THIS VIDEO coupled with the other one about how to make a recovery drive using a memory stick has been an absolute gem of a learning lesson. thank you Dave. appreciate your hard work.
@@basselessam4813 basically a usb recovery drive helps to recover your pc from any problems it has usually by reinstalling windows if it doesn't turn on at all and a system image is whats going to restore all the data you once had on your pc in otherwords its like a snapshot in time of everything you had on your computer on the day you did the system image backup
Thank you Dave, it was very informative on how to look after all the different ways of doing a good backup, I really needed to know earlier when i lost all my data BUT now i have it all backed up. Thanks again.
After a complete weekend lost watching all the present content on RUclips about recovery drive, repair disc, system image, file history, set up backup, system restore, and so many other intertwined terms that work combined or sometimes substitute one another (yeah, after a complete weekend all these things are not completely clear to me) I'd just like to express how your videos are the best ones on these matters. The most clear in my opinion. Thanks for making them so complete. I'm sure that if I could have an afternoon with you I would leave as an expert on this subject, you know everything. The completeness on the theme, the clarity on the explanations, the appropriate editions for the understanding of the common noob like me. Thanks a lot. I just would like if you had videos on all the doubts I have, like the counterparts of all the mentions I did for Win7 and linux. But for what you offered in your channel so far, I have nothing but to thank you a lot!!!!!!!!
I would also recommend using File History which is similar to Time Machine on MacOS. It keeps versioned copies of all data on the fly. It’s included with all versions of Windows 10.
Thank you Thank you Thank you.. Explained simply and in detail. Finally someone who talks like a human being not a geeky tech nerd assuming we all know what we are doing.
6 minutes. But I only have my installation and programs on C drive. That drive being a M2 NVME and backing up to a Sata SSD also helps speeds things up.
Thanks a lot, I lost my data and learnt from my mistake and your video helped me take precautions for the next time around. I am now prepared to face the future. :)
Nice video buddy. Extremely helpful and easy to understand. I don't know why is it so hard for other people to explain in their video of "what is the system image". Most of the videos are junk.
Just a tip, you can hold your left shift key and click on restart and it will make your computer reboot into the recovery environment :) You can do this instead of turning it off 3 times.
Also you could try. Turn off your computer. Insert the USB with the Image on it. On your keyboard press and hold down ALT & F10 at the same time, then turn on your computer. This should work for Recovery USB also
You have been an absolute lifesaver with this tutorial! Thank you! For your recovery usb drive and wipe and reset tutorials too! I have to send my HP Spectre 360 back to the retailer for investigation, as one of the thunderbolt USB ports has failed, and it appears to heat up quite quickly too, during ordinary usage. They told me I had to send it back wiped, just in case! I was panicking big time, until I found your amazing tutorials and advice. So simple and straightforward. What more can I say. As a 67 year old woman from the UK, who likes to think she’s more than a little up there, technically minded, and up for a challenge, it truly was a blessing in disguise!
Hi Dave, I just discovered your great videos. An excellent video of how to create a full system image using windows but could you make a video using Macrium Reflect 7 Free? It is much faster and more reliable than windows and can also make a full clone of your drive within the same program. You could also explain the differences between Intermediate and differencial backups etc, and between Cloning and a System image. What do you think?
Hi Dave, 2 important comments. 1.- You can recover an image from a computer model to another by using a program called ACRONIS ECHO. this allows you to recover the image and after that reinstall the drivers of the new computer. 2.- You did not mention if the backup file can be shared in the external hard drive with other files or the system will erase other data of the external, I might want to have 2 separated images in my external hard drives, also once I want to recover, if it is possible to actually find the directory of where those images are located in the external HD
Hi. As an Auswertung to the question whether old data will be deleted when doing the backup, I found this, which says it won't: answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/will-backup-utility-overwrite-current-ext-hard/18688a26-ce6e-40fb-a124-eca592374e44?ranMID=46131&ranEAID=a1LgFw09t88&ranSiteID=a1LgFw09t88-DNl90hcTNs9uj1OSO5MnZw&epi=a1LgFw09t88-DNl90hcTNs9uj1OSO5MnZw&irgwc=1&OCID=AID2200057_aff_7806_1243925&tduid=(ir__lhsbprxovskfb1bg11sciavx6e2xqm30kpmmzdun00)(7806)(1243925)(a1LgFw09t88-DNl90hcTNs9uj1OSO5MnZw)()&irclickid=_lhsbprxovskfb1bg11sciavx6e2xqm30kpmmzdun00 Haven't tried yet though
VERY good quality video. Thanks! Question: can you create a system backup like this on a hard drive that already has some data on it? or does the target drive for the backup have to be empty? Thanks in advance!
Don't know if any have had this issue when creating a Windows 10 System Image but I tried to successfully create a system image 5 times and each time the status would reach 97% then stall and never fully complete. Then a thought dawned on me and that was to NOT hide my desktop icons and make sure the "Show desktop icons" was selected from the right mouse click desktop context menu. I was finally able to create a Windows 10 System Image after much frustration! 😃👍
Will this clear an external hard drive of all of its stuff? I want to take all the stuff in my computer's storage and put it in a slightly filled drive, but I don't want to put it anywhere else.
I believe there is a 2TB limit on which any Windows OS image can be created. I know this from initially trying to unsuccessfully create W10 images on a 3TB drive & found advice about this 2TB limit on the net. So I use a 3TB to do File History Backup's & from time to time an image backup on a 2TB drive. For drives greater than 2TB it maye work if a 2TB partition is created for image backups?
Very well done. I never understood the new way that Windows does backup since they moved away from NT Backup after XP/2003 Server. You remedied that in this and your last videos like no one ever ever been able to or documented well enough to. I like the file versioning better from before too, although at least that change they can make an argument for. Now that I understand it, I know that I'm not missing anything, and wouldn't consider using it. With ShadowProtect and Macrium Reflect, you can easily do automated continuous incrementals, (Synthetic Full Backups) that can give you 15 minute snapshots. You can browse or roll back and entire computer to a consistent point in time from minutes ago to months ago. You can also have them do periodic full images, all unattended. Moreover, you may want a copy of your old machine for software, operating system, or any other reason in the future. You can turn their backups into virtual machines and boot them on completely dissimilar hardware, and move them back in minutes. I've had to do that before with a server at a factory and they ran on it for 4 days and didn't notice any difference in performance or any other aspect. (Which you can do with Windows 10 images as well) Health checks are done automatically. The one that makes the most sense for home use is Macrium, while I tend to use ShadowProtect on servers. Macrium is $70 a license and $140 for 3. The free version will do about everything the pay-for version will except Synthetic Full Backups. It even makes it easy to restore from larger to smaller partitions.
Hi there I have faced an unfixable problem here. My laptop is a company laptop that came with preinstalled windows 10 enterprise. So I reset it in windows 10 and then it goes back to normal windows 10 that has a cortana welcoming me when I first setup my laptop but the problem is that I cannot get through the keyboard layout page and whenever i chose my preferred keyboard layout and it will ask me whether I want to add another layout or skip then I click skip but everything it will say " Something went wrong" and I click try again but it just will not go through it. I reformat my computer for the second time and it is still the same. I tried safe mode and all other methods and none work and I cannot even go through safe mode and it is just black screen. How can I fix it???
cool video simple and not with stupid things thank you i have one question, when we want to take the image back up from hard drive with usb, does it have possiblity that ll delete all datas in side the usb hdd ?
I just bought a new laptop and looked for videos on how to make a system image and a windows recovery drive. Your videos are the clearest and easiest to use i found. Thanks so much.
Hi Dave; I found your videos and boy they're a real help to unscrambled O S systems even to 76-year-olds that did not have pcs even in school and very little at work before retirement. Thanks a really big bunch!!
What if you do the backup and restore it in a new computer,will the windows 10 activation be intact or you would need to activate it again that is if yours is with a digital license
Good video but i have a couple of questions: 1) When backing up to the external drive does the process copy over anything that is on the external drive? 2) Afterwards can we use the remaining space on the external drive?
Hi Dave, can you help me out? I just bought a new laptop, and I'm not fond of reformatting computers. I just want a way to restore my laptop back to the day I bought it. Not for repair reasons. I sometimes get paranoid and want to restart my pc back to day 1, so it's without the apps I installed and most likely the virus, malware or spywares are gone. How can I do that? I dont care about the files in it being deleted, I have a separate drive where I store important stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong but restore point only reverts windows updates, recovery flash drive is only for repairs, and windows image well, It wasnt clear how to use it to revert everything back to day 1
These backup videos of yours are very helpful. Because backup isn't the sexiest topic I guess, there aren't that many good videos out there, but it is very important and you make a great job explaining this. Well done sir. Keep up the great work. Subscribed :)
Great tutorial. Thanx! You mentioned that the image would only work on the same computer. Can I still use an image to switch a mechanical drive to an ssd one on the same laptop? Will the image load on a brand new ssd internal harddrive?
Hi there i need help with my backup the thing is I am downgrading my windows 10 to windows 8 and i want everything (games,steam,discord,files,etc) from windows 10 to windows 8 so please help me by telling which type of backup should i do(file history, manual, system image,etc)...I have a 1 TB Seagate Expansion drive for backing up my laptop please help me...
Hi Dave, thanks for the great video! i have thinkpad x250 with 256gb M.2 SSD as C: drive (windows10, and all other programs installed here). In addition I have 1TB HDD installed to the SATA drive bay for my data (D:) drive. Have a few question: 1. Will it be OK to create the backup image file to the D: drive (not to external HDD)? I assume when anything go wrong it will attack mostly the C: drive so i still can use my D: drive as system image backup? 2. When you are using external hard drive to store the system image backup, can you use the external HD to store other files? or better to have dedicated external HDD just for storing system image backup? 3. When your C: drive completely destroyed then you need to buy and install a new hard drive, do we need to format it first? Can we choose to which drive we want to recover the system image? (in my setup, i have two physically-separate drive).
Thank you for the video. However, I just came to the conclusion that I'll just buy a new SSD drive & clone my current drive on it every six to twelve months. If it fails at anytime, I'll just pop out old drive and plug in the new one.
I have a 6 HDD drive caddy for this very purpose. These are all 3.5'' normal HDDs but I just clone down to the required format (size) that need to use.
How can i use a similar process to restore my PC since its locked up and none of the adv options work: files not gone but message: not enough memory to complete command. i don't have any recovery usb or image backup. Thanks in advance for your help. acer aspire S3 laptop Windows 10 issue
Hi James, I'll be making a video on this subject later this week, and I'll let you know here when it's up. In the meantime here are my notes to give you an idea of what to expect, they might be too brief to help but I hope they do. A couple of ways you could do this, and for both you're going to need access to another computer, plus an external hard drive or USB drive with enough capacity for all the files you want to recover. either... 1. Get a SATA to USB adapter (cheap to purchase). Also an external hard drive. Take hard drive out of your computer. Connect this to another computer with the adapter. Plug external hard drive into the computer too. Locate folders where your data is, copy these to external hard drive. or... 2. Using someone else's computer, make a bootable linux USB - some lightweight distro. Try booting your computer from this. Plug in external hard drive. Locate folders where your data is, copy these to external hard drive.
Great tutorial and advise about havin a "back-up" AND a system image, as the system image is just for a specific computer. If HD on this crashes. I get a new HD, use the recovery disk and load the system image. On a new computer and I can roll programs and files with a "back-up" NOT a system image. Should be done ofen.
I have a doubt... is it necessary for the external drive with the system image to contain only the image ... im currently storing other stuff on it and i didnt understand whether during recovery the external drive will be wiped. That would not be great. Thanks for the info
@@DavesTechRescue im asking this since i didnt see any option to browse for the image file during recovery in your video ( at 7:38 )... i only see the option to select the location of the drive .... in the video u have selected seagate expansion drive (D:). Im not sure if you can select sub directories within the drive
Speaking of hard drives, whats your opinion on a hybrid drive vs an SSD+HDD combo in a desktop? Would the SSD in the hybrid last longer because its only used when it's needed? Also, solid video, wish this was made before my SSD failed on my laptop :( Still, very useful information and well layed out.
That’s a really interesting question! If you are able to have an SSD and an HDD, and you know how to manage what is stored in each, then you’ll be happier than if you had a hybrid drive. Hybrids are better for people who need the simplicity of storing everything in one drive, but they run slower than SSDs when they are in the phase of ‘learning’ what should be stored where. Hybrids are also great if your computer only lets you connect a single drive. As for whether the SSD would last longer in a hybrid drive - I would guess it would have a similar lifespan to an SSD in normal use. But overall I guess the hybrid drive has a shorter lifespan because it has an SSD + HDD in constant use, and as soon as either one of those fails, the whole unit is dead. Glad you like the video :)
Thanks for the great videos! You should consider lowering the volume ramp-up of the the 2 second music breaks, in your videos. It hurts. Question: can you create a system image on an external drive that also has data backed up, or does it need to be dedicated to only being a system image? I have a 3 TB WD Elements, and I'd like to put an image on it. If it is possible, would I need to partition the drive?
Late reply, but yes you can. Windows backup allows you to put the data files and system image on the same external drive. You will want to create a recovery USB, so you can boot into the utilities that allow this.
Probably a stupid question... I have numerous drives such as C, D, E and F, if I create a system image of only C, upon restoring from image it will not mess with the other drives at all? Thanks.
Thank you for sharing this video. I came here looking for a way to do the exact type of image backup for a mobile device. I am not sure this can be done via the mobile apps that come pre installed or not. There are options for backing up photos, documents, etc, but I cannot find any software programs that will do a mobile image. I have alot of important apps that I would love to just reinstall via a disk image, as I have done on my windows laptop. Are you aware of any way to do this and if not, can you suggest the best way to backup your smartphone (iphone and android) if a disc image is not possible? It sure would be nice to just load in that image onto another phone and you are back and running for every single data that was on the old phone. Thanks again, as this is such an important question today with everyone using smartphones for just about everything, and backups are an absolute necessity.
Just found your channel Dave... So interesting... Just finished viewing the video on "System Image Backup" - Not sure I understand fully - I have a couple of questions. 1) If I make a System Image Backup, do I still need to make a full backup? 2) If I need to make a full Backup as well as a System Image Backup, Can I make both on the same External HD if it has enough capacity? Thanks Dave... I will surely view a lot of your videos.
Thanks John, really good question. Short answer - you should buy 2 drives, make a full backup as often as you can, and make a System Image backup less often. Long answer: System image backup is a thorough backup of the exact state of your computer, and can be a real timesaver if something like a bad windows update crashes your computer. However, it’s not convenient to make a system image as it takes so long, and it’s tailored to your exact computer. If you need to replace your computer, you can’t restore from it. So your regular backups should be done another way, like with File History or just copying files to an external drive. Or using a cloud service like OneDrive / Dropbox. You might be able to use the same physical drive for both backups, I haven’t tested this. But don’t take the risk if you can afford another drive.
Clear and concise video, thanks. My son set up my new, his old computer with a raid setup for the operating system, and an extra non raid data drive. I have just upgraded to win 10, and need to know when I over-write my backup Win7 HD, I believe that the system should treat the raid setup (the C: drive) as one continuous drive. Am I correct? I am familiar with Linux but not so much with Windows and don't want to make an incomplete image. Thanks, Bob
Great video. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of my hard drive completely crashing without a recovery disk. Super helpful in the event this happens again.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video,nicely explained and at A pace where we can take take alot of info in ,calm and steady the way to go ,i just liked and subbed
01:56 I Tried to guess several times, but, I am unsuccess full. What other kind of backup? I thought System image backs up (Clones) everything (Files, Media, OS, Apps/Program, e.t.c) at the time it was created.. Or you mean worth doing in addition to another kind of backup On a different computer??, :?
Please can you explain what you mean when you say sytem image backup can only be used on the same kind of machine it was created on? Does that mean it needs the same brand and model to be usable? Thanks.
If you just wanted to back up your files in your My Documents folder, wouldn't it be faster to just back up one folder, in the My Documents folder, at a time? With a fast external hard drive?
Measuring that the original name as "WindowsImageBackup" should not change, I changed the name, so it showed "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer" in restoring.
TERRIFIC story-telling and info, thank you!! a suggestion...add some graphic pop-up graphics that reinforce the spoken directions. or an illustration of the actual MS-pages, instead of screenshots (to make them absolutely-clear, even adding arrow :-). yep, the spoken word is essential, but here the visual is primary. sub'd/liked
Hi The story is like this.. Something happened to my laptop but the hard drive is Ok SO i put the hard drive in an old laptop i had AND it work but i read a lot about Switch hard drives between laptops and i became worried Sooo i did abackup Image AND I HAVE NO IDIA WHAT TO DO NEXT ... I also read about (Sysprep).. WELL it work?????????? Any advice Pleace help me
Hi The story is like this.. Something happened to my laptop but the hard drive is Ok SO i put the hard drive in an old laptop i had AND it work but i read a lot about Switch hard drives between laptops and i became worried Sooo i did abackup Image AND I HAVE NO IDIA WHAT TO DO NEXT ... I also read about (Sysprep).. WELL it work?????????? Any advice Pleace help me
I created my own SSD Drive for backup, that is the same model of the SSD that is in my computer. So when I do a System Image, I can recover by taking out the SSD Drive in the computer, and put the SSD in from the USB Case that holds the System Image, and just boot back up... I am Recovered... I use a program called AOMEI Backupper. It creates a exact copy of my 256GB Drive in about 15 minutes. I use this method because I have been burned by Microsoft Windows 10 updates failing, and getting support is timely. Now I just swap the drives, the one that has the OS error now becomes my new System Image Drive. For Individual files, I use a 256GB thumb drive that I keep plugged in all the time using the history method.
I want to make a System Image for my PC, which contains 2 hard drives (system drive is SSD, storage drive is HDD). If my PC has issues and I need to re-image the PC, will it return BOTH HARD DRIVES back to how they were when I made the image?
Mine say backup failed to get an exclusive lock on the EFI system partition (ESP). This may happen if another application is using the files in the ESP......help???
I’m late to this dance but I think this video is missing a couple of steps. When I plugged my brand new Seagate 1 TB hard drive it did not show up. Why?? Because it did not have a drive assigned to it. That caused me a few hours of searching to find out why and how. So I got a drive letter assigned to it and it now shows up indicating available space but no files on it. When I now follow the above instructions as to how to create a system image I get the following message and I will not enter full message “There is not enough disk space to create the volume volume shadow copy on the storage location” blah blah blah…. The message goes on a lot of information none of which makes sense to me as I have a 1tb empty hard drive. So what do I need to do??? I want to use this as a new hard drive in my laptop which presently is only 236gb. Thanks for any help.
It's not 100%. I have been doing system images to a couple of drives in a USB Toaster (hot pluggable device that takes sata drives). I wanted to load a gcalendar hack into outlook's calendar. It allows me r/w access to gmail's calendar. As it was blowing by in the installation I saw it say something about outlook 2016 and I'm running 2019. I messed outlook up good. Good news is I had my handy image backup that I just did. Popped in the usb key, told it to clobber and load the c: drive and after I think an hour or so I came back to a booted machine ready to login to. As you said, it appeared everything was back to the way it was. What was different? All of my contacts were gone from outlook. So was my calendar settings and appointments. I don't use exchange. I use a Linux imap server and gmail. It kept the logins to the Linux host and gmail. Unfortunately I wish I had my calendar data. I have to find a way to dump that as well. Now to wait for the gcalendar hack to work in 2019.
Dave followed your instructions but then got an error message 0x80070015.....the drive is not ready...should I have formatted it first (Its a brand new seagate)?
I've been using a USB-bootable copy of Norton Ghost to back up system images which I've found very reliable, But although my new computer boots to this USB stick, it won't recognize my mouse or keyboard. Glad there are other options.
I have a 256GB hard drive in my computer. If I buy a 500GB external drive, will the extra space remaining after making the backup be usable for normal purposes?
I followed you advice & made both a back up image file and usb boot drive. When I had a fail and got to the point where Windows would install my image file, it said it wouldn't because Windows had been loaded through BIOS & the image file was made with Windows loaded through EFI. I originally loaded Windows 7 Home through a disc & did the free streaming upgrade to Windows 10. Would making a clone, instead of an image, have avoided this? Thanks for you help - Greg
To Dave's Tech Rescue, On 3:33 - 3:37, Is there a difference between clicking 'Create a system image' to 'Set up back-up'? I was wondering which two chosen backup route is better?
Yes, I have had a "catastrophe" in the past: a power on/off situation in the 110v Household power ... it blinked on and off a few times in a second or so ... resulting in a power surge that took out the hard drives in both my Linux Desktop and my Windows Desktop. The drives in both of these computers had given me their money's worth ... over 8 years old each, I think, and I needed an excuse to upgrade to SSDs in both. Restoring my Linux Desktop hard drive was not too hard, but there were peculiarities that needed to be addressed: The size of the original hard drive was bigger than the SSD I replace it with. The Windows Desktop was a bit of a chore reinstalling my licensed copy of Windows 10. I am just a user and not a computer repair tech and I am quite aware of how easy it is to do even more damage to your equipment and software and files if you don't do EXACTLY what is required. The computer industry is at least partly responsible for the confusion that users experience due to ambiguous terms and vague directions. Room for improvement. I have to thank you for your well thought out videos and your clear communication on the subject on hand. Always remember that those listening to your videos may not and probably don't have the same level of understanding that you have.
Dave. I am behind the times, but am still trying. My ASUS laptop now gives me a hard drive error message upon start up. It is telling me to back up my hard drive and replace it. I must then hit the F1 function key to complete the start up routine. I purchased a Western Digital replacement hard drive. My question is this: Should I just purchase a compatible hard drive connector with a USB end and do a "system image" to my new hard drive so that when I install it permanently, it will pick up where I left off? I only have USB 2 ports, no USB 3 ports. Would there be enough power provided by the USB 2 port to do this? Everything sounds logical to me, but again, I am not tech savvy as most viewers seem to be. Thanks for any advice provided here. It would be greatly appreciated.
When I click on 'create a system image' it shows the message "This drive cannot be used to store a system image because it is not formatted with NTFS." My drive is a Samsung Portable SSD T5 1 Terabyte. ?? Other than that your presentation was fabulous!
Hi, I want to take my Windows 7 PC back to its factory settings. Blank - for taking to the local tip. Trouble is I don't have the Windows Installation disc that came with it. When I try and do the "reset" thing, the computer asks me for the original Windows install CD. I watched an, "If you don't have the Windows CD" tutorial and they do it via creating a System Image Back Up instead. But you see, I don't want to back anything up. I just want it blank. I hope you can understand me and I'd appreciate any help thank you.
Thanks for the video. I followed all your steps but the Windows Image Back up Folder on my external HD shows itself to be an empty folder with 0 bytes in size. I cant further access any files or folders in the backup image. Is there a way to verify and confirm that the system image backup is successful and useable?
I've selected my external hard drive, however, it says this drive cannot be used to store a system image because it is not formated with NTFS. I've backup my files on this hard drive, in addition to that i want to backup the Windows 10 operating system. Please help, thanks
Are you certain the Windows cloning software requires you to restore your backup to identical hardware? I believe other software (like AOMEI or Acronis) can restore to dissimilar hardware.
Your instructions are clear and even I can understand them. THANK YOU. However, I got a brand ned Samsung T7 SSD and my computer will not allow me to use it as a backup drive. It sees the drive. I have a magnetic field, and when I am within 20 feet of a computer it automatically malfunctions. It is not that I am paranoid, it is just that the damn things are out to get me. how before it Do I have to format the drive somehow before I can use it? The Samsung instructions are nonexistent.
THIS VIDEO coupled with the other one about how to make a recovery drive using a memory stick has been an absolute gem of a learning lesson. thank you Dave. appreciate your hard work.
Can you explain to me what is the difference?
@@basselessam4813 basically a usb recovery drive helps to recover your pc from any problems it has usually by reinstalling windows if it doesn't turn on at all and a system image is whats going to restore all the data you once had on your pc in otherwords its like a snapshot in time of everything you had on your computer on the day you did the system image backup
What to do when I have no system back up and cannot boot
Hey Dave, an FYI, I used your video and backed up my windows 11 today. It did exact job as win10. Thanks a lot buddy, you are the best!
Thank you Dave, it was very informative on how to look after all the different ways of doing a good backup, I really needed to know earlier when i lost all my data BUT now i have it all backed up. Thanks again.
Sorry you lost your data, but glad the video was helpful
Excellent! Clear and concise, straight to the point. Great tutorial!
After a complete weekend lost watching all the present content on RUclips about recovery drive, repair disc, system image, file history, set up backup, system restore, and so many other intertwined terms that work combined or sometimes substitute one another (yeah, after a complete weekend all these things are not completely clear to me) I'd just like to express how your videos are the best ones on these matters. The most clear in my opinion. Thanks for making them so complete. I'm sure that if I could have an afternoon with you I would leave as an expert on this subject, you know everything. The completeness on the theme, the clarity on the explanations, the appropriate editions for the understanding of the common noob like me. Thanks a lot. I just would like if you had videos on all the doubts I have, like the counterparts of all the mentions I did for Win7 and linux. But for what you offered in your channel so far, I have nothing but to thank you a lot!!!!!!!!
Here I made a system image with aomei and restore to another pc, worked well.
This is a useful way but if you have no system restore point you have to turn to aomei to do this.
I would also recommend using File History which is similar to Time Machine on MacOS. It keeps versioned copies of all data on the fly. It’s included with all versions of Windows 10.
Thank you Thank you Thank you.. Explained simply and in detail. Finally someone who talks like a human being not a geeky tech nerd assuming we all know what we are doing.
This backup took my computer well over 2 hours to complete! How long did it take for yours to do?
6 minutes. But I only have my installation and programs on C drive. That drive being a M2 NVME and backing up to a Sata SSD also helps speeds things up.
51 Gb total.
Hi dave can I using pen drive to make a system image backup ????
It took 9 mins. i5 with a 256 ssd C drive to an internal 2tb sata.
@@seunice3704 No, it does not have the sufficient capacity to store one.
Hey Dave, thank you for your RUclips "How to Make a System Image backup" It was a life saver. Cheers Mate
Thank you very informative, I backup with Aomei which is a easy tool for me
I made image backup with aomei, it's really convenient.
Thanks a lot, I lost my data and learnt from my mistake and your video helped me take precautions for the next time around. I am now prepared to face the future. :)
Nice video buddy. Extremely helpful and easy to understand. I don't know why is it so hard for other people to explain in their video of "what is the system image". Most of the videos are junk.
Just a tip, you can hold your left shift key and click on restart and it will make your computer reboot into the recovery environment :) You can do this instead of turning it off 3 times.
Also you could try. Turn off your computer. Insert the USB with the Image on it. On your keyboard press and hold down ALT & F10 at the same time, then turn on your computer. This should work for Recovery USB also
You have been an absolute lifesaver with this tutorial! Thank you! For your recovery usb drive and wipe and reset tutorials too! I have to send my HP Spectre 360 back to the retailer for investigation, as one of the thunderbolt USB ports has failed, and it appears to heat up quite quickly too, during ordinary usage. They told me I had to send it back wiped, just in case! I was panicking big time, until I found your amazing tutorials and advice. So simple and straightforward. What more can I say. As a 67 year old woman from the UK, who likes to think she’s more than a little up there, technically minded, and up for a challenge, it truly was a blessing in disguise!
Hi Dave, I just discovered your great videos. An excellent video of how to create a full system image using windows but could you make a video using Macrium Reflect 7 Free? It is much faster and more reliable than windows and can also make a full clone of your drive within the same program. You could also explain the differences between Intermediate and differencial backups etc, and between Cloning and a System image. What do you think?
Hi Dave, 2 important comments. 1.- You can recover an image from a computer model to another by using a program called ACRONIS ECHO. this allows you to recover the image and after that reinstall the drivers of the new computer. 2.- You did not mention if the backup file can be shared in the external hard drive with other files or the system will erase other data of the external, I might want to have 2 separated images in my external hard drives, also once I want to recover, if it is possible to actually find the directory of where those images are located in the external HD
Hi. As an Auswertung to the question whether old data will be deleted when doing the backup, I found this, which says it won't:
answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/will-backup-utility-overwrite-current-ext-hard/18688a26-ce6e-40fb-a124-eca592374e44?ranMID=46131&ranEAID=a1LgFw09t88&ranSiteID=a1LgFw09t88-DNl90hcTNs9uj1OSO5MnZw&epi=a1LgFw09t88-DNl90hcTNs9uj1OSO5MnZw&irgwc=1&OCID=AID2200057_aff_7806_1243925&tduid=(ir__lhsbprxovskfb1bg11sciavx6e2xqm30kpmmzdun00)(7806)(1243925)(a1LgFw09t88-DNl90hcTNs9uj1OSO5MnZw)()&irclickid=_lhsbprxovskfb1bg11sciavx6e2xqm30kpmmzdun00
Haven't tried yet though
VERY good quality video. Thanks!
Question: can you create a system backup like this on a hard drive that already has some data on it? or does the target drive for the backup have to be empty? Thanks in advance!
i have the exact same question!
Great tutorials as usual. Thanks for all the effort. All your tutorials are easy to follow well explained and very informative.
Don't know if any have had this issue when creating a Windows 10 System Image but I tried to successfully create a system image 5 times and each time the status would reach 97% then stall and never fully complete. Then a thought dawned on me and that was to NOT hide my desktop icons and make sure the "Show desktop icons" was selected from the right mouse click desktop context menu. I was finally able to create a Windows 10 System Image after much frustration! 😃👍
Will this clear an external hard drive of all of its stuff? I want to take all the stuff in my computer's storage and put it in a slightly filled drive, but I don't want to put it anywhere else.
"More importantly, I hope you never need it."... Are you KIDDING!? I CAN'T WAIT for my computer to crash, now!!! 🤣
Not a bad tutorial, you can also use a third party program like Acronis.
Or Symantec ghost, clonezilla...
Yes, a third party program is my choice too. Microsoft tools are not the best.
I believe there is a 2TB limit on which any Windows OS image can be created. I know this from initially trying to unsuccessfully create W10 images on a 3TB drive & found advice about this 2TB limit on the net. So I use a 3TB to do File History Backup's & from time to time an image backup on a 2TB drive. For drives greater than 2TB it maye work if a 2TB partition is created for image backups?
Very well done. I never understood the new way that Windows does backup since they moved away from NT Backup after XP/2003 Server. You remedied that in this and your last videos like no one ever ever been able to or documented well enough to. I like the file versioning better from before too, although at least that change they can make an argument for. Now that I understand it, I know that I'm not missing anything, and wouldn't consider using it.
With ShadowProtect and Macrium Reflect, you can easily do automated continuous incrementals, (Synthetic Full Backups) that can give you 15 minute snapshots. You can browse or roll back and entire computer to a consistent point in time from minutes ago to months ago. You can also have them do periodic full images, all unattended. Moreover, you may want a copy of your old machine for software, operating system, or any other reason in the future. You can turn their backups into virtual machines and boot them on completely dissimilar hardware, and move them back in minutes. I've had to do that before with a server at a factory and they ran on it for 4 days and didn't notice any difference in performance or any other aspect. (Which you can do with Windows 10 images as well) Health checks are done automatically. The one that makes the most sense for home use is Macrium, while I tend to use ShadowProtect on servers. Macrium is $70 a license and $140 for 3. The free version will do about everything the pay-for version will except Synthetic Full Backups. It even makes it easy to restore from larger to smaller partitions.
Hi there I have faced an unfixable problem here. My laptop is a company laptop that came with preinstalled windows 10 enterprise. So I reset it in windows 10 and then it goes back to normal windows 10 that has a cortana welcoming me when I first setup my laptop but the problem is that I cannot get through the keyboard layout page and whenever i chose my preferred keyboard layout and it will ask me whether I want to add another layout or skip then I click skip but everything it will say " Something went wrong" and I click try again but it just will not go through it. I reformat my computer for the second time and it is still the same. I tried safe mode and all other methods and none work and I cannot even go through safe mode and it is just black screen. How can I fix it???
Will this process delete any files on (the image recovery I mean) my External HARD DRIVE?
@Ralph W So i do not have to make a new Partition for each Backup? I could just make multiple Backups on the same Partition? Thanks in advance :)
cool video simple and not with stupid things thank you
i have one question, when we want to take the image back up from hard drive with usb, does it have possiblity that ll delete all datas in side the usb hdd ?
I just bought a new laptop and looked for videos on how to make a system image and a windows recovery drive. Your videos are the clearest and easiest to use i found. Thanks so much.
Do i need a reformatted or empty harddrive to do system image backup?
Hi Dave; I found your videos and boy they're a real help to unscrambled O S systems even to 76-year-olds that did not have pcs even in school and very little at work before retirement. Thanks a really big bunch!!
Hey Dave, It was an awesome trick !!!.... Thanks a lot for this
What if you do the backup and restore it in a new computer,will the windows 10 activation be intact or you would need to activate it again that is if yours is with a digital license
Not sure if it will work on different pc, he mentioned that it will work on same type of machine.
@@santoshkarela8433 thanks anyway😇
Good video but i have a couple of questions: 1) When backing up to the external drive does the process copy over anything that is on the external drive? 2) Afterwards can we use the remaining space on the external drive?
can you use the image to create a backup hard drive, in case the primary hard drive seizes?
Excellent as are all your other Videos Dave
Tnx now i install windows and all programs in just 7 min
Hi Dave, can you help me out?
I just bought a new laptop, and I'm not fond of reformatting computers. I just want a way to restore my laptop back to the day I bought it. Not for repair reasons.
I sometimes get paranoid and want to restart my pc back to day 1, so it's without the apps I installed and most likely the virus, malware or spywares are gone. How can I do that? I dont care about the files in it being deleted, I have a separate drive where I store important stuff.
Correct me if I'm wrong but restore point only reverts windows updates, recovery flash drive is only for repairs, and windows image well, It wasnt clear how to use it to revert everything back to day 1
@Jayfox This video will show you how to do this. Hope it helps :)
ruclips.net/video/zDxV2gium5Y/видео.html
These backup videos of yours are very helpful. Because backup isn't the sexiest topic I guess, there aren't that many good videos out there, but it is very important and you make a great job explaining this. Well done sir. Keep up the great work. Subscribed :)
Thanks so much 😁
Great tutorial. Thanx! You mentioned that the image would only work on the same computer. Can I still use an image to switch a mechanical drive to an ssd one on the same laptop? Will the image load on a brand new ssd internal harddrive?
Hi there i need help with my backup the thing is I am downgrading my windows 10 to windows 8 and i want everything (games,steam,discord,files,etc) from windows 10 to windows 8 so please help me by telling which type of backup should i do(file history, manual, system image,etc)...I have a 1 TB Seagate Expansion drive for backing up my laptop please help me...
ty
Good video. Very helpful and concise.
When want you back to YT!!! Thanks for the excelent tutorials
Hi Dave, thanks for the great video! i have thinkpad x250 with 256gb M.2 SSD as C: drive (windows10, and all other programs installed here). In addition I have 1TB HDD installed to the SATA drive bay for my data (D:) drive. Have a few question:
1. Will it be OK to create the backup image file to the D: drive (not to external HDD)? I assume when anything go wrong it will attack mostly the C: drive so i still can use my D: drive as system image backup?
2. When you are using external hard drive to store the system image backup, can you use the external HD to store other files? or better to have dedicated external HDD just for storing system image backup?
3. When your C: drive completely destroyed then you need to buy and install a new hard drive, do we need to format it first? Can we choose to which drive we want to recover the system image? (in my setup, i have two physically-separate drive).
Thank you for the video. However, I just came to the conclusion that I'll just buy a new SSD drive & clone my current drive on it every six to twelve months. If it fails at anytime, I'll just pop out old drive and plug in the new one.
I have a 6 HDD drive caddy for this very purpose. These are all 3.5'' normal HDDs but I just clone down to the required format (size) that need to use.
Very useful. My PC died recently.
Great video. One question, how does one know if the system image is a good image? Thanks!
great video easy to understand keep up the good help info
How can i use a similar process to restore my PC since its locked up and none of the adv options work: files not gone but message: not enough memory to complete command.
i don't have any recovery usb or image backup. Thanks in advance for your help. acer aspire S3 laptop Windows 10 issue
Hi James, I'll be making a video on this subject later this week, and I'll let you know here when it's up. In the meantime here are my notes to give you an idea of what to expect, they might be too brief to help but I hope they do.
A couple of ways you could do this, and for both you're going to need access to another computer, plus an external hard drive or USB drive with enough capacity for all the files you want to recover.
either...
1. Get a SATA to USB adapter (cheap to purchase). Also an external hard drive. Take hard drive out of your computer. Connect this to another computer with the adapter. Plug external hard drive into the computer too. Locate folders where your data is, copy these to external hard drive.
or...
2. Using someone else's computer, make a bootable linux USB - some lightweight distro. Try booting your computer from this. Plug in external hard drive. Locate folders where your data is, copy these to external hard drive.
Great tutorial and advise about havin a "back-up" AND a system image, as the system image is just for a specific computer. If HD on this crashes. I get a new HD, use the recovery disk and load the system image. On a new computer and I can roll programs and files with a "back-up" NOT a system image. Should be done ofen.
I have a doubt... is it necessary for the external drive with the system image to contain only the image ... im currently storing other stuff on it and i didnt understand whether during recovery the external drive will be wiped. That would not be great. Thanks for the info
I think you'll be ok. But I haven't tested this, and if it's important then I would buy a second usb just for your files.
@@DavesTechRescue im asking this since i didnt see any option to browse for the image file during recovery in your video ( at 7:38 )... i only see the option to select the location of the drive .... in the video u have selected seagate expansion drive (D:). Im not sure if you can select sub directories within the drive
Speaking of hard drives, whats your opinion on a hybrid drive vs an SSD+HDD combo in a desktop? Would the SSD in the hybrid last longer because its only used when it's needed? Also, solid video, wish this was made before my SSD failed on my laptop :( Still, very useful information and well layed out.
That’s a really interesting question! If you are able to have an SSD and an HDD, and you know how to manage what is stored in each, then you’ll be happier than if you had a hybrid drive. Hybrids are better for people who need the simplicity of storing everything in one drive, but they run slower than SSDs when they are in the phase of ‘learning’ what should be stored where. Hybrids are also great if your computer only lets you connect a single drive. As for whether the SSD would last longer in a hybrid drive - I would guess it would have a similar lifespan to an SSD in normal use. But overall I guess the hybrid drive has a shorter lifespan because it has an SSD + HDD in constant use, and as soon as either one of those fails, the whole unit is dead. Glad you like the video :)
Thanks for the great videos! You should consider lowering the volume ramp-up of the the 2 second music breaks, in your videos. It hurts. Question: can you create a system image on an external drive that also has data backed up, or does it need to be dedicated to only being a system image? I have a 3 TB WD Elements, and I'd like to put an image on it. If it is possible, would I need to partition the drive?
Late reply, but yes you can. Windows backup allows you to put the data files and system image on the same external drive. You will want to create a recovery USB, so you can boot into the utilities that allow this.
Probably a stupid question... I have numerous drives such as C, D, E and F, if I create a system image of only C, upon restoring from image it will not mess with the other drives at all? Thanks.
Thank you for sharing this video. I came here looking for a way to do the exact type of image backup for a mobile device. I am not sure this can be done via the mobile apps that come pre installed or not. There are options for backing up photos, documents, etc, but I cannot find any software programs that will do a mobile image.
I have alot of important apps that I would love to just reinstall via a disk image, as I have done on my windows laptop. Are you aware of any way to do this and if not, can you suggest the best way to backup your smartphone (iphone and android) if a disc image is not possible? It sure would be nice to just load in that image onto another phone and you are back and running for every single data that was on the old phone.
Thanks again, as this is such an important question today with everyone using smartphones for just about everything, and backups are an absolute necessity.
Just found your channel Dave... So interesting... Just finished viewing the video on "System Image Backup" - Not sure I understand fully - I have a couple of questions.
1) If I make a System Image Backup, do I still need to make a full backup?
2) If I need to make a full Backup as well as a System Image Backup, Can I make both on the same External HD if it has enough capacity?
Thanks Dave... I will surely view a lot of your videos.
Thanks John, really good question. Short answer - you should buy 2 drives, make a full backup as often as you can, and make a System Image backup less often.
Long answer:
System image backup is a thorough backup of the exact state of your computer, and can be a real timesaver if something like a bad windows update crashes your computer. However, it’s not convenient to make a system image as it takes so long, and it’s tailored to your exact computer. If you need to replace your computer, you can’t restore from it.
So your regular backups should be done another way, like with File History or just copying files to an external drive. Or using a cloud service like OneDrive / Dropbox.
You might be able to use the same physical drive for both backups, I haven’t tested this. But don’t take the risk if you can afford another drive.
Thanks, will take your advise and get a second external drive. So fast to respond.. THIS IS GREAT. You made a fan for sure. Thanks again.
Clear and concise video, thanks. My son set up my new, his old computer with a raid setup for the operating system, and an extra non raid data drive. I have just upgraded to win 10, and need to know when I over-write my backup Win7 HD, I believe that the system should treat the raid setup (the C: drive) as one continuous drive. Am I correct? I am familiar with Linux but not so much with Windows and don't want to make an incomplete image.
Thanks,
Bob
Is it possible to make a system image to a second hard drive you have in your pc, then take out the original and boot from the new hard drive?
No, for that you'll need to make a clone of the main hard drive, to the second drive. I would recommend using Clonezilla for this.
I would not trust so much in Windows tools and especially for backups, I tell you from experience (and a lot)
Great video. I’ve had the unfortunate experience of my hard drive completely crashing without a recovery disk. Super helpful in the event this happens again.
Thanks for taking the time to make this video,nicely explained and at A pace where we can take take alot of info in ,calm and steady the way to go ,i just liked and subbed
01:56 I Tried to guess several times, but, I am unsuccess full. What other kind of backup? I thought System image backs up (Clones) everything (Files, Media, OS, Apps/Program, e.t.c) at the time it was created.. Or you mean worth doing in addition to another kind of backup On a different computer??, :?
Dave, will a “system Image backup” also copy and backup my third-party-installed programs (Word, Adobe Photoshop, etc.)?
Which backup method is better? This one, via Acronis, or via AOMEI Backupper?
great video! can i put a system image backup and a file history backup on the same hard drive?? thanks
Hello, have you managed to find a solution? Because I also have this doubt.
@@sr.m3708 no
@@djfritz okay, thanks for your reply
Please can you explain what you mean when you say sytem image backup can only be used on the same kind of machine it was created on? Does that mean it needs the same brand and model to be usable? Thanks.
If you just wanted to back up your files in your My Documents folder, wouldn't it be faster to just back up one folder, in the My Documents folder, at a time? With a fast external hard drive?
When I click next in image recovery it's asking me to create system repair disc how to fix that
Measuring that the original name as "WindowsImageBackup" should not change, I changed the name, so it showed "Windows cannot find a system image on this computer" in restoring.
What if the harddrive is completely dead? Can you use the backup file to restore everything on a NEW harddrive?
TERRIFIC story-telling and info, thank you!! a suggestion...add some graphic pop-up graphics that reinforce the spoken directions. or an illustration of the actual MS-pages, instead of screenshots (to make them absolutely-clear, even adding arrow :-). yep, the spoken word is essential, but here the visual is primary. sub'd/liked
Thank u so much...the way u explaining all stuff is marvelous ❣️❣️❣️
Hi
The story is like this..
Something happened to my laptop but the hard drive is Ok
SO i put the hard drive in an old laptop i had
AND it work
but i read a lot about Switch hard drives between laptops and i became worried
Sooo i did abackup Image
AND I HAVE NO IDIA WHAT TO DO NEXT
...
I also read about (Sysprep)..
WELL it work??????????
Any advice
Pleace help me
Hi
The story is like this..
Something happened to my laptop but the hard drive is Ok
SO i put the hard drive in an old laptop i had
AND it work
but i read a lot about Switch hard drives between laptops and i became worried
Sooo i did abackup Image
AND I HAVE NO IDIA WHAT TO DO NEXT
...
I also read about (Sysprep)..
WELL it work??????????
Any advice
Pleace help me
Can I make a system image backup with USB flash drive ? Thank you
I created my own SSD Drive for backup, that is the same model of the SSD that is in my computer. So when I do a System Image, I can recover by taking out the SSD Drive in the computer, and put the SSD in from the USB Case that holds the System Image, and just boot back up... I am Recovered... I use a program called AOMEI Backupper. It creates a exact copy of my 256GB Drive in about 15 minutes. I use this method because I have been burned by Microsoft Windows 10 updates failing, and getting support is timely. Now I just swap the drives, the one that has the OS error now becomes my new System Image Drive. For Individual files, I use a 256GB thumb drive that I keep plugged in all the time using the history method.
Can I use this process to backup one external hard drive to another ? I'm attempting to copy from a drive that I can't see in file explorer
I want to make a System Image for my PC, which contains 2 hard drives (system drive is SSD, storage drive is HDD). If my PC has issues and I need to re-image the PC, will it return BOTH HARD DRIVES back to how they were when I made the image?
Mine say backup failed to get an exclusive lock on the EFI system partition (ESP). This may happen if another application is using the files in the ESP......help???
I’m late to this dance but I think this video is missing a couple of steps.
When I plugged my brand new Seagate 1 TB hard drive it did not show up. Why?? Because it did not have a drive assigned to it. That caused me a few hours of searching to find out why and how.
So I got a drive letter assigned to it and it now shows up indicating available space but no files on it.
When I now follow the above instructions as to how to create a system image I get the following message and I will not enter full message
“There is not enough disk space to create the volume volume shadow copy on the storage location” blah blah blah…. The message goes on a lot of information none of which makes sense to me as I have a 1tb empty hard drive.
So what do I need to do???
I want to use this as a new hard drive in my laptop which presently is only 236gb.
Thanks for any help.
It's not 100%. I have been doing system images to a couple of drives in a USB Toaster (hot pluggable device that takes sata drives). I wanted to load a gcalendar hack into outlook's calendar. It allows me r/w access to gmail's calendar. As it was blowing by in the installation I saw it say something about outlook 2016 and I'm running 2019. I messed outlook up good. Good news is I had my handy image backup that I just did. Popped in the usb key, told it to clobber and load the c: drive and after I think an hour or so I came back to a booted machine ready to login to. As you said, it appeared everything was back to the way it was. What was different? All of my contacts were gone from outlook. So was my calendar settings and appointments. I don't use exchange. I use a Linux imap server and gmail. It kept the logins to the Linux host and gmail. Unfortunately I wish I had my calendar data. I have to find a way to dump that as well.
Now to wait for the gcalendar hack to work in 2019.
Dave followed your instructions but then got an error message 0x80070015.....the drive is not ready...should I have formatted it first (Its a brand new seagate)?
I've been using a USB-bootable copy of Norton Ghost to back up system images which I've found very reliable, But although my new computer boots to this USB stick, it won't recognize my mouse or keyboard. Glad there are other options.
I have a 256GB hard drive in my computer. If I buy a 500GB external drive, will the extra space remaining after making the backup be usable for normal purposes?
I followed you advice & made both a back up image file and usb boot drive. When I had a fail and got to the point where Windows would install my image file, it said it wouldn't because Windows had been loaded through BIOS & the image file was made with Windows loaded through EFI. I originally loaded Windows 7 Home through a disc & did the free streaming upgrade to Windows 10. Would making a clone, instead of an image, have avoided this?
Thanks for you help - Greg
To Dave's Tech Rescue,
On 3:33 - 3:37, Is there a difference between clicking 'Create a system image' to 'Set up back-up'?
I was wondering which two chosen backup route is better?
Yes, I have had a "catastrophe" in the past: a power on/off situation in the 110v Household power ... it blinked on and off a few times in a second or so ... resulting in a power surge that took out the hard drives in both my Linux Desktop and my Windows Desktop. The drives in both of these computers had given me their money's worth ... over 8 years old each, I think, and I needed an excuse to upgrade to SSDs in both. Restoring my Linux Desktop hard drive was not too hard, but there were peculiarities that needed to be addressed: The size of the original hard drive was bigger than the SSD I replace it with. The Windows Desktop was a bit of a chore reinstalling my licensed copy of Windows 10. I am just a user and not a computer repair tech and I am quite aware of how easy it is to do even more damage to your equipment and software and files if you don't do EXACTLY what is required. The computer industry is at least partly responsible for the confusion that users experience due to ambiguous terms and vague directions. Room for improvement. I have to thank you for your well thought out videos and your clear communication on the subject on hand. Always remember that those listening to your videos may not and probably don't have the same level of understanding that you have.
Dave. I am behind the times, but am still trying. My ASUS laptop now gives me a hard drive error message upon start up. It is telling me to back up my hard drive and replace it. I must then hit the F1 function key to complete the start up routine. I purchased a Western Digital replacement hard drive. My question is this: Should I just purchase a compatible hard drive connector with a USB end and do a "system image" to my new hard drive so that when I install it permanently, it will pick up where I left off? I only have USB 2 ports, no USB 3 ports. Would there be enough power provided by the USB 2 port to do this? Everything sounds logical to me, but again, I am not tech savvy as most viewers seem to be. Thanks for any advice provided here. It would be greatly appreciated.
When I click on 'create a system image' it shows the message "This drive cannot be used to store a system image because it is not formatted with NTFS." My drive is a Samsung Portable SSD T5 1 Terabyte. ?? Other than that your presentation was fabulous!
Hi, I want to take my Windows 7 PC back to its factory settings. Blank - for taking to the local tip. Trouble is I don't have the Windows Installation disc that came with it. When I try and do the "reset" thing, the computer asks me for the original Windows install CD. I watched an, "If you don't have the Windows CD" tutorial and they do it via creating a System Image Back Up instead. But you see, I don't want to back anything up. I just want it blank. I hope you can understand me and I'd appreciate any help thank you.
Thanks for the video. I followed all your steps but the Windows Image Back up Folder on my external HD shows itself to be an empty folder with 0 bytes in size. I cant further access any files or folders in the backup image. Is there a way to verify and confirm that the system image backup is successful and useable?
Would a system image backup help if I send in my laptop for repair? What if I get an exchange device? Would a system image still work? thanks 👍🏻
I've selected my external hard drive, however, it says this drive cannot be used to store a system image because it is not formated with NTFS. I've backup my files on this hard drive, in addition to that i want to backup the Windows 10 operating system. Please help, thanks
Are you certain the Windows cloning software requires you to restore your backup to identical hardware? I believe other software (like AOMEI or Acronis) can restore to dissimilar hardware.
Your instructions are clear and even I can understand them. THANK YOU. However, I got a brand ned Samsung T7 SSD and my computer will not allow me to use it as a backup drive. It sees the drive.
I have a magnetic field, and when I am within 20 feet of a computer it automatically malfunctions. It is not that I am paranoid, it is just that the damn things are out to get me. how before it
Do I have to format the drive somehow before I can use it? The Samsung instructions are nonexistent.
?. After you inserted the recovery dirve and then went to system image i did not see that you inserted the back up image drive inserted in the USB?