Back up and restore your PC

To learn how to back up and restore individual files on a Windows-based computer:

To learn how to back up and restore in Windows 10:

Back up

There are several ways to back up your PC.

Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

Do one of the following:

If you’ve never used Windows Backup before, or recently upgraded your version of Windows, select Set up backup, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

If you’ve created a backup before, you can wait for your regularly scheduled backup to occur, or you can manually create a new backup by selecting Back up now.

If you’ve created a backup before, but want to make a new, full backup rather than updating the old one, select Create new, full backup, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

Note: Do not back up files to the same hard disk that Windows is installed on. For example, do not back up files to a recovery partition. Always store media used for backups (external hard disks, DVDs, or CDs) in a secure place to prevent unauthorized people from having access to your files; a fireproof location separate from your computer is recommended. You might also consider encrypting the data on your backup.

Create a system image

System images contain all of the info on your PC at a particular state.

Right-click the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

In the left pane, choose Create a system image, and then follow the steps in the wizard. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Note: To create a system image of a drive, it must be formatted to use the NTFS file system. If you save the system image on a hard drive or USB flash drive, it must be formatted to use the NTFS file system.

Keeping different versions of system images

You can keep several versions of system images. On internal and external hard drives, older system images will be deleted when the drive runs out of space. To help conserve disk space, delete older system images.

If you’re saving your system images in a network location, you can only keep the most current system image for each computer. System images are saved in the format of drive\WindowsImageBackup\computer name\. If you already have a system image for a computer and are creating a new one for the same computer, the new system image will overwrite the old one.

If you want to keep the old system image, you can copy it to a different location before creating the new system image by following these steps.

Navigate to the location of the system image.

Copy the WindowsImageBackup folder to a new location.

Create a restore point

You can use a restore point to restore your computer’s system files to an earlier point in time. Restore points are automatically created each week by System Restore and when your PC detects change, like when you install an app or driver.

Here’s how to create a restore point.

Right-click the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > System.

In the left pane, select System protection.

Select the System Protection tab, and then select Create.

In the System Protection dialog box, type a description, and then select Create.

Restore

Right-click the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

Do one of the following:

To restore your files, choose Restore my files.

To restore the files of all users, choose Restore all users’ files.

Do one of the following:

To look through the contents of the backup, select Browse for files or Browse for folders. When you’re browsing for folders, you won’t be able to see the individual files in a folder. To view individual files, use the Browse for files option.

To search the contents of the backup, select Search, type all or part of a file name, and then select Search.

Tip: If you’re searching for files or folders associated with a specific user account, you can improve search results by typing the location of the file or folder in the Search for box. For example, to search for all JPG files that were backed up, type JPG in the Search for box. To only search for JPG files associated with the user Bill, type C:\Users\Bill\JPG in the Search for box. Use wildcard characters such as *.jpg to search for all JPG files that were backed up.

Restore a backup made on another computer

You can restore files from a backup that was created on another computer running Windows Vista or Windows 7.

Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

Choose Select another backup to restore files from, and then follow the steps in the wizard. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

Find files that were restored from a backup made on another computer

If you’re restoring files from a backup that was made on another computer, the files will be restored in a folder under the user name that was used to create the backup. If the user names are different, you’ll need to navigate to the folder where the files are restored. For example, if your user name was Molly on the computer that the backup was made on but your user name is MollyC on the computer that the backup is being restored on, the restored files will be saved in a folder labelled Molly.

To find restored files:

Select the Start button, then select Computer.

Double-click the icon of the drive that the files are saved on, for example C:\.

Double-click the Users folder. You will see a folder for each user account.

Double-click the folder for the user name that was used to create the backup. The restored files will be in the various folders based on where they were located originally.

Restore files from a file backup after restoring your computer from a system image backup

After you restore your computer from a system image backup, there may be newer versions of some of your files in a file backup that you want to restore.

To restore files from a file backup that was created after the system image backup was created, follow these steps.

Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.

Choose Select another backup to restore files from. If you’re prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

In Backup Period, select the date range of the backup that contains the files that you want to restore, and then follow the steps in the wizard.

system image restore from a USB external drive

Long story — ill try and keep it short :-

Had win 10 pro installed (free upgrade from my genuine win 7 pro so, no actual install disk and no product key) on HDD with a (hopefully) good & intact system image backup on a 500g ext. USB drive. 3 weeks ago I switched my PC on and after many days of frustration lengths (all the usual repair this computer, blah blah) to try and resolve the problem of it not booting I took it to a PC repair shop. He told me my HDD with the OS system on had damaged sectors and that was the cause of its inability to boot. He said buy a new drive and do a system image restore.

Bought a new 960gb SSD but what then.

After researching on my wife’s win 10 laptop I learned that I had to reinstall win 7 from my installation DVD then follow the upgrade path to reinstall win 10.

After niggling problems that I wont go into I eventually managed to get a clean install of windows 10. I then connected my USB drive containing the system image backup and proceeded to revert to that.

Great! It worked — here’s my desktop image and familiar icons — but wait. — no games launcher icon, no Games icons; in fact, no it hasn’t worked.

So what did I actually do to get this extremely slimmed down version of my precious win 10 lost install?

when I explore the USB backup drive I see an icon with my old previous «computer name». This is what I clicked on to retrieve my «old» (original win 10) install. But I backed up thousands of songs, many thousands of photos spanning 30 years, at least 8 games and countless other things. what happened to all that? Did I do something different from system image restore which, as I understand it replicates an EXACT copy in every detail (every folder, file, programme etc.) of a functioning system?

Also on the drive is a folder «windows image backup». exploring this folder eventually gets me to a folder containing two hard disk image files and a bunch of XML files. So, reasoning that I had invoked the «wrong» kind of restore I did it all again after researching online info.

Then just as all seemed to be proceeding normally a window opens with an error code 0x80042407.

I go out and purchase ANOTHER 1tb USB external drive hoping to address the problem (boot drive that’s selected as primary in the bios isn’t large enough). Even after connecting that it still came back with the same error!

So, my question is will I ever back my original install of windows 10 and if so, how?

If some kind person out there has a «SOLVED» solution and replies to this thread can I ask for it to be kept simple please?

Thanks for reading this and thanks in anticipation for anybody who answers it.

Restore Windows 10 System Image to New Hard Drive | 2 Ways

Here you will learn how to restore Windows 10 system image to new hard drive with «Backup and Restore(Windows 7)» and AOMEI Backupper Standard. Select one per your needs.

By Ivy / Last Updated February 1, 2021

The need to backup and restore Windows 10 to new hard drive

Given that you have a laptop that can only hold one hard drive which is failing, how do you transfer Windows 10 to new hard drive without wasting time reinstalling the operating system and programs? In this case, you can backup Windows 10 to external hard drive or USB and then restore system image to new hard drive or SSD.

Although the final version of Windows 10 has been released for a long time, it still has many bugs reported by users. Therefore, it is essential to backup system image in Windows 10, so you can restore system from backup in the event of hard drive failure or any other unexpected error.

When it comes to migrating Windows 10 to new hard drive free, you could consider using Windows 10 backup utility, Backup and Restore (Windows 7) or AOMEI Backupper Standard. Both of them can help you create Windows 10 backup image as well as bootable USB to boot your computer, but the latter is simpler. Keep reading to get the two methods or the easier way directly.

Method 1. Restore Windows 10 system image to new hard drive with Backup and Restore(Windows 7)

Now, let’s start to restore system image from external hard drive in Windows 10 to new hard drive. You should prepare one external hard drive or USB flash drive to save the backup image. And one CD/DVD is required to create the system repair disc.

Part 1: Create Windows 10 full system backup with Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

Step 1. Go to Control Panel, click System and Security and Backup and Restore (Windows 7) in order.

Step 2. Click Create a system image in the left pane.

Note: There’s one option named “Set up backup” at the right side. You can also click it to create a system image. On this occasion, you can add other files or partitions that you want to backup besides the system.

Step 3. Choose the destination drive (external hard drive or USB flash drive) to save your backup.

Step 4. The drives that are required for Windows to run will be included by default and click Next to continue.

Step 5. Confirm the settings and click Start backup.

When the backup is done, you’ll be asked if you want to create a system repair disc (CD/DVD) to access the recovery options when your computer is unable to boot. If you do not have the CD-ROM device, you can choose to create Windows 10 recovery disk with your USB flash drive instead.

Part 2: Restore system image Windows 10 to new hard drive

In the following, we will use Windows 10 system image recovery to put Windows on a new hard drive, which is a recovery tool in Windows recovery environment to help users restore Windows 10 backup image and get computer back to a normal state.

Step 1. Shutdown the computer and switch hard drives in Windows 10.

Step 2. Connect the external hard drive containing Windows 10 backup image to your computer. Also, the system repair disc is required.

Step 3. Boot computer from the system repair disc. Change your system’s BIOS settings to make sure it can boot from the CD/DVD by hitting the specified key on the first screen.

Step 4. Click Next when you see the Windows Setup interface for the first time, then choose Repair your computer > Troubleshoot > System Image Recovery > Windows 10 subsequently.

Step 5. In the re-image your computer window, tick Use the latest available system image and then click Next.

Step 6. Choose Format and repartition disks option, then click Next > Finish > Yes to start the restoration.

Part 3: What to do after backup and restore Windows 10 image to new hard drive?

Is it over here? No, you still need to do something per your situation. Here are two main situation, please stay for a while and check it carefully, which can help you make full use of disk space on the new hard drive and avoid system restore failed error.

Situation 1: Restore Windows 10 backup to larger hard drive

If the new hard drive is larger than the old one, there will be an unallocated space at the end of new disk. Thus, you need to extend the partition size, otherwise you cannot use it to store data or do any operation. Here I’ll show you the simple steps to extend partition.

1. Press Win + R to open the run window and type diskmgmt.msc to open Disk Management in Windows 10.

2. Right-click the partition at the left side of unallocated space and select Extend Volume. Then, you will enter the Extend Volume Wizard, click Next to move on.

3. Select the disk you want to extend the partition and click Next. Usually, you can only use unallocated space on the same disk to extend volume.

4. Click Finish to start this operation.

This method works in most cases, but there is an except. If there is the 450MB recovery partition or other partition between the system partition and unallocated space, this method will become invalid. At this time, you need a professional partition resize feature, such as, «Edit Partitions» in AOMEI Backupper.

Situation 2: Restore Windows 10 image to smaller drive

Also, there are some users restore Windows 10 image to smaller drive, and most of them are out of luck. They will encounters the major problem of Windows backup and restore software: it does not support restoring to partition layouts that smaller than the original disk.

For example, if you restore a system image in Windows 10 created on 500GB hard drive to 250GB SSD, you will receive the system image restore failed error and indicated the disk is too small.

If you receive this error, the backup image is useless unless you replace the smaller hard drive with a larger one. Instead, you can use a third party tool like AOMEI Backupper to restore only used sectors on the old hard drive or consider only cloning Windows 10 to new hard drive.

Besides the system image restore error, Windows built-in backup tool still has backup errors, such as, system image backup failed because of shadow copy storage, not enough space, EFI or BIOS, no disk can be used, backup error 0x80070002, etc.

Method 2. Restore Windows 10 image to new hard drive with AOMEI Backupper Standard

AOMEI Backupper Standard is trust and reliable Windows backup and restore software to help you backup and restore Windows 10 from system image to new hard drive smoothly, even a smaller one, while your computer is running well. Also, it’s appliable to restore system image to new SSD. In addition, it allows you to create bootable media and boot the unbootable computerper.

More so, you can perform Windows 10 system image restore to different computer , even with different hardware. However, you need the help of Universal Restore feature and this feature is only available on the paid version, such as, AOMEI Backupper Professional. And this software can help you reuse unallocated space after restoration with its «Edit Partitions» feature. The premise is the restored hard drive does not have multiple partitions.

Step by step guide: Windows 10 system image restore to new hard drive

To restore Windows 10 to new hard drive using AOMEI Backupper, you need to do some preparations first.

Download and install AOMEI Backupper Standard on your computer.

Create system image backup in Windows 10 with AOMEI Backupper and save the image files to external hard drive, USB flash drive or other storage devices. Because it only restores the image created by itself.

Create bootable USB to boot your computer when it’s unbootable. If you don’t have USB drive or CD/DVD, you could consider adding an entry to this software by creating Windows recovery environment.

Then, let’s see how to restore from system image in Windows 10.

Step 1. Install new hard drive in Windows 10, and connect bootable media created by AOMEI Backupper as well as the external drive containing system image to your computer. Then, boot your computer from the bootable media.

Step 2. Under Restore tab, click Select Image File to find the image on your external drive and hit Next.

Step 3. Tick restore this system backup and Restore system to other location, then click Next to continue. If you set a scheduled full/incremental/differential backup task, there will be a few backup image that you can choose.

Step 4. Select a destination partition to restore t the image and click Next.

Tip: Please select the first partition on the target disk as destination, otherwise the system could not boot from the target disk.

Step 5. Click Start Restore to install OS on new hard drive.

Tips:
в—’ If you want to put Windows on a new hard drive in different computer, it’s suggested to tick «Universal Restore (supported by AOMEI Backupper Professional)». Because this feature can install all drivers required to boot Windows.
в—’ If you are restoring Windows 10 system image to new SSD, please tick «SSD Alignment«. Because this feature can accelerate writting and reading speed of SSDs with 4k alignment technology.
в—’ If your new hard drive is big enough to hold everything on the old disk, you could create a disk image in Windows 10. Then, restore Windows 10 disk image to new hard drive.

Conclusion

That’s all for how to restore Windows 10 image to new hard drive. You can make it with Windows built-in tool or AOMEI Backupper Standard. No matter what method you use, a bootable media is needed if your system crashes, Either optical drive or USB flash drive will be fine.

Besides system backup, you still can backup hard drive, partitions and files. Also, you can set custom schedule backup task to backup automatically, such as, daily/weekly/monthly backup, event trigger backup, USB plug in, differential backup etc. Trust me, it’s one of the most powerful software for you to secure your data and system. Just explore it by yourself now!