How to Backup and Restore Windows 10?

Windows 10 is a more stable and secured product from Microsoft. The end of support of Windows 7 along with seasonal upgrades make Windows 10 one of the most used operating system. Regardless of the robustness, Windows 10 also offer many ways to backup your data. After all you never know when your files will get corrupted or may be a hard disk failure can arise. If you have a backup that means there is no point in losing data. You can restore it anytime without spending many hours configuring your computer from the start. In this guide, we will show you how to backup and restore Windows 10.

Backup and Restore Windows 10

After every single upgrade, Windows is getting a lot easier to understand and to use. Now backing up and storing the whole backup in Windows 10 PC is very easy. After having a backup, you can restore when needed.

Remember if your PC is not booting then you may need recovery disk or USB drive to boot before restoring the backup.

Backup Windows 10

You need to create a backup file of your whole data in an external hard drive. If you don’t have any external drive then use a USB drive or DVD (depending upon the size of your backup data).

• Now, get inside your PC and go to Control Panel. Navigate to ‘System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7)’.

• Click on ‘Create a system image’ from the left side bar.
• Select the hard disk path from the first drop-down ‘On a hard disk’ list. Choose the ‘Volume’ where you want to save the backup file and click on ‘Next’ button.

• Windows will show you the total size of each available volume on your computer along with used space. Check the drives you want to backup and click on ‘Next’. Ensure the backup disk is having sufficient storage, otherwise only select the installation drive for backing up. For other content backup, we recommend to use OneDrive or any similar cloud platform.

• Now, start backing up your data by clicking on ‘Start backup’ button.

Creating a Repair Disk

It will take a while to complete the whole backup of your system with system reserved partition and files in the main drive. You can continue doing work while this backup is creating. After it’s done, a prompt will appear to create a system repair disc. You can always create a bootable USB drive for Windows 10 and can access the recovery options using the disk.

Restore Windows 10

There are two worst scenarios can happen needing you to restore Windows from the backup. First case is that your system does not boot up. At this point, you have to use the system repair disk or use bootable USB flash drive for Windows 10. When you’re ready with that, follow the steps given below to restore system image backup.

• Connect Windows 10 bootable USB drive.
• Connect the system image backup hard drive which you have made in the previous step.
• Restart your PC now.
• Now, if your PC is not set to boot from USB or DVD, you need to configure BIOS options. Press ESC key while booting up top open BIOS options. Every PC has different key to open these, check your manual for entering into BIOS when bootin your computer.
• After booting from USB bootable drive, click on ‘Next’ button.
• Now, click on ‘Repair your computer’. Click on ‘Troubleshoot’ option.

Second case is that your system is booting up but having other problems like malware or virus infection. Simply restart your PC with pressing ‘Shift’ key. After this, you will directly see the troubleshooting screen like above and rest of the steps are common for backing up.

• Choose ‘Advanced options’.

• Click on ‘System Image Recovery’ option.

• Select the Windows login account to continue. If you are a single user then you will see your admin username here.

• Enter your admin password and click on ‘Continue’ button.

• On the next screen, select ‘Use the latest available system image’ option. You should see the details filled automatically from the last backup location. If you want to restore any other image then choose ‘Select a system image’ and specify the backup file location. Click on ‘Next’ button to proceed further.

• If your PC is having different drives than the backup image, you have an option to restore similar to the backup image. Check the option ‘Format and repartition disks’. This will erase the entire partitions on your PC and format the hard disk similar to the backup image. If the option is disabled then you should install the required drivers by clicking on ‘Install drivers…” button. Otherwise just leave that option to retain the current partition structure and click on ‘Next’ button.

• Make sure your PC is connected with a power supply and click on ‘Finish’.

• Last step, click on ‘Yes’ to confirm that the backup data will overwrite the current data on the drive.

• After these steps, it will start restoring the backup data in to your new Windows 10 PC. Depending upon the size of your backup data, it will take time to restore.

Conclusion

Though the restoring process looks lengthier it should not take much time to complete. As mentioned the actual time for both backup and restore depends on the size your content. In addition to the backup image restore, you can also create system restore point before trying with software installations. In case something goes wrong, you can restore the system from the restore point. We also recommend you to always keep your ISO USB image backup handy for booting your PC for troubleshooting.