’s current state, then re-format the backup drive (which will permanently erase all the backups), and then set it all up again. This does create a short moment in time where you don’t have any backups, so there is a little risk but it is low. If you want to be super safe, you can get another backup drive, label your first backup drive with the dates that it ran, and start the whole process over on the new drive. As long as the first backup drive just sits on a shelf or somewhere safe, you could plug it in to the same computer at any time and restore from it. This may sound like a lot of work, but with a large external drive like 2 or 4TB, most people would only have to this every couple years (that’s dependent on how much data your backing up, of course). 3) What about the backup files -- how do I make sure they don’t get wiped? The file level backups will not be overwritten if you create additional system images. The additional system image files will be written as new files in addition to everything that’s already on the backup drive. And one last thing... Google Drive file sync application is very useful for not only synchronizing data across multiple computers and devices, but also for backups because when the data is mirrored, it exists locally on the individual computers that are synced, AND on Google Drive servers. So this is another option for backups. If you're backing up data over 15GB, then there is a yearly cost for the Google Drive server storage, but it is priced well in my opinion. If you want to learn more about that (it is super handy), I have an in depth video on it, here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dO-dOeKc8iY.html

Hi and thank you for subscribing. I very much appreciate that. The bootable USB installation media, for Windows, is not only used for installations. It's also used for recovery/advanced recovery. There are four primary levels to a Windows PC: 1. The hardware level 2. The bios/ UEFI level 3. The operating system level 4. The application level System image creation/ restoration exists at the operating system level, but both of those are created at the application level, and because they are reading/writing to an external drive, they transcend through the BIOS/ UEFI, and hardware levels. The bootable USB installation media for a Windows operating system, allows you to temporarily operate at the operating system level, because it's a very stripped down version of a Windows operating system, which is running off of a USB bootable media disk, instead of a fully installed operating system which is installed on the system disk. This allows that temporary USB bootable media installation/recovery environment to acknowledge, and utilize, operating system image files on an external drive, connected at the hardware level, through the BIOS/UEFI level. This means that if there is no temporary OS environment, the hardware and BIOS/UEFI (don't worry too much about UEFI... It's basically a newer, more capable, version of a system BIOS), have no ability to see any previous OS images on external drives. They need a temporary operating system environment to tell them what to do with the devices they acknowledge. In summary, if a windows PC has a corrupt operating system, a temporary operating system environment is required in order to acknowledge/restore a previously created, fully functional, operating system image file, and that temporary operating system environment is the bootable USB installation media. I show exactly how to make this in one of my other videos, but the easiest way at this current time is to search on Google "Windows 11 bootable media creation tool". This will take you to the Microsoft Windows 11 bootable media creation tool website, and it's pretty self-explanatory from there.

Hi, and thank you for watching. No, it is not necessary to turn off folder protection while creating a system image. I also just tested a file level backup of a folder that I enabled folder protection on. The file level backup was created without issue, and I was able to restore it without issue as well. So, both the system image creation/restoration, and the file level backup/restoration are unaffected by folder protection.

Hi, and thank you for watching. This is a great question. From a practicality and reliability standpoint the answer is no. The reason is that the moment the USB drive is plugged into another windows computer, the NTFS permissions for the backup will be overwritten, and the computer that the created the backup won't be able to find the backup to restore, unless the NTFS permissions are reverted to their exact original state. Technically, I think you can do this, but the NTFS permissions issue would have to be resolved. And this is particularly tricky because by default, only the system user has access to the backup. I think I did this once in a bind, but it was a huge pain, and messing with backup files like that is risky. It will partially defeat the purpose of the backup itself. The reason I started liking this method so much is it's simplicity. I recommend just dedicating a drive to each computer, labeling them on the outside according to computer name, and then only use them for backups on their respective computers and the backup will always restore correctly. This is particularly handy for desktops and servers because they just sit there and the drive is never removed. But it works fine for laptops too as long as you keep track of the drives and label them correctly. Lastly, I'm not sure if you use google drive for file sync but I highly recommend using this if you want a particular data set synced across both those laptops. I did a video on that if you want to check it out. It is super handy for accessing the exact same data across multiple devices. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dO-dOeKc8iY.html

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply. What if i partitioned the 2TB drive into an M and N drives. Would Windows prompt me to pick M or N? Else, have you run across third party software that will image and File backup to a two partition drive?

Hi, and thank you for watching. I personally have not used Macrium Reflect, but I have used Acronis, Paragon, and a couple others, as well as Windows native backup and restore. A system image will be an exact copy of everything on the system drive, at the time it is taken, regardless of what type of software is used to create it. With that said, the image file types will be different, and images are often not interchangeable with other software when restoring. I personally don't use 3rd party images for single systems anymore, becasue I like to keep things as clean and simple as possible. Since the image is the same regardless of how it's created, I prefer using the Windows backup and restore because it's native to the operating system and, therefore, just one less application to deal with. Also, the restoration media for all windows backups will always be the same media that is used to install that same operating system (EX: restore win 10 system image with win 10 install media... etc). So we can have install media, and restore media at the same time. It's dual purpose. If you're familiar with Macrium and like it, I don't see a need to switch, but if you adopt this method, it will be a couple less things needed to accomplish the same objective.

Hi. Yes there is. The bootable USB thumb drive is used to restore the system image backup created in this video, if a system image restore is ever needed (and it probably will be needed at some point, because it is basically inevitable that the operating system will become corrupt at some point). The same drive that backups are stored on cannot be used for that because in the creation of the bootable USB drive, all data is overwritten, and because in the case of system image restore, the USB drive is the actual temporary operating system that the computer is running on while the system image restore is taking place. The way to keep it the cleanest and easiest is to dedicate 1 USB thumb drive as a bootable USB drive which you can use to restore a system image or install a completely clean operating system, and 1 external USB drive for backups only. This way you can either return to your previous system, exactly the way it was when you took the system image, or start fresh with a perfectly clean operating system. I show the details of making the bootable USB drive in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B2mpf1qQA48.html

Hi and, thank you for watching. If you did the Windows 11 installation from within the running Windows 10 operating system, as an update, then I believe you have 10 days to determine if you want to uninstall Windows 11 and go back to Windows 10. But a clean installation of windows 11, might also solve this problem. Because upgrades from one version of an operating system to a newer version that are run from within the existing operating system as an update usually create bugs, one of which is printer issues, I always recommend doing operating system upgrades using a clean installation. A clean installation is when you create bootable USB media with the new operating system on it, and then use that to overwrite the entire existing operating system, so it is a perfectly clean factory image of the new operating system. If you are interested in doing this, on my channel, you will see videos where I show how to create bootable USB media with Windows 10 or Windows 11 on it, and also how to use that to install a perfectly clean operating system. What I recommend for the short-term, is that if you are still within the 10-day period after installing Windows 11, to roll it back to Windows 10. There most likely is a way to get your printer working on the windows 11 upgrade, but there will also probably be other quirky issues with it as you use over time. I saw this extensively with systems that went from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10, when Windows 10 first came out, and it was applied as an update to existing Windows 7 or Windows 8 systems. I know this is probably not the answer you were hoping for, but if you really want to do it right, I would back up all of your data and software license keys, onto an external drive, and then create new windows 10 or Windows 11 bootable USB media, and then overwrite your system drive by installing a perfectly clean factory image of either one of those operating systems on to it. If it's a clean factory image, you'll be able to get the printers working for sure, and not only that, but the entire system will be stable from day one.

Thank you for watching, and this is a great question! You can leave bitlocker disk encryption enabled while you create a system image backup, or file level backups. With file level backups, you won't need the BitLocker decryption key to restore the file level back up, because in order to restore a file level backup, you already have to be in the running operating system, which means the drive has already been decrypted with the bitlocker decryption key. But if you are restoring a system image that was created while the drive was encrypted with BitLocker encryption, you will need the bitlocker decryption key in order to restore the image. I believe you are already aware of this, but just to reiterate for general purposes, if a drive has been encrypted with BitLocker encryption, it is absolutely critical to have the bitlocker decryption key available in the event that it is needed. There is no alternative to get data back with an encrypted drive, if the decryption key is not available. You will be able to restore a system image backup that was created while BitLocker drive encryption was enabled, as long as you have the bitlocker decryption key. If you do not have it, the system image backup will be completely unusable to anyone.

Thank you for watching. I'm glad it was helpful. I haven't used File History yet, but I would imagine that File History is tracking the changes to existing files in a separate file that File History creates, on the external disk. That is essentially the same thing a "Win 7 backup and restore" file backup does. This is ok, if you also have an image backup, I would say. if there ends up being an issue with File History, you can do the "nuclear" option and restore the image, and all the files that were there at the time the image was taken will be there for sure. The one thing I do like about using the same application for both the image and the file level backup, is that both files types created are recognized and usable by the same backup application. For example, if a backup file is created with File History, it won't be usable to "Win 7 backup and restore", and vice versa. But I think you should be fine. When you have 2 or more options to restore data, the probability of loss gets much lower. And if you REALLY want to make sure that your important data NEVER gets lost, see my Google Drive video and set that up. If you set up backup like you did, AND use Google Drive, you will never have data loss. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dO-dOeKc8iY.html

@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks for the reply--I did watch your Google Drive video and wished I'd seen it when I set that up as I was completely confused about how that worked--now I know.

Hi, and thank you for watching. The system image backup file is compressed. It can only be restored to a disk that is large enough to accommodate the (re-expanded) restored image. So, however much space was consumed on your 512GB system disk when you took the system image backup, is the minimum amount of space on a new disk that you will need to restore it to. I'm guessing that the consumed space on your 512GB system disk was greater than 128GB when you took the image, so when that system image file is expanded during the restore process, it's too big for the new 128GB disk. And just a quick side note on RAIDs: For any individual user systems, always do a RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10. Typically a RAID 1 with fairly large disks is perfect. A RAID 0 has no redundancy whatsoever. If one of those physical disk fails, the logical disk is broken and you'd have to go into data recovery mode to get your data back or (as you have very wisely done) use a system image backup to restore that image on to functional logical disk, once the failed physical disk has been replaced. Great question! I hope this helps!

Hi, and thank you for watching! I understand what you are describing and I have not personally encountered this issue, but I have 2 things to say that might help: 1. I assume you're not using a system image backup to restore your files. That is the "nuclear option" because it will overwrite the entire disk to exactly how it was when the image was created. This would recreate previously deleted files during the system image restore process. 2. It may be (I don't this for sure) that Microsoft decided that if they were going to error on the a file level backup restoration, they would rather have more data available, than less data available, after the file level restore was complete. I agree that it should be an exact restore of the dataset at the time the backup was created. But because they are differential backups, if you choose a full restore, I think it will restore all of the differential backups, combined. This would explain why previously deleted files are now present again, after a full restore. If you know which files you need, you can choose exactly what you want to restore, and where to restore it to. This will avoid the recreation of previously deleted files. But if you have to do a full restore, it's always better to have more data available to you, than less data.

Hi. Thank you for watching. To answer your questions: 1. It's essentially the same process for a clean win 10 install, but I do win 10 specifically in this video, at 7:22. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dn42i8S1lNc.html If you're doing a clean install, I would not bother with a system image backup until AFTER you have your new clean install running. That is an ideal time to create system image, because it's perfectly clean at that moment in time. Typically, I do a clean install, then set up my particular settings and install most of my primary software, THEN I do the image backup. The idea is that if you do have to restore an image, you don't have to completely rebuild it because it has the majority of what you use already in the image backup. 2. For a clean install, you just need 1 USB thumb drive to use for creation of the bootable operating system image, and 1 USB thumb OR external drive to put your files on, that you want to migrate to your new system. All of this is shown in the video I mentioned, as well. In the "read more" section, I have it all divided up by time, so you can jump to whatever you need very easily: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dn42i8S1lNc.html "Here are the steps I will cover in this video: 1. Configuring your BIOS settings to be able to boot from USB 1:54 2. Backup up your user data 2:58 3. Getting a copy of your licensing information 5:03 4. Creating a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 on it 7:22 5. Installing and activating Windows 10 10:41 6. Restoring your user data to the new Windows 10 system. 15:58" And last but not least. If you have google drive file sync app set up, you don't even have to backup your files because they will sync to the new system image, if you set up google drive file sync app on that too. Not trying to overwhelm you, but check out this video, because google drive with file sync is SUPER handy. iru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dO-dOeKc8iY.html

Hi, and thank you for watching. This is a great question. Technically, yes you can, but restoring system images to different hardware requires that the new hardware have an equal size, or larger size, system disk. And then there is the likely possibility of driver mismatches, becasue the new hardware will have (at least some) different hardware devices on it, which will require different hardware device drivers. Windows 10 and Windows 11 are pretty good about automatically finding, and installing, correct hardware device drivers, but some of them might have to be updated manually. So yes, it can be done, but it's a little more tricky than restoring a system image back on to the exact same hardware that the image was originally created on.

@@frankwestphal8532 Many thanks for the prompt and detailed reply this helps a lot ...I have a 2019 Predator Helios 300 so hopefully it will keep going for while yet but I am using it 8-10 hours a day now and thanks to your videos to follow I now know what to do.....

No. For file and folder backups you only need the external storage medium to store the backups. BUT, if you want an image backup too, then it is a good idea to make the USB installation media in advance so if your OS becomes unusable at some point, you can use the USB installation media to restore an image backup of when the OS was still working properly. The idea is 2 levels of backup. File and folder is for everyday file loss or corruption. Image backup is the nuclear option to restore a completely broken system, and for that options some sort of installation media is needed because it contains the pre boot environment to restore images.

Hi, and thank you for watching. It sounds like you may be wanting to reinstall the operating system and overwrite the entire system disk and all settings and data on it. Is that the case? if so, I show how to that for win 10, and win 11 in these videos: Win 10 clean install: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dn42i8S1lNc.html Win 11 clean install: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O53zJLFtpXg.html Now, if you have an existing system image (not a factory image like what I use in the clean install videos, but a system image that you created as part of a back up of your computer, at some point in the past), there are two ways to restore that system image: 1. Upon startup of your computer press F8 repeatedly and go into windows advanced options. In here there is an option to restore an existing system image. But sometimes, the operating system is so messed up that this doesn't even work anymore. And that leads to option 2.... 2: Use a bootable USB drive with a factory image of the operating system you want to restore a backup of, on it. And that's why I show how to make that bootable USB drive. It may be the only option if the running operating system is too corrupt to even used advanced startup options. Example: you have a win 10 system but it's all messed up and when you press F8 and go to advanced options, it doesn't work or just spins endlessly... This is the situation where you would want to create the bootable USB with a fully working factory image on it. Then use that bootable USB to restore the system image you created at some point in the past. And if you want to restore a win 10 image, then create a bootable win 10 USB. If you're restoring a win 11 image, then you want to create a win 11 bootable USB. Let me know if you have any more questions. I will try to answer them.

Hi, and thank you for watching, and the question. WordPerfect, or any other INSTALLED windows application (there are some lightweight windows applications that can run without being installed), isn't just a set of files, and folders. Usually, an installed windows application will make modifications to the operating while it's being installed, such as registry edits, and/or NTFS permissions edits. For this reason, even if you restore that image and pull the files and folders associated with WordPerfect off of it, you will not be able to use them to actually install and run the WordPerfect application. But, if you restore that image, you MIGHT be able to pull your WordPerfect license key and use it to install the same (or possibly even a newer version, depending Corel's licensing terms) on your new operating system. Corel does still make new versions of WordPefect, and they're not cheap, so pulling that license key off of you old system image, or getting that key from somewhere else in your records, would be a good idea if you want to continue using WordPerfect. I show exactly how to pull software license keys off of windows operating systems, using the "Belarc Advisor" tool (very handy for pulling license keys, including windows operating system license keys), in this video at time stamp 10:47: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O53zJLFtpXg.html If you're talking about a really old version of WordPerfect, like pre 2010, there's probably no chance that you will be use that license key to run the same (or a newer) version of WordPerfect on Windows 10 or 11. So, if it's that old, I wouldn't spend the time restoring the image to get the license key. But if it's something from 2015 or later, it's worth a try, in my opinion, to save 400 bucks on a new license key. I hope this helps.

Hi, and thank you for watching. The part where I mention the gopro camera was just me switching cameras to capture the screen while the computer starts up. The screen recording software cannot run when the computer is off or starting up.You don't need to worry about htat it all. It's just part of the video production. As far as the pop up goes, Microsoft probably wants you to create an online account for your computer, but you also probably don't need that, and becasue of that I recommend using an offline account. An offline account is probably what you are already using, and it just means that when you log in to the computer, you are authenticating to your actual computer and not authenticating to microsoft servers online. I would click on the popup, but then click to opt out of any additional features or accounts they ask you to use, or create. This should get the popup to go away on startup, while still keeping your settings the same.

Hi and thank you for watching. I appreciate it! Here are the answers to your questions: 1. You can use the sub-process at 5:22 but it will want a CD or DVD. Also, it won't double as installation media. So you are correct in thinking it is better to get the installation media from MS website. Their media creation tool is great, and the USB drive that you create will allow an image recovery, or an fresh install, or both, and it can be used for both at anytime in the future. So it's a really handy thing to have in general. I always have installation media with me. 2. Yes, in a system image every single detail is exactly the same when it is restored, as it was when the image was taken. This includes all 3rd party apps and settings, and license keys. It is literally a mirror image. 3. I have not tested this, but if bitlocker is turned on when the system image is taken, that means the data on the drive(s) is encrypted, so the system image will be an image OF encrypted data. Also, the system image will include the fact that bitlocker was turned at the time of the image, so restoring the image would require the bitlocker recovery key. One way to be safe, is to turn bitlocker off, before the image is taken, then turn it back on afterwards, or just make sure you have the bitlocker recovery key (which we should always do anyway if we are using bitlocker) before you create the system image. 4. System restore is not the same as a system image. System restore basically only saves settings, and it is not reliable for 3rd party apps. Also, the system restore application needs to still be working properly in order to use it to restore. Because of this, it is common for an operating system to get damaged to the point where the system restore application itself does not work correctly anymore, and at that point it is useless for recovery. A system image is completely separate from the running operating system, once it is created. So if the operating system becomes unusable, this is not a problem for the system image backup. When restoring the system image backup, it will just overwrite the entire drive and it will all work exactly the way it worked when the image was taken. I call it the "nuclear option" :)

Hi, and thank you for this question, and for watching. If the windows 7 backup and restore application won't let you create a system image with your USB thumb drive as the destination, then the USB drive is either formatted in FAT32 or exFAT, or it's not large enough to contain the system image file. I show how to format a drive to NTFS in this video. So if you've verified that your thumb drive is formatted with NTFS, then it's probably just too small, and if that's the case a file level backup of your entire C: drive won't fit on it either. There's definitely more data on your C: drive than 1 Gigabyte, because a windows 10 or 11 operating system will use well over 10 Gigabytes just in the installation alone. You may have only added 1 Gigabyte of your personal data, but if you select your entire C: drive for a file level backup, it will need AT LEAST 10 Gigabytes of available storage on the USB drive ( in realty it will need much more.... probably 25GB bare minimum). My guess in this situation is that your thumb drive is not formatted in NTFS format, or it's does not have enough available storage (not large enough). And both of these could be simultaneously true, so just be aware it could be both things. I hope this helps!

Hi and thanks for watching. Good question... Yes, but ONLY if you don't use it on another computer in the meantime. If you plug the backup drive into another computer, the NTFS permissions for the system image and backup files on the external disk will be rewritten. The new set of permissions will not allow the original computer to see those files when you want to restore them, unless you modify the NTFS permission back to the way they were on the original computer, when system image and backup files were created. The latter can be done, and I have done it, but unless you want to take the time to fully understand NTFS permissions, users and groups, the easy way is to simply not ever use the backup drive on any other computer. We want one drive, dedicated only for backups, for each windows computer we are running. Also, if you're not using Google Drive, I highly recommend doing so. It's free, and basically eliminates the need to do backups. Same thing with OneDrive. I did full length videos on those if you're interested: Google Drive: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dO-dOeKc8iY.html OneDrive: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-JQ3ki35yTbc.html

Thank you! With windows native backup, it is only good for the same computer. There are other 3rd party applications that allow the backup to be restored to any computer though. One that I have used and like is Paragon backup and recovery free. Because I always put a clean copy of an OS on any new or used computer I get, I typically don't restore a backup to another computer anymore, but it certainly can be done. This method, however, is ideal for speed of recovery of the same computer. It's fast and comprehensive, when you need to restore to the same computer. And typically, restores are needed because of corrupt operating systems, instead of hardware issues, although hardware issue do also occur, just at a lower rate. If you anticipate hardware issues, I would use a 3rd party application to create an image backup which, generally, can then be restored to other hardware. But if your hardware is solid, I wouldn't worry about it.

@@frankwestphal8532

Thanks for the amazingly fast and thorough response. Although I don't expect a hardware failure, should I also be separately backing up documents, calendars etc onto a 2d external drive so I can restore them on a new PC should the need arise and, if so, what's the best way to do that. FYI, I prefer to backup locally and not in the cloud @@frankwestphal8532

I'm going to do a little test and get back to you on this. I think you can restore a file level backup created with windows 7 native backup application to a different computer. I know this cannot be done with an image backup, but I think it'll work with a file level backup. I'll reply after I have tested and can say for sure.

@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks Frank Really appreciate the follow up

Hi. Thanks for watching. There are 2 possible things that I think could be the reason this is happening: 1. You might have more than 128GB of data that will be in the backup (image or file level). If you go into file explorer and right click on your C: drive, then choose properties, you can see exactly how much disk space is being used. The backup (both system image and file level) will compress the data your are backing up a little bit, but the data your backing up could easily be more than 128GB. 2. The USB disk could VERY likely be formatted in FAT32 or exFAT, and it has to be formatted in NTFS for the backup and restore application to be able to use it. You can go into file explorer and right click that USB disk, and then click properties, to see what file system format it is using. If it says FAT32 or exFAT as the "file system", then close the properties window, right click the USB disk again and choose "format", then select NTFS as the file system. Once the USB disk is in NTFS format, the backup and restore application will be able to use it. NOTE: If you do reformat the USB disk, any data on it will be lost, so make sure to move any important data off of it, before you reformat it. One of these should do the trick.

Hi, and yes. When choosing what to include in the backup, just add the location: "C:\users\YOURUSERNAME\OneDrive". You can choose to include or exclude any files that exist locally on the computer.

@@frankwestphal8532 I do include it in the back up, but when you go to restore, One Drive is not there. I've tried it multiple times with same results. Any thoughts??

Hi, and thank you for watching. The first thing I would check is whether or not your external backup disk is full. If it is, just verify that you have all of your current data, and re-create the backup operation using the same external backup disk. NOTE: This will OVERWRITE any existing backups, so only do this if you KNOW you have all your data in the current state of your PC. If the backup disk is full and you want to be super safe, pickup another external drive, remove the current external backup drive, label it with the dates it ran, and store it somewhere safe. Then re-create the backup operation with the new external backup drive. But a full disk is not the only reason a backup operation could start failing. Another likely possibility is that backup disk has failed in some way. And yet another likely possibility is that the OS is damaged in some way. OS damage can happen for a variety of reasons, but the most common one I have seen is malware. A very powerful and free malware cleanup tool is Malwarebytes Free. I have used it extensively personally, and for many of our previous clients, becasue it is the best anti-malware I have ever used. I would run a malware scan with malwarebytes becasue a lot of times, simply removing any malware will allow the operating system to function normally again,. try.malwarebytes.com/crush-malware/ I hope this helps!

@@frankwestphal8532 I have been using Maleware Bytes for several years now, also a very tight and efficient internet security program running. Thanks for the info.

Hi and thank you watching! What I would do in that scenario is restore everything, but instead of restoring it to the original location, create a temporary folder on the system drive, if it is large enough to accommodate the full backup, or on a separate external drive. Then search that temporary folder for the specific file you want, and copy and paste it where you want in permanently. You can also browse through your backup manually, when selecting which files to restore but that could take a very long time to find it. Restoring it in bulk to a temp folder will allow you search that folder, and find it very quickly. Once you have what you need out of the temp folder, permanently delete it and you're good to go. SIDE NOTE: If possible, having a couple large thumb drives (like 256GB or 500GB) and a couple large external mechanical drives (like 2TB or 4TB) is super handy. I always carried a 4TB external drive with me when doing IT professionally for situations exactly like this. When we have plenty of available storage, we have lots of options.

Hi. For that one all you have to do is click file explorer, then click on "this PC".

Hi. Yes you can store the system image on a seperate USB drive if it is large enough. Keep in mind that a system image is not bootable though. It has to be restored using a bootable external drive, like the one I make in this video: So if you have the image on one USB drive and a bootable copy of windows on the other USB drive, that is all you need to restore the system image anytime. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1FNZLbZ3zj0.html

hello sir how I create backup image of my window 11 in pen-drive

Hi, and thank you for watching. I think what is happening is you're creating the backup correctly, but you re attempting to access it/restore it incorrectly. This type of backup is not meant to be browsable on it's own. It is a compressed file level backup., and it is not meant to be accessible to the user by just clicking into it like you would a normal folder. The reason for this is that it saves space, and it allows only the differences since the last backup to be appended everytime a new backup is run (example: if you have run the backup 100 times, there is still only one backup file). If you watch the rest of the video, I do a restore using the backup and restore application. When you do this, your files/folders are viewable in the exact same structure they had when the backup was created, and you can choose what to restore (all of it, none of it, or anything in between), and also where to restore them (original location, or custom location). So in short, you have to use the same application you created the backup with, to restore the backup as well.

@@frankwestphal8532 Okay, I get it now. Thank you for the prompt response Frank.

Hi, and thank you for watching. Yes. That external 1TB will be able to do a system image of a 1TB system drive that only has 103GB on it. And if you do want to do the differential backups as well, I would say that it would do at least 6 months worth of daily differential backups in addition to the system image. The system image will (roughly) only be as large as the USED space on the system drive. You are good to go, and have plenty of space to work with.

Thanks for your response. It was helped a great deal.@@frankwestphal8532

If you have multiple backups on one drive, how does it know which backup to use, will it give you an option?@@frankwestphal8532

Hi, and thank you for watching. It is possible to do this, but only manually. I would not even try to use an application to do it automatically, becasue even if there is an application that claims to do this, it will be of errors. To do it right, migration of systems from one computer to another, and from an older operating system to a newer operating system have to be done manually. In this video I cover a lot of of you need to know. The main things are to get the user data off the windows 7 system, and also get the license keys. User data includes 3rd party application data, like (for examples) Outlook .pst files, or QuickBooks .qbw files. Once you have the user data and the license keys off the old computer, you are well on your way. I have done manual migrations like this hundreds of times professionally. They are never easy, and they are always highly detailed because every computer has different applications and different data. But if you know the general steps, you will be able to do it successfully. I would watch this entire video (link below), just to get a full understanding of all the steps. Some of them will be different in your situation, but this shows the entire process from windows 10 to windows 11, so it will give you a good idea of what you need to do, and also show you the Belarc Advisor tool, which is GREAT for getting application license keys off old computers to be used on the new system. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O53zJLFtpXg.html Clean Microsoft Windows 11 Factory Operating System Install - Step by Step Tutorial. Here are the steps I will cover in this video: 1. Preparing what you will need 6:56 2. Backup up your user data (files) and software license keys 7:51 3. Creating a bootable USB drive with Windows 11 on it 13:40 4. Updating the system BIOS/firmware 19:34 System BIOS/firmware UEFI boot mode settings 26:22 5. Installing a new Solid State Drive 23:17 6. Installing and activating Windows 11 27:26 7. Restoring your user data to the new Windows 11 system 31:11

Hi, and thank you watching. The file level backup, in addition to the system image backup, is not mandatory. But I highly recommend it, because if you set it up like I did in the video, it is ONGOING. This means that you have very granular continued restore capabilities for individual files and folders as time passes. A system image will only take you back to the exact state (date and time) of the disk you took the image of, and any changes that have happened since then, will not be reflected in the restore. The way I like to think of it, is that a file level backup is best used to restore individual files and folders of any quantity, and to be able to choose the dates of the backups which contain the files and folders that you want to restore. But a system image backup is the "nuclear option", and is used mainly for restoring a computer with corrupt operating system.

Hi, and thank you for this question. I cover 2 different types of backups in this video, and both are done with the same windows 7 native backup and restore application. In your case, I would use the file level backup option and select all of the exact folders (which contain the files) that you want to backup, and use the external 1TB flash drive as the destination to store the backups. In the video I show exactly how to do this. This will give you at least one backup of all of your files and photos. But just a warning here… any disk, like a flash drive or external hard drive, that you dedicate to backups should be used ONLY for backups. If you use it for other purposes, you risk corrupting your backups and rendering them useless when you need them most. Dedicate your 1TB flash drive as your backup drive, and run through a file level backup like I show in the video. Then keep that flash drive somewhere safe and you’ll have a good copy of your data if ever needed. disk space currently consumed. A backup will only give you another copy of it. IMPORTANT NOTE about backups: they do not erase any data, they just create copies of it, so if your disk is getting full, the backup will NOT reduce the disk space currently being consumed by your data. I made a video specifically discussing how to manage a windows disk that is getting full (showing red). I highly recommend watching this because I show in it how you can easily identify data you still want to keep, versus data that you no longer need or want. It is important to you keep your windows system disk not showing red because if it gets too full, the operating system will no longer be able to run and you will have to do a bunch of other more complex steps to free up space on the system disk, in order to get the operating system running again. Here is the link : ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d3WGi0qsLjI.html

Hi. Thank you for watching, and for this great question. If your backup is a file level backup, and not a system image backup (these are 2 different types of backups which are explained in the video), then yes you can use that file level backup to restore your files to your new system (even if it's a different version of windows). But the file level backup will only restore files and folders, not apps and app settings (including software license keys). A system image backup will include all files and folders, and apps and app settings (including software license keys), but it will also be the exact same version of the operating system that was running when the image backup was taken. I'm assuming that in 2019 you would have been running windows 10. If you want to stay on windows 10, then yes you could do an image restore, and then just run windows updates to get the OS up to the latest version. That would work. But if you're running windows 11 now, a system image restore will put you back on win 10. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. Windows 10 is by far still the most widely used desktop/laptop operating system in the world, and it is highly capable/functional. Windows 11 is also highly functional and capable, so this will really come down to a personal decision on which version you would like to be running. Both will easily get the job done, but if you want to run windows 11, you'll have to manually rebuild your apps and app settings (including software license keys), even if you restore a file level backup to it. I hope this helps clarify the options available!

@@frankwestphal8532 thankyou so much im still using win 10

im using system image backup i want to get all my apps back

@@frankwestphal8532 thankyou so much for the reply

Yes, this will work. Make sure to look in any other area, beyond your user profile, that you may have data in, too. Most users have all their data in their user profile. But it doesn't HAVE to be there. It can be in other locations on the disk as well. Just make sure to include any other locations that your data is in, in the backup. And after you have a solid backup, you can reinstall the operating system and it will run like brand new. I show how to do that in this video at 27:26: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O53zJLFtpXg.html And also in this video at 10:41: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dn42i8S1lNc.html

Hi, and thank you for watching. Did you format the flash drive in NTFS? It's probably formatted in exFAT. It needs to be NTFS for windows native backup. Just right click it and choose format, and switch it to NTFS. It should work fine then. This will erase the drive though, so make sure you have your data off of it.

@@frankwestphal8532 Hi! The flash drive has been formatted in NTFS.

Hi and thank you for watching. Win 11 Home does not have the bitlocker option, so I think you're absolutely right that "device encryption" is turned on. You can verify that here: Select Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption. What I would do is turn off device encryption, then make the system image, then turn it back on after the image is created. This will avoid any issues with restoring if ever needed. Or... leave "device encryption" on, create a system image, but then test a restore. I'm not sure how "backup and restore" will handle restoring an encrypted system image. It would probably ask for the decryption key during the restore. Great question here, and I hope this helps!

​@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks for that tip you gave to verify - it did show that "device encryption" was indeed turned on. And following the recommendation to decrypt then make the image worked! To try find a potential recovery key for that encryption, opened powershell with admin privileges (task manager, open new task, powershell, tick "create with admin privileges") and then typed "manage-bde -protectors -get C:" (with those spacings and without quotations) and it indicated that there wasn't any key for the "device encryption". Found that command on this site: 'AskWoody' under the topic of "Windows 11 device encryption recovery key". After that, disabled the encryption and made the image like in the video. The channel 'ClearfundaTech' posted a video showing that you can see the status of decryption by opening command prompt with admin privileges and typing "manage-bde - status". I'm not too familiar with tech, so appreciate the time you and others take to make these videos. Thank you for your help. Remember, God proved His love for you at the Cross. Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again so that all who repent to receive Him as their Lord and Savior by faith are reconciled to God and saved. No secret code needed :)

Thank you for watching. The only thigns I can think of that would cause this are: 1. The external drive could be faulty. 2. The drive must be a drive OTHER than the system drive. A partition on the system drive will not work either. It must be a separate physical drive. 3. Make sure the backup drive it's formatted in NTFS. Many off the shelf drives come formatted in exFAT because exFAT is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems. For windows backup you need NTFS format. You can right click the dive and choose format, then choose "NTFS". But WARNING this will erase the drive, so only do this if you are ready to dedicate it as a backup drive and you have copied any data off of it, that you want to keep. If you've covered these, it should work fine. If it's still not working, it's possible your OS is corrupt. IF that is the case you could clean it up with Malwarebytes Free, or do a clean install. I highly recommend a clean install prior to setting up backup. try.malwarebytes.com/free-download/?gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19eg57vWHqnyIyAI5vYa-01OoVqB02-GUOkTJqGwf_6K6b_ePkGXdTLhoCbQEQAvD_BwE Win 10 Clean Install: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dn42i8S1lNc.html Win 11 Clean Install: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O53zJLFtpXg.html

Hi and thank you for this question. The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, you technically can because the nature of a system image is that it is an exact copy of an entire system disk, which includes the operating system, all of the settings, and all of the data. A system image is a direct capture of literally everything on the disk. So you CAN restore the windows 8.1 system image, but it will be windows 8.1m again, not windows 11. The windows 11 OS will be overwritten by the restoration of the windows 8.1 system image.

Hi, and thank you for watching. The image file itself would be fine, but what happens is that the NTFS permissions get over-written the moment a different computer reads the backup disk. These NTFS permissions can be changed back to their original state, and the computer that the backup was originally created on would once again be able to read the disk, and the backup could then be restored. But there's a bigger picture here. If a backup is created on disk that is being used for other tasks on other computers, the backup is extremely likely to become compromised through exposure to malware, read/write errors, or physical damage to the external drive, which defeats the entire purpose of creating a backup in the first place. There's no reason a backup drive should ever be used for anything other than backups, if a person expects that backup to actually be restorable, if ever needed. Backup drives are for backups only.

Hi. Good question. The system image backup will include all the files, settings, applications (programs and program files), and the operating system itself. It is a 100% exact copy of the entire system drive, and when restored it will run exactly like when the image was taken. A file level backup COULD include application (program) files, if you chose to include those in the file level backup. But it won't actually reinstall those applications (programs) or any settings associated with those applications.

If the backup and restore application from Windows 7 wasn't any good, it wouldn't still be in Windows 11. It's a basic tool that works, and that's why it's still here. Why mess around with 3rd party software and licensing if you can get the job done without it?

Hi, and thanks for watching. I do actually say exactly that. I say to get a large Seagate or Western Digital 2 or 4 TB external USB drive and dedicate it specifically, and exclusively, for backups.

Haha, yeah no registry hacks here. There are times when we (IT people) make registry modifications. But we always back up the registry first, and I don't recommend playing around with the registry unless the person knows exactly what they are doing.

Actually, I demonstrate the restore process in the video. Did you see any errors? No. That's becasue you didn't watch the video. "LOL".