# data[].attributes.body
(03DDT16F1086)

How to perform an image backup in Windows 8.1 or 10

1- Right-click the Start button and launch Control Panel.

2- Click File History.

3- While in File History, click the System Image Backup link in the bottom-left corner of the screen.

4- Connect an external USB hard drive with enough free space.

5- In the backup wizard, you'll be prompted to choose from one of the three options to save the backup. For this example, we are going select the hard drive you just connected. However, keep in mind that you can backup to DVD blanks and a network share, but these options will slow down the backup process.

6- Click Next.

7- Confirm and begin the process by clicking Start backup.

The backup could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours, it all depends on the amount of data to be backed up.

And yes, during the backup process, you can use your computer as you would normally do.

After the System Image Backup utility completes the task, remember to keep the hard drive in a safe place.

Although, a lot of tech savvy users are aware of how to perform a full backup in Windows, you'll be surprised how many people fail to know the basics. Often times I get asked questions such as: "I upgraded my system and now Windows won't boot, how can I rollback?". Or "My hard drive is ruined, is there any way to recover my data?", and most of the times a simple backup could have saved them a lot of troubles.

How often do you do a full backup of your computer? What software do you use? Let us know your backup experience in the comments below!

Update: To restore your computer from backup, connect the drive with the system image backup and reboot your computer with the Windows installation media. During the Windows Setup, clickNext, then click the Repair your computer link in the bottom-left corner of the screen. Click onTroubleshoot, click Advanced options, and select System Image Recovery. Now select the target operating system you want to recover, click Next and Finish.

# data[].attributes.body
(O

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Backing up and restoring your computer with Windows 7 (1)

# data[].attributes.body
Opening System Image Backup in Windows 8.x or 10

For Windows 8.1 or 10 (if you are still on Windows 8 you should really do the upgrade to 8.1, it’s free, and very important), they’ve moved the system image function under the File History section. You can search for it in the Start Screen search.

If you’re using Windows 10 you can search the Start Menu instead, but the same item will show up either way.

Then you can click the System Image Backup in the lower left-hand corner. (Note that it’ll take a bit for this screen to show anything).

Opening System Image Backup in Windows 7

Click on Start go to Getting Started and then select Back up your files.

Next click on the Create a system image hyperlink.

Creating a System Image Backup in Windows 7, 8, or 10

Decide where you want to save the image. You can choose an external drive, burn to multiple DVD’s, or store it on a network location.

You can include other drives if you want as well but remember that will add to the size of the final image.

At the confirmation screen notice the amount of space the image may take. If something doesn’t look right you can still go back from this point and make adjustments.

A progress meter is displayed while the images is created and backed up. In this example a disk of about 15GB in size took under 20 minutes backed up to an external drive. Times will vary depending on your system and where you’re backing it up to.

After the process is complete you get the option to create a system repair disc which you should do and make sure to save it in a secure location.

When it comes time to restore the image, you will be able to use the System Recovery Options to get the system back.

Image in Windows Vista

Vista Ultimate, Business, and Enterprise allow you to create an image, but Vista Home and Home Premium users do not have the option. The process is similar in Vista, type backup into the search bar and click on Backup and Restore Center.

Then click on Back up computer and the wizard will guide you through the process.

Conclusion

This is a extremely handy feature and it actually works well. It is also nice that the feature will be available in each edition of Windows 7 instead of just the higher end versions. This will save you some money in not having to spend $50-80 on a third party utility. You should create an image when everything is fresh on your system so the image is not too large and the essentials of you machine can quickly be restored. For instance I created an image after a fresh install and putting Office 2007 and a few of my most commonly used programs. The entire image came in around 10 GB which is easily stored on an external drive or a few DVD’s.

# data[].attributes.body
What is backup window?

In data restoration, the backup window is a predetermined amount of time in which specific data must be restored to avoid any negative or damaging effects on the systems or applications that use the data.

Backup and Restore (formerly Windows Backup and Restore Center) is a component of MicrosoftWindows introduced in Windows Vista and included in later versions that allow users to create backups and restore from backups created earlier. It is a replacement of NTBackup, which was included in previous Windows versions.

Types of Backup

There are quite a number of backup types and terms used when it comes to backups of your digital content. This is a compilation of the most common types of backup with a brief explanation of their meaning, common examples, advantages and disadvantages of each backup type.

Full Backup

Full backup is a method of backup where all the files and folders selected for the backup will be backed up.  When subsequent backups are run, the entire list of files and will be backed up again. The advantage of this backup is restores are fast and easy as the complete list of files are stored each time. The disadvantage is that each backup run is time consuming as the entire list of files is copied again.  Also, full backups take up a lot more storage space when compared to incremental or differential backups.

Incremental backup

Incremental backup is a backup of all changes made since the last backup. With incremental backups, one full backup is done first and subsequent backup runs are just the changes made since the last backup. The result is a much faster backup then a full backup for each backup run. Storage space used is much less than a full backup and less then with differential backups. Restores are slower than with a full backup and a differential backup.

Differential backup

Differential backup is a backup of all changes made since the last full backup. With differential backups, one full backup is done first and subsequent backup runs are the changes made since the last full backup. The result is a much faster backup then a full backup for each backup run. Storage space used is much less than a full backup but more then with Incremental backups. Restores are slower than with a full backup but usually faster then with Incremental backups.

Mirror Backup

Mirror backups are as the name suggests a mirror of the source being backed up. With mirror backups, when a file in the source is deleted, that file is eventually also deleted in the mirror backup. Because of this, mirror backups should be used with caution as a file that is deleted by accident or through a virus may also cause the mirror backups to be deleted as well.

Full PC Backup or Full Computer Backup

In this backup, it is not the individual files that are backed up but entire images of the hard drives of the computer that is backed up.  With the full PC backup, you can restore the computer hard drives to its exact state when the backup was done. With the Full PC backup, not only can the work documents, picture, videos and audio files be restored but the operating system, hard ware drivers, system files, registry, programs, emails etc can also be restored.

Local Backup
Local backups are any kind of backup where the storage medium is kept close at hand or in the same building as the source. It could be a backup done on a second internal hard drive, an attached external hard drive, CD/ DVD –ROM or Network Attached Storage (NAS). Local backups protect digital content from hard drive failures and virus attacks. They also provide protection from accidental mistakes or deletes. Since the backups are always close at hand they are fast and convenient to restore.

Offsite Backup

When the backup storage media is kept at a different geographic location from the source, this is known as an offsite backup. The backup may be done locally at first but once the storage medium is brought to another location, it becomes an offsite backup.  Examples of offsite backup include taking the backup media or hard drive home, to another office building or to a bank safe deposit box.

Beside the same protection offered by local backups, offsite backups provide additional protection from theft, fire, floods and other natural disasters. Putting the backup media in the next room as the source would not be considered an offsite backup as the backup does not offer protection from theft, fire, floods and other natural disasters.

Online Backup

These are backups that are ongoing or done continuously or frequently to a storage medium that is always connected to the source being backed up.  Typically the storage medium is located offsite and connected to the backup source by a network or Internet connection. It does not involve human intervention to plug in drives and storage media for backups to run. Many commercial data centres now offer this as a subscription service to consumers. The storage data centres are located away from the source being backed up and the data is sent from the source to the storage data centre securely over the Internet.

Remote Backup

Remote backups are a form of offsite backup with a difference being that you can access, restore or administer the backups while located at your source location or other location. You do not need to be physically present at the backup storage facility to access the backups.  For example, putting your backup hard drive at your bank safe deposit box would not be considered a remote backup. You cannot administer it without making a trip to the bank. Online backups are usually considered remote backups as well.

Cloud Backup

This term is often used interchangeably with Online Backup and Remote Backup.  It is where data is backed up to a service or storage facility connected over the Internet. With the proper login credentials, that backup can then be accessed or restored from any other computer with Internet Access.

FTP Backup

This is a kind of backup where the backup is done via FTP (File Transfer Protocol) over the Internet to an FTP Server. Typically the FTP Server is located in a commercial data centre away from the source data being backed up. When the FTP server is located at a different location, this is another form of offsite backup.

# data[].attributes.body
03DDT16F1074

How to Restore Files from a Backup

1) Open the Windows backup and restore tool

Before, search for "backup" to open the Backup and Restore tool (in Windows 7) or the File History tool (Windows 8). Then click on the "Restore personal files" link in the left pane in the File History window or the "Restore my files" button in the Backup and Restore window.
2) In the restore files window, select the files or folders you want to restore

In Windows 8, you can select the files or folders to restore by clicking the checkbox that appears next to the folder or filename when you hover over the item. By default, you'll see the latest versions of your folders, but you can click the back arrows to see earlier saved versions.
In Windows 7, you have three buttons: Search (to find files by name), Browse for Files (to restore individual files), or Browse for Folders (to restore an entire folder).
3) Choose what to do if there's a pre-existing copy of the file

Windows 8 will put the files back to their original location, but if you already have a file with the same name there, you'll be asked to either replace the file, skip it, or compare the files so you can make a decision.
4) Confirm the backup settings and create a system repair disk

If everything looks good, click the "Start backup" button to create the system image. At the end of the backup process, Windows will ask you if you want to create a system repair disk on a CD or DVD. This will help you boot your computer and recover Windows from a serious error, so you should go ahead and say yes to creating the repair disk.

# data[].attributes.body
O3DDT16F1096

How to Create a Complete, Full-System Backup of Your Computer in Windows

The steps above protect the most common folders most people tend to care most about, such as photos and videos, but you might also want to create a system image of your computer. A system image is a "snapshot" or exact copy of everything on your hard drive, including Windows, your system settings, programs, and all other files. So if your hard drive or entire computer just stops working, you can restore everything back the way it was. Three things to know about system image backups:

Unlike the Windows backup tools mentioned above, you can't restore individual files from the system image--everything on your drive will be replaced during the restoration process with the system image contents. If you only want to be able to restore select folders, File History or the Backup and Restore tool will be better and also use up less disk space.

Also, you can only have one system image on a drive at a time; any previous system image on a drive will be overwritten. (You can, however, save an existing system image by copying the "WindowsImageBackup" folder to a new location before creating the new system image.)

Finally, the tool doesn’t let you schedule system images to be automatically created, but this makes sense because you wouldn't want to accidentally overwrite a good system image with one that doesn't work.

Here's how to create the system image in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
1.Open the system image tool

As with backing up individual folders, start by typing in "backup" in the search box in Windows 7 or on the start screen in Windows 8. In the left pane, click the link to create a system image. (This is called "Create a system image" in Windows 7 and "System Image Backup" in Windows 8.)
2.Choose where to save the system image

You can save the image to an external drive, one or more DVDs, or a network location. If you choose a network location, Windows will warn you that the backed up data "cannot be securely protected for a network target." That just means that other users who have access to the location could access your system image (so only save the image to a network location when you trust everyone who has access to it).
3.(Optional): Select additional drives to include in the system image

In the next screen, you can select additional hard drives you have attached to your computer to also back up, but these will add to the space needed.
4.Confirm the backup settings and create a system repair disk

If everything looks good, click the "Start backup" button to create the system image.
At the end of the backup process, Windows will ask you if you want to create a system repair disk on a CD or DVD. This will help you boot your computer and recover Windows from a serious error, so you should go ahead and say yes to creating the repair disk.