Windows 11, 10, 8, 7 USB Backup - How to Create and Restore System Images and File Level Backups
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- www.buymeacoff...
In this video I show how to backup and restore on Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7, using the built in Windows backup. First I show how to create a system image, then I show to add file level backup to that. And finally I show how to restore both the system image, and the file level backups. I also explain the difference between a system image and a file level backup.
How To Create a Windows 11 Installation/Repair USB Drive:
• How to Create USB Flas...
01:22 what you need for USB backup/restore
02:10 creating the system image backup
07:27 creating a scheduled automatic file level backup
12:12 restoring a file level backup (choosing what to restore and restoring it)
15:38 restoring a system image backup
Thank you for watching.
Please like, comment, and subscribe for more Computer Systems Tutorials videos, and other How To videos. I'm also a musician, and I have been/will be posting some of my music on this channel, as well as other personal health, and philosophy videos.
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#Windows11 #Backup #Restore
Frank......As someone who has always been a bit unsure of the types of backups that are possible and advisable, your instructional video has been exactly what I needed. Very clear about the differentiation between system and file level backups and exactly what they are. And as a bonus, the fact that the built-in Windows backup tools are really all that is required for doing both of these operations saved me from trying to figure out which of the 3rd party commercial software I should use. Your video is a MUST for anyone needing to learn about backups.
Kudos to you!
Thank you so much! With computers there are usually a number of different ways to accomplish the same, or similar, task(s). I try to use my professional experience to save people that vetting process time. I'm glad I was able to do this for you.
Frank, that tutorial was absolutely first class, so clearly illustrated and for a change, at a pace that can be followed most especially by someone like myself that has come to computer use at a late stage of their life, thank you so much for a clear, concise and professional description of the whole process of creating a system image of my PC, regards, Mike
Thank you very much! I'm glad it was helpful.
Many THANKS for taking the time to give me such a detail reply.As a grey haired pensioner i really did appreciate it.
In answer to question 1 Disc space used after checking my C drive was 98.7 GB.
My usb flash drive was already formatted from Fat32 to NTFS before watching your video.
This is why i do not know what is happening.
If you have any other suggestions please let me know.
I'm glad to try and help. It keeps me on my toes :) I appreciate you watching, as well.
There are really only 2 other things I can think of:
1. When you're creating the backup, are you doing both the file level backup, and a system image backup?
There's the option to "include system image" when you're setting up the file level backup, and the 2 of those backup types combined would most likely exceed 128GB if you have 99GB used on your system disk. This is of course depending on how large your file level backup is. On a 128GB USB, about 118GB or so will actually be usable space, so that would mean that if your file level backup is 20GB or more, there wouldn't be enough space on the USB disk for both backup types.
You could try doing either just the system image, or just the file level backup and if either of those worked with that USB disk, then you would know for sure it's just a storage space issue.
2. The USB disk could have gotten corrupted. I've seen this happen many times. Sometimes reformatting it will fix it, but sometimes it's the flash storage itself that has failed. You could verify that it's working fine, by just copy/pasting some random files on it.
If you get it working, please let me know what worked. I'm curious to know for future reference.
This tutorial is great! Thanks for explaining every step - really comprehensible. Didn't know how any of this stuff worked, was kinda apprehensive about it, but now I can easily save the devices of my family if need be. Cheers
Thank you!
Thanks for showing both the backup and restore. I never really was sure if the restore part actually worked.
Thank you for watching!
Thank you, thank you, thank you ! During all of those years, I have tried many almost free applications to do that and it was a nighmare.
It is simple when you know how; buy many people like me do not know how to get the old data backup.
Now, I know.
Thanks.
I'm glad it was helpful! And thank you for watching.
Excellent video on the various ways to backup and restore. By far the best I saw on TH-cam. I needed the System Image Backup for my tax business and the incremental backup. Excellent Video and Explanation!!! Your backups are the most important things in your life when your computer crashes.
Thank you!
I have been very picky about doing backups since 1978. This has saved my bacon many, many times. I do three backups on all my systems every day. 😊
"Backups don't matter... until the day they do."
On behalf of all IT people out there.... thank you. 🙂
return to school
@@frankwestphal8532 I was an engineer. In 1878, my entire development group lost six months of work and there were no backups. We used a mainframe so we had nothing to do with the backups. IT did. ;) In my later career, I moved to IT and enjoyed that work immensely.
NTFS format step is missed in many of the other videos I saw, good to see it is covered in your video.
Thank you for noticing this. As a professional on the job, I learned all the details that matter. I try to cover everything that matters, and leave out everything that doesn't.
I've been exclusively using Mac since 2010 (still am for most things like music creating / editing), but I do RC / Ham radio / gaming activities that can only be done on Windows based PC's. I just wanted to say thank you so much for this! Really helped me get through and understand a PC backup process.... Much appreciated Frank! I will definitely be referring to this video in the future! A++++++++++ Thank you 👍
Oh nice! And thank you for watching. Yeah, the thing I always consider when recommending systems is their overall stability, and compatibility with 3rd party software, and their ability to integrate into small and medium sized business systems if needed, all three factors of which, are directly related to operating system marketshare. As of July 2024, windows operating systems account for roughly 72% of the all desktop/laptop operating systems around the world, and of that 72% (about 65-70%) are windows 10. When software manufacturers make desktop or laptop software, the largest pot of potential users on planet Earth are windows PC users. So there are just more options with windows PCs, across the board.
But I also understand running Mac OS, because Mac OS was the original platform for a lot of the original high capability music, image, and video creation/editing software. I did a lot of work in Pro Tools 6 myself (hahaha), and love that you create music. Cheers on that friend!
With this information in mind, in my experience and opinion, windows 10 is the most flexible, and therefore powerful, OS ever created on planet Earth, thus far. I have yet to see an example of a any version of OSX, be able to something that Win 10 or 11 cannot. But I HAVE seen increased IT overhead, and difficulty with locally run business software with OSX. So, if you do end up consolidating at some point, Win10 or Win11 is going to get it done relatively easily, and you won't need 2 separate OS anymore.
@@frankwestphal8532 Sounds good Frank! Thank you for such a detailed reply. You make some great points for sure. I plan on building a PC gaming rig with some real high specs. I'm one of those guys that doesn't go budget as I like to "future proof" so I can grow into things and maximize my time of ownership. It's funny though, I really love my Macbook pro for what it's good for like music editing and such. I'm just so used to it that i'm afraid to make a complete switch! LOL, But for gaming, RC programming, and ham radio related activities, PC has Mac beat on every level. I'll just run both since I'm not worried about having everything under one computer. Right now I have two Macbook pro's (one old, and one new) and a Lenovo (WIN 10) laptop so all is working well for now. But hey, thanks again for the chat and suggestions. I just subbed to your channel as well. I know I will reference this video again when I do my next PC backup in 30 days. Thanks again! 👍
Hey Frank... Great video. It was very helpful. I watched several videos on setting up the best backup system and yours is by far the best.
Thank you!
Thank you for such a comprehensive video on backing up and restoring your PC. So many vids show you how to make a backup but non go on to show how to use it afterwards. It would be useful to include a link directly to the making a system image on a USB stick. That would make it perfect! Thanks again!
Thank you!
excellent video. I'd forgotten to b/u my data/computer since I got WIN11 & the newest computer since I use OneDrive . I use a 2TB Seagate Drive and feel much more secure when I have several b/u methods. Good point about using the drive only for backing up. I kept my large video files (class recordings) on my back-up drive; so I plan to buy a drive just dedicated to backing up
Thank you for watching. And yeah, it's really a good idea to dedicate the drive for backups only. It's too easy for external drives to get damaged, or lost, or even stolen. I've seen a lot of broken ports on external drives. When they stay in an isolated environment, they are actually very reliable though, and that makes them a really nice inexpensive backup option.
What a detailed video. thanks man
The best explanation and video I´ve seen so far, 👍👍👍👍👍 after seen a lot about this matter. Thx a lot! ❤
Thank you for watching and I'm glad it was helpful!
Fantastic Tutorial
Thank you for watching!
This man is a great teacher, bro, you just earn a subscriber.
My question is, what will happen if I take the backup drive out and connect it to the same computer another time. I am looking at a how to backup my laptop on external hard drive but will have to disconnect it at a point in time.
Thank you.
Hi and thank you for watching! You can disconnect the backup drive anytime, as long as you don't plug it into another windows computer that is running. And I recommend always using the eject option by right clicking the external drive in windows file explorer, so that it's not reading or writing anything when it's unplugged. If the external backup drive is plugged into another running Windows computer, the other computer will rewrite the NTFS permissions for the files on the backup drive, and that will prevent the original computer from being able to see the backups. I made this mistake in the past, and it is possible to manually change the NTFS permissions back so that the backup can be seen by the original computer, but it's much easier if you don't have to do all that But if you're just unplugging it and plugging it back into the same computer, you will not have any issues because the permissions will not be changed on any of the files. So yeah, it's totally fine to unplug it from time to time as long as it always goes back into the same computer.
Hi Frank, thank you so much for the wondering precise and clear demo on Creation of System Image and Restore process.
Here is a few questions I have in mind:
1) Does System Image backup file need to be stored together with Windows 11 ISO image file on the same Thumb drive?
2) What is the preferred storage of Thumb drive to perform initial backup after purchased new laptop ?
3) If I create my System Image backup file on local storage, will it wipe out all my data at local storage ?
Hi, and thanks for watching! Here are my answers to your questions.
1) Does System Image backup file need to be stored together with Windows 11 ISO image file on the same Thumb drive?
No. They should actually be completely separate drives. The bootable USB drive created from the Windows 11 ISO is used for the restoration process, because in the advanced recovery options it has the option to restore an image. When that option is used, the recovery environment will scan all the drives attached to the computer, and look for an image to restore, and it will see the backup image on another external drive. Also, I believe if you had a bootable USB drive with windows 11 on it, and you wrote a backup image to it, it would make the drive no longer bootable.
2) What is the preferred storage of Thumb drive to perform initial backup after purchased new laptop ?
It all depends on how big your image will be. A backup image of a clean install of a Windows 11 OS would easily fit on a 64GB thumb drive. But if you have added data to that clean installation of windows on he new laptop, the backup image will get larger and larger as the data it contains becomes greater. I recommend getting a 2TB external hard drive to store both the backup image and the differential file backups. For most users this will be large enough to have daily differential backups for over a year.
3) If I create my System Image backup file on local storage, will it wipe out all my data at local storage ?
No. It will not wipe out any data. You can do this if you want, but I advise against doing it, because one of the reasons you may want to restore that image is if your local storage (such as an SSD or HDD) fails. If the backup image is stored on a local drive, and that drive fails, the backup image won’t be available anymore, to restore.
Thanks for this guide. Wish I would have had it yesterday. But at least I have it taken care of for tomorrow.
sweeeet video man, thank you so much, keep up the good work!
Thank you! I appreciate it.
Thank you for the information.If i come up with something i will be back in touch
Nice and clear job, Frank, thanks for teaching in an understandable way.
Thank you!
Thank you so much., very clear method!
Thank you for watching!
Thank you, again. You're the best.
Thank you for watching as well!
Great video, thank you for the video.
Thank you!
I really appreciate this very helpful video.
Frank, Thank you very much for such a great video. I followed the video and created both an image and a backup on the same external SSD.
At 18:54 you talk about creating multiple images, maybe once every 6 or 12 months or so.
1) How exactly would that work? Would I literally just repeat the process in the video for creating the initial image exactly the same way, without any changes?
2) Wouldn’t that wipe the initial image? Should I keep the initial image? As I start running out of space on the image/backup drive, can/should I delete the older images and/or backups?
3) What about the backup files -- how do I make sure they don’t get wiped?
Thank you
Hi, and thank you for watching. Here are the answers to your questions:
1) How exactly would that work? Would I literally just repeat the process in the video for creating the initial image exactly the same way, without any changes?
Yes, but only the creation of the system image part, since the file level backup part is already set up.
2) Wouldn’t that wipe the initial image? Should I keep the initial image? As I start running out of space on the image/backup drive, can/should I delete the older images and/or backups?
No, creating an additional system image will not overwrite any of the existing system image files, or the file level backup files on the external backup drive. But if the backup drive becomes full, then the file level backups will stop running, and you also won’t be able to create additional system images due to lack of space to store the additional data. You can delete image files to free up space for new ones if needed, but you actually have to grant yourself NTFS permissions to the backup drive/backup folder on that drive in order to do so. I do have a video up here showing how to create shared folders, and I show how to change NTFS and share permissions in that one. In this particular case, you would just add your windows user as an administrator to the backup drive and you would then be able to actually see the system image files, and file level backup files, and delete older system images if you wanted to. But that is a little deeper, so just be careful if you do that. Here’s that video if you want to check it out. It’s very informative regarding share and NTFS permissions.
th-cam.com/video/gKdWxfoiH1w/w-d-xo.html
What I usually do if/when the backup gets full, is just verify that I have everything I need in my computer’s current state, then re-format the backup drive (which will permanently erase all the backups), and then set it all up again. This does create a short moment in time where you don’t have any backups, so there is a little risk but it is low. If you want to be super safe, you can get another backup drive, label your first backup drive with the dates that it ran, and start the whole process over on the new drive. As long as the first backup drive just sits on a shelf or somewhere safe, you could plug it in to the same computer at any time and restore from it. This may sound like a lot of work, but with a large external drive like 2 or 4TB, most people would only have to this every couple years (that’s dependent on how much data your backing up, of course).
3) What about the backup files -- how do I make sure they don’t get wiped?
The file level backups will not be overwritten if you create additional system images. The additional system image files will be written as new files in addition to everything that’s already on the backup drive.
And one last thing... Google Drive file sync application is very useful for not only synchronizing data across multiple computers and devices, but also for backups because when the data is mirrored, it exists locally on the individual computers that are synced, AND on Google Drive servers. So this is another option for backups. If you're backing up data over 15GB, then there is a yearly cost for the Google Drive server storage, but it is priced well in my opinion. If you want to learn more about that (it is super handy), I have an in depth video on it, here:
th-cam.com/video/dO-dOeKc8iY/w-d-xo.html
very nice and helpful video
THIS IS REALLY COOL AND FUN DEMONSTRATIIN VERY BIG TIME. I LOVE IT.
Thank you!
Very thorough tutorial. In depth explanation.
Thank you!
Very helpful. thanks. I was wondering, If you have a 2TB USB drive for imaging but have two laptops that to be imaged. Can you create images of each computer storing them on the same USB drive? Also, when restoring from an image in my example will widows be able to find the correct image for each computer?
Hi, and thank you for watching. This is a great question. From a practicality and reliability standpoint the answer is no. The reason is that the moment the USB drive is plugged into another windows computer, the NTFS permissions for the backup will be overwritten, and the computer that the created the backup won't be able to find the backup to restore, unless the NTFS permissions are reverted to their exact original state.
Technically, I think you can do this, but the NTFS permissions issue would have to be resolved. And this is particularly tricky because by default, only the system user has access to the backup.
I think I did this once in a bind, but it was a huge pain, and messing with backup files like that is risky. It will partially defeat the purpose of the backup itself.
The reason I started liking this method so much is it's simplicity. I recommend just dedicating a drive to each computer, labeling them on the outside according to computer name, and then only use them for backups on their respective computers and the backup will always restore correctly. This is particularly handy for desktops and servers because they just sit there and the drive is never removed. But it works fine for laptops too as long as you keep track of the drives and label them correctly.
Lastly, I'm not sure if you use google drive for file sync but I highly recommend using this if you want a particular data set synced across both those laptops. I did a video on that if you want to check it out. It is super handy for accessing the exact same data across multiple devices.
th-cam.com/video/dO-dOeKc8iY/w-d-xo.html
Thanks for the quick and detailed reply. What if i partitioned the 2TB drive into an M and N drives. Would Windows prompt me to pick M or N? Else, have you run across third party software that will image and File backup to a two partition drive?
thank you for this video, it has helped me learn how to properly do a system image/ backup now. great content thank you frank
Thank you for watching. I have more videos coming.
Brilliantly explained, thank you so much 🌟👍
Thank you for watching! I will be posting more tutorials in the future.
Great explanation. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you!
Really useful and informative, thank you for creating and posting
Thank you!
Excellent Frank, followed step by step.
Thank you!
Very well done. Explaned very well and easy to follow. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful!
Ngl this is a top video. Thank you
Thank you!
Easy to understand, fruitful knowledge about backup and restore in this video. Thanks Frank
Thank you!
Excellent video!
Thank you!
Very detailed and informative ❤️ thanks dude
Glad it was helpful, and thank you for watching!
Thanks for this Frank. New subscriber here.
Long time Mac guy coming to the PC world.
Little confused on one thing,
My (little) understanding is the system image saves the OS as well and should just restore your computer as it was?
Why do you need the USB installer to restore if the system image saves your OS? I thought the USB installer was just for a clean re-install if things get really spicy.
Hi and thank you for subscribing. I very much appreciate that.
The bootable USB installation media, for Windows, is not only used for installations. It's also used for recovery/advanced recovery. There are four primary levels to a Windows PC:
1. The hardware level
2. The bios/ UEFI level
3. The operating system level
4. The application level
System image creation/ restoration exists at the operating system level, but both of those are created at the application level, and because they are reading/writing to an external drive, they transcend through the BIOS/ UEFI, and hardware levels. The bootable USB installation media for a Windows operating system, allows you to temporarily operate at the operating system level, because it's a very stripped down version of a Windows operating system, which is running off of a USB bootable media disk, instead of a fully installed operating system which is installed on the system disk.
This allows that temporary USB bootable media installation/recovery environment to acknowledge, and utilize, operating system image files on an external drive, connected at the hardware level, through the BIOS/UEFI level.
This means that if there is no temporary OS environment, the hardware and BIOS/UEFI (don't worry too much about UEFI... It's basically a newer, more capable, version of a system BIOS), have no ability to see any previous OS images on external drives. They need a temporary operating system environment to tell them what to do with the devices they acknowledge.
In summary, if a windows PC has a corrupt operating system, a temporary operating system environment is required in order to acknowledge/restore a previously created, fully functional, operating system image file, and that temporary operating system environment is the bootable USB installation media.
I show exactly how to make this in one of my other videos, but the easiest way at this current time is to search on Google "Windows 11 bootable media creation tool". This will take you to the Microsoft Windows 11 bootable media creation tool website, and it's pretty self-explanatory from there.
Hi Frank, great video. Would you consider doing a followup video for backup of virtual machine. I have a Macbook with VMWARE/Windows11. Subscribed for great content.
Really useful nice one.
Thank you for watching!
I loved your tutorial. It was explained very clearly. I have been using Windows 11 and my printer won't work with that version of windows. Can I go back to Windows 10 without creating problems? For some reason, HP Smart won't open or download properly from the Microsoft Store or from the HP Support site under Windows 11 so my printers don't work.
Hi and, thank you for watching. If you did the Windows 11 installation from within the running Windows 10 operating system, as an update, then I believe you have 10 days to determine if you want to uninstall Windows 11 and go back to Windows 10. But a clean installation of windows 11, might also solve this problem.
Because upgrades from one version of an operating system to a newer version that are run from within the existing operating system as an update usually create bugs, one of which is printer issues, I always recommend doing operating system upgrades using a clean installation. A clean installation is when you create bootable USB media with the new operating system on it, and then use that to overwrite the entire existing operating system, so it is a perfectly clean factory image of the new operating system. If you are interested in doing this, on my channel, you will see videos where I show how to create bootable USB media with Windows 10 or Windows 11 on it, and also how to use that to install a perfectly clean operating system.
What I recommend for the short-term, is that if you are still within the 10-day period after installing Windows 11, to roll it back to Windows 10. There most likely is a way to get your printer working on the windows 11 upgrade, but there will also probably be other quirky issues with it as you use over time. I saw this extensively with systems that went from Windows 7 or Windows 8 to Windows 10, when Windows 10 first came out, and it was applied as an update to existing Windows 7 or Windows 8 systems.
I know this is probably not the answer you were hoping for, but if you really want to do it right, I would back up all of your data and software license keys, onto an external drive, and then create new windows 10 or Windows 11 bootable USB media, and then overwrite your system drive by installing a perfectly clean factory image of either one of those operating systems on to it. If it's a clean factory image, you'll be able to get the printers working for sure, and not only that, but the entire system will be stable from day one.
realy good job. Thanks ❤❤❤❤❤❤
Thank you for watching!
Great, thank you!
Thanks for watching and I'm glad it was helpful.
Hello Frank, thanks for the excellent tutorial! How do you think this method compares to using Macrium Reflect? The way I understand it, that method creates a system image onto the external, and uses a USB as an interface to load the image into the computer. My goal is to have a factory setting backup for a new device incase a Windows/driver update corrupts it. Just not sure if both this method and the Macrium Reflect method achieve the same goal. Is there an advantage to having a Windows bootable USB that the Macrium Reflect neglects?
Hi, and thank you for watching. I personally have not used Macrium Reflect, but I have used Acronis, Paragon, and a couple others, as well as Windows native backup and restore. A system image will be an exact copy of everything on the system drive, at the time it is taken, regardless of what type of software is used to create it. With that said, the image file types will be different, and images are often not interchangeable with other software when restoring.
I personally don't use 3rd party images for single systems anymore, becasue I like to keep things as clean and simple as possible. Since the image is the same regardless of how it's created, I prefer using the Windows backup and restore because it's native to the operating system and, therefore, just one less application to deal with. Also, the restoration media for all windows backups will always be the same media that is used to install that same operating system (EX: restore win 10 system image with win 10 install media... etc). So we can have install media, and restore media at the same time. It's dual purpose.
If you're familiar with Macrium and like it, I don't see a need to switch, but if you adopt this method, it will be a couple less things needed to accomplish the same objective.
Excellent. Well explained. Thank you.
Thank you so much
You're welcome. Thanks for watching!
Thank you for the excellent instructions. Is it necessary to turn off the folder protect feature while creating a system image? Thank you again.
Hi, and thank you for watching. No, it is not necessary to turn off folder protection while creating a system image.
I also just tested a file level backup of a folder that I enabled folder protection on. The file level backup was created without issue, and I was able to restore it without issue as well.
So, both the system image creation/restoration, and the file level backup/restoration are unaffected by folder protection.
Hi - A little older at 73 and have problems with memory, but I didn't understand what you said about needing your gopro camera for your system image? Sorry if I missed anything. Also--- are we supposed to be using Onedrive? When I restarted my rig just now, I got this message from WIndows: "Now Let's Set Up The Rest Of Your Computer" (or something similar). I didn't get the option of opting out, so am I going to see that popup every 3 days. Sorry, but a big part of my problem is I don't know what I don't know. 😊😊
Hi, and thank you for watching. The part where I mention the gopro camera was just me switching cameras to capture the screen while the computer starts up. The screen recording software cannot run when the computer is off or starting up.You don't need to worry about htat it all. It's just part of the video production.
As far as the pop up goes, Microsoft probably wants you to create an online account for your computer, but you also probably don't need that, and becasue of that I recommend using an offline account. An offline account is probably what you are already using, and it just means that when you log in to the computer, you are authenticating to your actual computer and not authenticating to microsoft servers online. I would click on the popup, but then click to opt out of any additional features or accounts they ask you to use, or create. This should get the popup to go away on startup, while still keeping your settings the same.
Thanks!
Thank you!
2 years later and still needed tutorial. After creating a system image and backing up the files on the external, I can remove it from the pc until I need it?
Hi and thanks for watching. Good question... Yes, but ONLY if you don't use it on another computer in the meantime.
If you plug the backup drive into another computer, the NTFS permissions for the system image and backup files on the external disk will be rewritten. The new set of permissions will not allow the original computer to see those files when you want to restore them, unless you modify the NTFS permission back to the way they were on the original computer, when system image and backup files were created.
The latter can be done, and I have done it, but unless you want to take the time to fully understand NTFS permissions, users and groups, the easy way is to simply not ever use the backup drive on any other computer.
We want one drive, dedicated only for backups, for each windows computer we are running.
Also, if you're not using Google Drive, I highly recommend doing so. It's free, and basically eliminates the need to do backups. Same thing with OneDrive. I did full length videos on those if you're interested:
Google Drive:
th-cam.com/video/dO-dOeKc8iY/w-d-xo.html
OneDrive:
th-cam.com/video/JQ3ki35yTbc/w-d-xo.html
Hi Frank. Very nice video, and I actually like the Windows Backup for most the reasons you stated. The one pet peeve I found is that if I do multiple backups and I delete various files along the way, it actually seems to restore all of those deleted files during a full restore--even the ones that were deleted before my most recent backup. So I can understand it restoring previously deleted files if I used the option to restore to an earlier point in time, but I don't understand why it restores files that were deleted many backups ago when I say that I want to restore my files back to the latest point in time. Just wondering if you ran into that problem or figured out a workaround?
Hi, and thank you for watching!
I understand what you are describing and I have not personally encountered this issue, but I have 2 things to say that might help:
1. I assume you're not using a system image backup to restore your files. That is the "nuclear option" because it will overwrite the entire disk to exactly how it was when the image was created. This would recreate previously deleted files during the system image restore process.
2. It may be (I don't this for sure) that Microsoft decided that if they were going to error on the a file level backup restoration, they would rather have more data available, than less data available, after the file level restore was complete.
I agree that it should be an exact restore of the dataset at the time the backup was created. But because they are differential backups, if you choose a full restore, I think it will restore all of the differential backups, combined. This would explain why previously deleted files are now present again, after a full restore.
If you know which files you need, you can choose exactly what you want to restore, and where to restore it to. This will avoid the recreation of previously deleted files. But if you have to do a full restore, it's always better to have more data available to you, than less data.
Mr Frank your tutorial is great. I have two questions first is I can't find the differential backup on the control panel in order to add it on Image backup and second is it ok together with the image backup to insert the '' create a recovery drive'' USB? Thank you.
Hi, and these are good questions.
1. Both the system image and file level backups are created in the same native application called "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)". They are 2 separate types of backups. The file level backup runs once the first time, to get the first backup, and then every time it runs after that (on the schedule you select), it only adds the data that has changed since the very first backup was created to the backup file (which has the file extension .bak) That's what makes it a "differential" backup... it only backs up the differences between the original first backup, and the current time whenever a scheduled backup runs. So, the scheduled differential backups are not updating the system image file (extension .img). They are updating the .bak file. Therefore, these are two separate types of backups.
2. If you want to create a recovery USB disk while setting up and creating your backups, that's fine. It certainly won't hurt anything to do so. My understanding, thanks to another user who pointe this out is that you will need a 32GB flash drive to create a USB recovery disk. But creating a recovery disk is not necessary if you have a windows installation USB disk, which can easily be created at any time. A windows installation USB disk also gives you the option, to restore system images. In this video I show how to create a Win 11 USB installation disk and these are handy to have on hand because you can always reinstall the operating system if needed.
How to Create a Windows 11 Bootable USB Flash Thumb Drive For Free - Step by Step Tutorial:
th-cam.com/video/B2mpf1qQA48/w-d-xo.html
Does the video showing how to make a win11 installation usb thumb drive help me make one for win10?
And, if I understand correctly, I need:
* a hard drive for backing up the system image
* a USB thumb drive to create an installation USB key
* a USB thumb drive to backup the files to?
Then, also, where does making a recovery drive come in? (the two options on the win7 backup & restore control panel)...
Thanks!
Hi. Thank you for watching. To answer your questions:
1. It's essentially the same process for a clean win 10 install, but I do win 10 specifically in this video, at 7:22.
th-cam.com/video/dn42i8S1lNc/w-d-xo.html
If you're doing a clean install, I would not bother with a system image backup until AFTER you have your new clean install running. That is an ideal time to create system image, because it's perfectly clean at that moment in time. Typically, I do a clean install, then set up my particular settings and install most of my primary software, THEN I do the image backup. The idea is that if you do have to restore an image, you don't have to completely rebuild it because it has the majority of what you use already in the image backup.
2. For a clean install, you just need 1 USB thumb drive to use for creation of the bootable operating system image, and 1 USB thumb OR external drive to put your files on, that you want to migrate to your new system.
All of this is shown in the video I mentioned, as well. In the "read more" section, I have it all divided up by time, so you can jump to whatever you need very easily:
th-cam.com/video/dn42i8S1lNc/w-d-xo.html
"Here are the steps I will cover in this video:
1. Configuring your BIOS settings to be able to boot from USB 1:54
2. Backup up your user data 2:58
3. Getting a copy of your licensing information 5:03
4. Creating a bootable USB drive with Windows 10 on it 7:22
5. Installing and activating Windows 10 10:41
6. Restoring your user data to the new Windows 10 system. 15:58"
And last but not least. If you have google drive file sync app set up, you don't even have to backup your files because they will sync to the new system image, if you set up google drive file sync app on that too. Not trying to overwhelm you, but check out this video, because google drive with file sync is SUPER handy.
ith-cam.com/video/dO-dOeKc8iY/w-d-xo.html
Is there a difference between what you described in this video and Creating a Recovery Drive? Is it similar?
And should I use the same external drive that contains the system image/file level backup to create a recovery drive?
Thanks in advance.
Hi. Yes there is. The bootable USB thumb drive is used to restore the system image backup created in this video, if a system image restore is ever needed (and it probably will be needed at some point, because it is basically inevitable that the operating system will become corrupt at some point).
The same drive that backups are stored on cannot be used for that because in the creation of the bootable USB drive, all data is overwritten, and because in the case of system image restore, the USB drive is the actual temporary operating system that the computer is running on while the system image restore is taking place.
The way to keep it the cleanest and easiest is to dedicate 1 USB thumb drive as a bootable USB drive which you can use to restore a system image or install a completely clean operating system, and 1 external USB drive for backups only. This way you can either return to your previous system, exactly the way it was when you took the system image, or start fresh with a perfectly clean operating system.
I show the details of making the bootable USB drive in this video:
th-cam.com/video/B2mpf1qQA48/w-d-xo.html
Very helpful. Thankyou 👍🏻
@frankwest Frank .. thanks for all the content. Regarding the bootable USB and the back-up of drive. If I have a 2tb eternal USB drive, can I partion it into two drives, and make 1 partition the bootable USB drive, and the second the drive where I create the back-up? I am off-grid-ish, and it will be weeks before I can get a small thumbdrive.
In short, can this be one on a single large external USB C Portable SSD drive?
Hi. This is a good question. You could try it, but becasue they will be disk partitions, I don't think it will work. Even separate partitions on the same disk, will still only be seen by windows disk manager, as a single disk. And the backup and restore application wants a disk, not a disk partition. It would reformat the disk and wipe the partitions anyway, I believe. But I haven't ever tried this, so it might be a fun experiment.
But you don't even need the bootable USB to make and restore the file level backups. You only need a bootable USB to restore system images. So I would say just make the backups on the 2TB external USB C disk, and pick up a USB thumb drive when you can, and then make the bootable USB.
The bootable USB can easily be made with the windows media creation tool at any point in the future. The windows media creation tool creates a bootable USB that can be used for system image backup restoration, some various other troubleshooting tools, and new operating installs. It covers it all.
@@frankwestphal8532 I understand that this will work "to restore on the same computer. But will this work to reinstall all apps & data on a new system that has a clean install of windows? In short I have a two machines with windows 11 (laptop a and laptop b). Will this process work to bring over the entire software environment (apps and data) to the new machine?
Great video mate, thanks a lot
Thank you!
Thank you for a very helpful video ..I have a question which hopefully yourself or another viewer can answer ..Can you restore system image and everything explained in this video on another laptop should your laptop completely die ..Thank you..
Hi, and thank you for watching. This is a great question. Technically, yes you can, but restoring system images to different hardware requires that the new hardware have an equal size, or larger size, system disk.
And then there is the likely possibility of driver mismatches, becasue the new hardware will have (at least some) different hardware devices on it, which will require different hardware device drivers. Windows 10 and Windows 11 are pretty good about automatically finding, and installing, correct hardware device drivers, but some of them might have to be updated manually.
So yes, it can be done, but it's a little more tricky than restoring a system image back on to the exact same hardware that the image was originally created on.
@@frankwestphal8532 Many thanks for the prompt and detailed reply this helps a lot ...I have a 2019 Predator Helios 300 so hopefully it will keep going for while yet but I am using it 8-10 hours a day now and thanks to your videos to follow I now know what to do.....
life saver
Thank you! I recently started using this method for backup. I made the image backup as you described but I'm using File History for file changes. Is that the same as what you showed--just a different way of getting to the same result--or does the method you show differ from File History?
Thank you for watching. I'm glad it was helpful. I haven't used File History yet, but I would imagine that File History is tracking the changes to existing files in a separate file that File History creates, on the external disk. That is essentially the same thing a "Win 7 backup and restore" file backup does. This is ok, if you also have an image backup, I would say. if there ends up being an issue with File History, you can do the "nuclear" option and restore the image, and all the files that were there at the time the image was taken will be there for sure. The one thing I do like about using the same application for both the image and the file level backup, is that both files types created are recognized and usable by the same backup application. For example, if a backup file is created with File History, it won't be usable to "Win 7 backup and restore", and vice versa. But I think you should be fine. When you have 2 or more options to restore data, the probability of loss gets much lower. And if you REALLY want to make sure that your important data NEVER gets lost, see my Google Drive video and set that up. If you set up backup like you did, AND use Google Drive, you will never have data loss.
th-cam.com/video/dO-dOeKc8iY/w-d-xo.html
@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks for the reply--I did watch your Google Drive video and wished I'd seen it when I set that up as I was completely confused about how that worked--now I know.
Hi Frank. Outstanding tutorial. Thank you. Question: Can the backed up data be restored to a new computer or does this only work for restoring to the original computer used to create the backup?
Thank you! With windows native backup, it is only good for the same computer. There are other 3rd party applications that allow the backup to be restored to any computer though. One that I have used and like is Paragon backup and recovery free. Because I always put a clean copy of an OS on any new or used computer I get, I typically don't restore a backup to another computer anymore, but it certainly can be done. This method, however, is ideal for speed of recovery of the same computer. It's fast and comprehensive, when you need to restore to the same computer. And typically, restores are needed because of corrupt operating systems, instead of hardware issues, although hardware issue do also occur, just at a lower rate. If you anticipate hardware issues, I would use a 3rd party application to create an image backup which, generally, can then be restored to other hardware. But if your hardware is solid, I wouldn't worry about it.
@@frankwestphal8532
Thanks for the amazingly fast and thorough response. Although I don't expect a hardware failure, should I also be separately backing up documents, calendars etc onto a 2d external drive so I can restore them on a new PC should the need arise and, if so, what's the best way to do that. FYI, I prefer to backup locally and not in the cloud @@frankwestphal8532
I'm going to do a little test and get back to you on this. I think you can restore a file level backup created with windows 7 native backup application to a different computer. I know this cannot be done with an image backup, but I think it'll work with a file level backup. I'll reply after I have tested and can say for sure.
@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks Frank Really appreciate the follow up
Please tutorial how to setting File Explore like on Video at 2:24mimutes ? Boot view File Explore & Local Disk C. Thanks
Hi. For that one all you have to do is click file explorer, then click on "this PC".
thanks Frank. Should device encryption(windows11 Home edition) be turned off when doing system images or file backups or can I leave it turned on?
I was wondering what would happen if my disk drive broke and I had to replace it whether the win7 backups would work.
thanks.
Thank you for watching, and this is a great question!
You can leave bitlocker disk encryption enabled while you create a system image backup, or file level backups. With file level backups, you won't need the BitLocker decryption key to restore the file level back up, because in order to restore a file level backup, you already have to be in the running operating system, which means the drive has already been decrypted with the bitlocker decryption key.
But if you are restoring a system image that was created while the drive was encrypted with BitLocker encryption, you will need the bitlocker decryption key in order to restore the image.
I believe you are already aware of this, but just to reiterate for general purposes, if a drive has been encrypted with BitLocker encryption, it is absolutely critical to have the bitlocker decryption key available in the event that it is needed. There is no alternative to get data back with an encrypted drive, if the decryption key is not available.
You will be able to restore a system image backup that was created while BitLocker drive encryption was enabled, as long as you have the bitlocker decryption key. If you do not have it, the system image backup will be completely unusable to anyone.
Great video! But when I do my backup the same way from my Win11 laptop, I get over 1800 back up files. Each one is called back up file nnnn (1 thru 1880) and each file contains a C subfolder then a User subfolder then my name on a subfolder then whatever other folder that contains the actual program or data. No way to look for a specific backup file without opening each one at a time. What am I doing wrong? I was expecting my back up drive to look like the original file layout on my laptop as far as file naming, etc. Help!
Hi, and thank you for watching. I think what is happening is you're creating the backup correctly, but you re attempting to access it/restore it incorrectly. This type of backup is not meant to be browsable on it's own. It is a compressed file level backup., and it is not meant to be accessible to the user by just clicking into it like you would a normal folder. The reason for this is that it saves space, and it allows only the differences since the last backup to be appended everytime a new backup is run (example: if you have run the backup 100 times, there is still only one backup file).
If you watch the rest of the video, I do a restore using the backup and restore application. When you do this, your files/folders are viewable in the exact same structure they had when the backup was created, and you can choose what to restore (all of it, none of it, or anything in between), and also where to restore them (original location, or custom location).
So in short, you have to use the same application you created the backup with, to restore the backup as well.
@@frankwestphal8532 Okay, I get it now. Thank you for the prompt response Frank.
Showing error “this drive is not valid backup location”….. please help me to remove this error as my windows 11 is genuine windows. Thanks….
Thank you for watching. The only thigns I can think of that would cause this are:
1. The external drive could be faulty.
2. The drive must be a drive OTHER than the system drive. A partition on the system drive will not work either. It must be a separate physical drive.
3. Make sure the backup drive it's formatted in NTFS. Many off the shelf drives come formatted in exFAT because exFAT is compatible with both Windows and Mac systems. For windows backup you need NTFS format.
You can right click the dive and choose format, then choose "NTFS". But WARNING this will erase the drive, so only do this if you are ready to dedicate it as a backup drive and you have copied any data off of it, that you want to keep.
If you've covered these, it should work fine. If it's still not working, it's possible your OS is corrupt. IF that is the case you could clean it up with Malwarebytes Free, or do a clean install. I highly recommend a clean install prior to setting up backup.
try.malwarebytes.com/free-download/?gclid=CjwKCAiAhKycBhAQEiwAgf19eg57vWHqnyIyAI5vYa-01OoVqB02-GUOkTJqGwf_6K6b_ePkGXdTLhoCbQEQAvD_BwE
Win 10 Clean Install:
th-cam.com/video/dn42i8S1lNc/w-d-xo.html
Win 11 Clean Install:
th-cam.com/video/O53zJLFtpXg/w-d-xo.html
@frankwestphal8532 can this be used to migrate to a new machine? Will this bring over over entire workspace, apps and files to a new machine?
Hello, and thank you for watching. What your describing here is called system migration and the answer is: technically yes, but practically no. Ideally, this backup method would be used to backup a single PC, and then restore to that same PC. In that scenario alone, it will work seamlessly.
But in terms of system migration, it's not practical. And here's why...
The system image backup, if restored to a different set of hardware, will still think that it's on the old hardware. Win 10 and Win 11 are pretty good about making adjustments in the OS when the OS detects that it's on new hardware. But this is still usually a buggy process, with minor or major driver issues and/or software license/other issues showing up. For this reason, I don't recommend using this type of backup for system migration.
On to solutions:
If you want to do a single system migration, I did hundreds or possibly even thousands of these, professionally. The unfortunate truth is that, in all of my experience, there is no quick fix for a clean functioning, highly reliable, system migration, other than a manual rebuild.
This video I did showing a migration from win 10 to win 11, can give you an idea of what to expect, and also shows how to do it. But it's an investment of time for the learning curve, and then the actually steps being done. However, when it's all said and done, I expect at least 5 years of clean, reliable, functionally out of any system migration/manual rebuild I do. And you can do the same thing if you want to.
th-cam.com/video/O53zJLFtpXg/w-d-xo.html
I hope this helps!
Would it work equally as well to use a second hard drive in the pc dedicated to backup?
Yes. That will work perfectly as well. Just know that it won't also be available for other random storage. If you decide to use a second disk in the PC for backups, it should be only for backups from that point forward. (well, that's unless you deleted your backups and reformatted the disk, which you could always do). I actually do backups on a second internally installed disk on my desktop.
Also, if you don't use Google Drive or OneDrive, I highly recommend setting them up. Between local backups and file sync/online backup with online storage, there is basically 0% chance of ever having data loss.
I did a video on Google Drive here:
th-cam.com/video/dO-dOeKc8iY/w-d-xo.html
And one on OneDrive here... same concept for both:
th-cam.com/video/JQ3ki35yTbc/w-d-xo.html
Great content. Thanks
hello, i did a backup imagine same like what you did exactly on my SSD RAID0 disk 512GB (that runs Win11) the backup image size was 80GB but when I try to restore to another SSD with a 120GB capacity I get an error "disk size is too small" even though the backed up file is not larger than the disk size... I'm I missing something? I hope to get more information and help. thank you
Hi, and thank you for watching. The system image backup file is compressed. It can only be restored to a disk that is large enough to accommodate the (re-expanded) restored image. So, however much space was consumed on your 512GB system disk when you took the system image backup, is the minimum amount of space on a new disk that you will need to restore it to.
I'm guessing that the consumed space on your 512GB system disk was greater than 128GB when you took the image, so when that system image file is expanded during the restore process, it's too big for the new 128GB disk.
And just a quick side note on RAIDs:
For any individual user systems, always do a RAID 1, RAID 5, or RAID 10. Typically a RAID 1 with fairly large disks is perfect. A RAID 0 has no redundancy whatsoever. If one of those physical disk fails, the logical disk is broken and you'd have to go into data recovery mode to get your data back or (as you have very wisely done) use a system image backup to restore that image on to functional logical disk, once the failed physical disk has been replaced.
Great question! I hope this helps!
when you are about to start the file restore, you already know which folders/files you deleted so it is clear which ones to restore. But, what if you have no idea which folders/files are missing ...is there a way to know which ones to restore OR do you just restore all? Thanks.
Hi and thank you watching! What I would do in that scenario is restore everything, but instead of restoring it to the original location, create a temporary folder on the system drive, if it is large enough to accommodate the full backup, or on a separate external drive. Then search that temporary folder for the specific file you want, and copy and paste it where you want in permanently.
You can also browse through your backup manually, when selecting which files to restore but that could take a very long time to find it. Restoring it in bulk to a temp folder will allow you search that folder, and find it very quickly. Once you have what you need out of the temp folder, permanently delete it and you're good to go.
SIDE NOTE: If possible, having a couple large thumb drives (like 256GB or 500GB) and a couple large external mechanical drives (like 2TB or 4TB) is super handy. I always carried a 4TB external drive with me when doing IT professionally for situations exactly like this. When we have plenty of available storage, we have lots of options.
Hello, is it a must to have the Windows Installation Media USB drive as well? I only have the Seagate One Touch 2TB as I am running Windows 11 without activation. Thank you in advance! :)
No. For file and folder backups you only need the external storage medium to store the backups. BUT, if you want an image backup too, then it is a good idea to make the USB installation media in advance so if your OS becomes unusable at some point, you can use the USB installation media to restore an image backup of when the OS was still working properly. The idea is 2 levels of backup. File and folder is for everyday file loss or corruption. Image backup is the nuclear option to restore a completely broken system, and for that options some sort of installation media is needed because it contains the pre boot environment to restore images.
When i come to the part where it says where do you want to save the backup.My USB drive is shown but underneath it says.My USB drive is not a valid location. and i cannot go any further.I am using a 128GB flash drive which to me is more than big enough.I would welcome any advice you can give me.Thank you.
Hi. Thanks for watching. There are 2 possible things that I think could be the reason this is happening:
1. You might have more than 128GB of data that will be in the backup (image or file level). If you go into file explorer and right click on your C: drive, then choose properties, you can see exactly how much disk space is being used. The backup (both system image and file level) will compress the data your are backing up a little bit, but the data your backing up could easily be more than 128GB.
2. The USB disk could VERY likely be formatted in FAT32 or exFAT, and it has to be formatted in NTFS for the backup and restore application to be able to use it. You can go into file explorer and right click that USB disk, and then click properties, to see what file system format it is using. If it says FAT32 or exFAT as the "file system", then close the properties window, right click the USB disk again and choose "format", then select NTFS as the file system. Once the USB disk is in NTFS format, the backup and restore application will be able to use it.
NOTE: If you do reformat the USB disk, any data on it will be lost, so make sure to move any important data off of it, before you reformat it.
One of these should do the trick.
I had WPS word perfect and lost it. Would a software be a file or folder because I have a system image that should include the original WPS but I'm not sure if I can find a software in a file or folder? Thanks.
Hi, and thank you for watching, and the question.
WordPerfect, or any other INSTALLED windows application (there are some lightweight windows applications that can run without being installed), isn't just a set of files, and folders. Usually, an installed windows application will make modifications to the operating while it's being installed, such as registry edits, and/or NTFS permissions edits.
For this reason, even if you restore that image and pull the files and folders associated with WordPerfect off of it, you will not be able to use them to actually install and run the WordPerfect application.
But, if you restore that image, you MIGHT be able to pull your WordPerfect license key and use it to install the same (or possibly even a newer version, depending Corel's licensing terms) on your new operating system. Corel does still make new versions of WordPefect, and they're not cheap, so pulling that license key off of you old system image, or getting that key from somewhere else in your records, would be a good idea if you want to continue using WordPerfect.
I show exactly how to pull software license keys off of windows operating systems, using the "Belarc Advisor" tool (very handy for pulling license keys, including windows operating system license keys), in this video at time stamp 10:47:
th-cam.com/video/O53zJLFtpXg/w-d-xo.html
If you're talking about a really old version of WordPerfect, like pre 2010, there's probably no chance that you will be use that license key to run the same (or a newer) version of WordPerfect on Windows 10 or 11. So, if it's that old, I wouldn't spend the time restoring the image to get the license key. But if it's something from 2015 or later, it's worth a try, in my opinion, to save 400 bucks on a new license key.
I hope this helps.
Thanks for presentation. Just have 3 questions: 1 - To create USB Media Windows for recover am image, can i use the subprocess in minute 5:22 (system repair disk) of this video, or just with a win 11 installation media obtained from ms web page?; 2 - In recovery image, all the applications are recovered, including non windows native, as for example native from manufacturer.; 3 - How this sollutions handles whith bitlocker issues? One questin not related whit this video: if i make a system restore from windows (windows update > troubleshoot > Advanced > System Restore) it includes the native manufacturer apps, and if i do it from an USB windows media recovery windows?
Hi and thank you for watching. I appreciate it! Here are the answers to your questions:
1. You can use the sub-process at 5:22 but it will want a CD or DVD. Also, it won't double as installation media. So you are correct in thinking it is better to get the installation media from MS website. Their media creation tool is great, and the USB drive that you create will allow an image recovery, or an fresh install, or both, and it can be used for both at anytime in the future. So it's a really handy thing to have in general. I always have installation media with me.
2. Yes, in a system image every single detail is exactly the same when it is restored, as it was when the image was taken. This includes all 3rd party apps and settings, and license keys. It is literally a mirror image.
3. I have not tested this, but if bitlocker is turned on when the system image is taken, that means the data on the drive(s) is encrypted, so the system image will be an image OF encrypted data. Also, the system image will include the fact that bitlocker was turned at the time of the image, so restoring the image would require the bitlocker recovery key. One way to be safe, is to turn bitlocker off, before the image is taken, then turn it back on afterwards, or just make sure you have the bitlocker recovery key (which we should always do anyway if we are using bitlocker) before you create the system image.
4. System restore is not the same as a system image. System restore basically only saves settings, and it is not reliable for 3rd party apps. Also, the system restore application needs to still be working properly in order to use it to restore. Because of this, it is common for an operating system to get damaged to the point where the system restore application itself does not work correctly anymore, and at that point it is useless for recovery. A system image is completely separate from the running operating system, once it is created. So if the operating system becomes unusable, this is not a problem for the system image backup. When restoring the system image backup, it will just overwrite the entire drive and it will all work exactly the way it worked when the image was taken. I call it the "nuclear option" :)
Hey Frank,
My system will not let me create a system image to a thumb drive. Would it we just as wise to do a back-up and choose the C drive to copy the whole drive? My C drive only has a Gigabyte on it so it is not that big.
Hi, and thank you for this question, and for watching.
If the windows 7 backup and restore application won't let you create a system image with your USB thumb drive as the destination, then the USB drive is either formatted in FAT32 or exFAT, or it's not large enough to contain the system image file.
I show how to format a drive to NTFS in this video. So if you've verified that your thumb drive is formatted with NTFS, then it's probably just too small, and if that's the case a file level backup of your entire C: drive won't fit on it either.
There's definitely more data on your C: drive than 1 Gigabyte, because a windows 10 or 11 operating system will use well over 10 Gigabytes just in the installation alone. You may have only added 1 Gigabyte of your personal data, but if you select your entire C: drive for a file level backup, it will need AT LEAST 10 Gigabytes of available storage on the USB drive ( in realty it will need much more.... probably 25GB bare minimum).
My guess in this situation is that your thumb drive is not formatted in NTFS format, or it's does not have enough available storage (not large enough). And both of these could be simultaneously true, so just be aware it could be both things.
I hope this helps!
Can I just back up on usb and boot up on a different pc and download to a different ssd in other words fast clone
Hi. No, not with the windows native backup and restore application used in this video. I've used Acronis True Image for this many times, and that works great. It appears Macrium Reflect would also be a good choice, but I haven't' used it myself.
Ive had my PC for years, and just recently had Windows 10 installed. I have thousands of photos and files on my PC, and when I look at the status of the C drive, it is almost full. I have a 1 terabyte Hard Drive and I just bought a 1 Terabyte Flash Drive (USB) for backup. Now, with your instructions, will this back up ALL of the files and photos on my PC? IF so, that is what I want to do.
Hi, and thank you for this question.
I cover 2 different types of backups in this video, and both are done with the same windows 7 native backup and restore application. In your case, I would use the file level backup option and select all of the exact folders (which contain the files) that you want to backup, and use the external 1TB flash drive as the destination to store the backups. In the video I show exactly how to do this. This will give you at least one backup of all of your files and photos. But just a warning here… any disk, like a flash drive or external hard drive, that you dedicate to backups should be used ONLY for backups. If you use it for other purposes, you risk corrupting your backups and rendering them useless when you need them most. Dedicate your 1TB flash drive as your backup drive, and run through a file level backup like I show in the video. Then keep that flash drive somewhere safe and you’ll have a good copy of your data if ever needed. disk space currently consumed. A backup will only give you another copy of it.
IMPORTANT NOTE about backups: they do not erase any data, they just create copies of it, so if your disk is getting full, the backup will NOT reduce the disk space currently being consumed by your data.
I made a video specifically discussing how to manage a windows disk that is getting full (showing red). I highly recommend watching this because I show in it how you can easily identify data you still want to keep, versus data that you no longer need or want. It is important to you keep your windows system disk not showing red because if it gets too full, the operating system will no longer be able to run and you will have to do a bunch of other more complex steps to free up space on the system disk, in order to get the operating system running again.
Here is the link :
th-cam.com/video/d3WGi0qsLjI/w-d-xo.html
I just created recovery usbs on my Windows 10 and 11 laptops, and they all required a 32 GB usb.
Thanks for pointing this out. I just read up on that a little bit and it sounds like in order to include a recovery partition, 32GB is required. Nice job!
Is there a way to back up One Drive files to the external hard drive as well? Windows 7 Back up and Restore does not included these in the backup even if they are saved to my PC.
Hi, and yes. When choosing what to include in the backup, just add the location: "C:\users\YOURUSERNAME\OneDrive".
You can choose to include or exclude any files that exist locally on the computer.
@@frankwestphal8532 I do include it in the back up, but when you go to restore, One Drive is not there. I've tried it multiple times with same results. Any thoughts??
I been trying to do A backup same way you are tried using let windows decide and tried let me decide it will take awhile and it every time it says can't complete backup
not sure why been trying for 4 day's now to get this done you have any suggestions
Hi! I want to made a system image on a usb flash drive and windows tell me i can`t do that. I was able to do it on an external hdd but not on a usb flash drive. The message is " The drive is not a valid backup location". I mention that on hdd the image has 60gb and the flash drive have 128gb.
Hi, and thank you for watching. Did you format the flash drive in NTFS? It's probably formatted in exFAT. It needs to be NTFS for windows native backup. Just right click it and choose format, and switch it to NTFS. It should work fine then. This will erase the drive though, so make sure you have your data off of it.
@@frankwestphal8532 Hi! The flash drive has been formatted in NTFS.
Hello Mr. Westphal, thanks for this great video. On Windows 11 Home, this message has come up when trying to make a system image: "you have chosen to back up drive C: which is encrypted. The backup location will not be encrypted.." The device is on a local account. If I understand correctly, bitlocker is not enabled and this is "device encryption" in Windows 11 that is enabled by default. Does this type of encryption affect the systems image at all? I was wondering if it would be better to decrypt and then make the systems image to avoid any problems with trying to restore if needed one day. Any help is appreciated please
John 3:16
Hi and thank you for watching. Win 11 Home does not have the bitlocker option, so I think you're absolutely right that "device encryption" is turned on.
You can verify that here:
Select Start > Settings > Privacy & security > Device encryption.
What I would do is turn off device encryption, then make the system image, then turn it back on after the image is created. This will avoid any issues with restoring if ever needed.
Or... leave "device encryption" on, create a system image, but then test a restore. I'm not sure how "backup and restore" will handle restoring an encrypted system image. It would probably ask for the decryption key during the restore.
Great question here, and I hope this helps!
@@frankwestphal8532 Thanks for that tip you gave to verify - it did show that "device encryption" was indeed turned on. And following the recommendation to decrypt then make the image worked! To try find a potential recovery key for that encryption, opened powershell with admin privileges (task manager, open new task, powershell, tick "create with admin privileges") and then typed "manage-bde -protectors -get C:" (with those spacings and without quotations) and it indicated that there wasn't any key for the "device encryption". Found that command on this site: 'AskWoody' under the topic of "Windows 11 device encryption recovery key". After that, disabled the encryption and made the image like in the video. The channel 'ClearfundaTech' posted a video showing that you can see the status of decryption by opening command prompt with admin privileges and typing "manage-bde - status". I'm not too familiar with tech, so appreciate the time you and others take to make these videos. Thank you for your help. Remember, God proved His love for you at the Cross. Christ, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again so that all who repent to receive Him as their Lord and Savior by faith are reconciled to God and saved. No secret code needed :)
Windows onboard backup/restore program quit working on my Win 11 computer in Sept this year. Any idea as to why??
Hi, and thank you for watching.
The first thing I would check is whether or not your external backup disk is full. If it is, just verify that you have all of your current data, and re-create the backup operation using the same external backup disk.
NOTE:
This will OVERWRITE any existing backups, so only do this if you KNOW you have all your data in the current state of your PC. If the backup disk is full and you want to be super safe, pickup another external drive, remove the current external backup drive, label it with the dates it ran, and store it somewhere safe. Then re-create the backup operation with the new external backup drive.
But a full disk is not the only reason a backup operation could start failing. Another likely possibility is that backup disk has failed in some way. And yet another likely possibility is that the OS is damaged in some way. OS damage can happen for a variety of reasons, but the most common one I have seen is malware. A very powerful and free malware cleanup tool is Malwarebytes Free. I have used it extensively personally, and for many of our previous clients, becasue it is the best anti-malware I have ever used. I would run a malware scan with malwarebytes becasue a lot of times, simply removing any malware will allow the operating system to function normally again,.
try.malwarebytes.com/crush-malware/
I hope this helps!
@@frankwestphal8532 I have been using Maleware Bytes for several years now, also a very tight and efficient internet security program running. Thanks for the info.
Because my PC is bloated, almost completely full, I want to backup my files and photos on the USB drive, then I can feel confident to remove all of the data that is on my PC (pictures and files)…Hopefully this will work!
Yes, this will work. Make sure to look in any other area, beyond your user profile, that you may have data in, too. Most users have all their data in their user profile. But it doesn't HAVE to be there. It can be in other locations on the disk as well. Just make sure to include any other locations that your data is in, in the backup. And after you have a solid backup, you can reinstall the operating system and it will run like brand new.
I show how to do that in this video at 27:26:
th-cam.com/video/O53zJLFtpXg/w-d-xo.html
And also in this video at 10:41:
th-cam.com/video/dn42i8S1lNc/w-d-xo.html
So if I plug the usb hard drive into another computer then the system image will be no good
Hi, and thank you for watching. The image file itself would be fine, but what happens is that the NTFS permissions get over-written the moment a different computer reads the backup disk. These NTFS permissions can be changed back to their original state, and the computer that the backup was originally created on would once again be able to read the disk, and the backup could then be restored.
But there's a bigger picture here. If a backup is created on disk that is being used for other tasks on other computers, the backup is extremely likely to become compromised through exposure to malware, read/write errors, or physical damage to the external drive, which defeats the entire purpose of creating a backup in the first place.
There's no reason a backup drive should ever be used for anything other than backups, if a person expects that backup to actually be restorable, if ever needed. Backup drives are for backups only.
If i take a System Image backup, do i need to take the file level backup ( 7:30 ), like is it mandatory?
Hi, and thank you watching. The file level backup, in addition to the system image backup, is not mandatory. But I highly recommend it, because if you set it up like I did in the video, it is ONGOING. This means that you have very granular continued restore capabilities for individual files and folders as time passes. A system image will only take you back to the exact state (date and time) of the disk you took the image of, and any changes that have happened since then, will not be reflected in the restore.
The way I like to think of it, is that a file level backup is best used to restore individual files and folders of any quantity, and to be able to choose the dates of the backups which contain the files and folders that you want to restore. But a system image backup is the "nuclear option", and is used mainly for restoring a computer with corrupt operating system.
Is it posible to restore system image created by windows 8.1 while using windows 11?
Hi and thank you for this question. The short answer is no. The long answer is yes, you technically can because the nature of a system image is that it is an exact copy of an entire system disk, which includes the operating system, all of the settings, and all of the data. A system image is a direct capture of literally everything on the disk. So you CAN restore the windows 8.1 system image, but it will be windows 8.1m again, not windows 11. The windows 11 OS will be overwritten by the restoration of the windows 8.1 system image.
I have a 1TB system drive with 103 gb used. Will a 1Tb external hard drive be enough to make a backup on? (I don't want a differential backup, just a basic backup of system.}
Hi, and thank you for watching. Yes. That external 1TB will be able to do a system image of a 1TB system drive that only has 103GB on it. And if you do want to do the differential backups as well, I would say that it would do at least 6 months worth of daily differential backups in addition to the system image. The system image will (roughly) only be as large as the USED space on the system drive. You are good to go, and have plenty of space to work with.
Thanks for your response. It was helped a great deal.@@frankwestphal8532
If you have multiple backups on one drive, how does it know which backup to use, will it give you an option?@@frankwestphal8532
hi, do you have to create a usb repair tool? If my laptop is still working but just a little full of files or app and i just want to put the system image because it will rid all the junk.
Hi, and thank you for watching. It sounds like you may be wanting to reinstall the operating system and overwrite the entire system disk and all settings and data on it. Is that the case? if so, I show how to that for win 10, and win 11 in these videos:
Win 10 clean install:
th-cam.com/video/dn42i8S1lNc/w-d-xo.html
Win 11 clean install:
th-cam.com/video/O53zJLFtpXg/w-d-xo.html
Now, if you have an existing system image (not a factory image like what I use in the clean install videos, but a system image that you created as part of a back up of your computer, at some point in the past), there are two ways to restore that system image:
1. Upon startup of your computer press F8 repeatedly and go into windows advanced options. In here there is an option to restore an existing system image. But sometimes, the operating system is so messed up that this doesn't even work anymore. And that leads to option 2....
2: Use a bootable USB drive with a factory image of the operating system you want to restore a backup of, on it. And that's why I show how to make that bootable USB drive. It may be the only option if the running operating system is too corrupt to even used advanced startup options.
Example: you have a win 10 system but it's all messed up and when you press F8 and go to advanced options, it doesn't work or just spins endlessly... This is the situation where you would want to create the bootable USB with a fully working factory image on it. Then use that bootable USB to restore the system image you created at some point in the past. And if you want to restore a win 10 image, then create a bootable win 10 USB. If you're restoring a win 11 image, then you want to create a win 11 bootable USB.
Let me know if you have any more questions. I will try to answer them.
hi sir i have a backup image in 2019 in my usb,but after im using the clean install in 2024 march 5,can I use the backup image again 2019 to get all my apps back?
Hi. Thank you for watching, and for this great question.
If your backup is a file level backup, and not a system image backup (these are 2 different types of backups which are explained in the video), then yes you can use that file level backup to restore your files to your new system (even if it's a different version of windows).
But the file level backup will only restore files and folders, not apps and app settings (including software license keys).
A system image backup will include all files and folders, and apps and app settings (including software license keys), but it will also be the exact same version of the operating system that was running when the image backup was taken.
I'm assuming that in 2019 you would have been running windows 10. If you want to stay on windows 10, then yes you could do an image restore, and then just run windows updates to get the OS up to the latest version. That would work.
But if you're running windows 11 now, a system image restore will put you back on win 10. This is not necessarily a bad thing though. Windows 10 is by far still the most widely used desktop/laptop operating system in the world, and it is highly capable/functional.
Windows 11 is also highly functional and capable, so this will really come down to a personal decision on which version you would like to be running. Both will easily get the job done, but if you want to run windows 11, you'll have to manually rebuild your apps and app settings (including software license keys), even if you restore a file level backup to it.
I hope this helps clarify the options available!
@@frankwestphal8532 thankyou so much im still using win 10
im using system image backup i want to get all my apps back
@@frankwestphal8532 thankyou so much for the reply
Hi, If I want to create a system image when I get a new laptop, can I use a USB instead so when the time comes that my laptop is running slow or is corrupted, I use it?
Hi. Yes you can store the system image on a seperate USB drive if it is large enough. Keep in mind that a system image is not bootable though. It has to be restored using a bootable external drive, like the one I make in this video: So if you have the image on one USB drive and a bootable copy of windows on the other USB drive, that is all you need to restore the system image anytime.
th-cam.com/video/1FNZLbZ3zj0/w-d-xo.html
hello sir how I create backup image of my window 11 in pen-drive
Hello, please someone help me. I have a Windows 7 computer and need all the information along with the programs to be restored on a Windows 11. Is it possible?
Hi, and thank you for watching. It is possible to do this, but only manually. I would not even try to use an application to do it automatically, becasue even if there is an application that claims to do this, it will be of errors. To do it right, migration of systems from one computer to another, and from an older operating system to a newer operating system have to be done manually. In this video I cover a lot of of you need to know. The main things are to get the user data off the windows 7 system, and also get the license keys. User data includes 3rd party application data, like (for examples) Outlook .pst files, or QuickBooks .qbw files. Once you have the user data and the license keys off the old computer, you are well on your way.
I have done manual migrations like this hundreds of times professionally. They are never easy, and they are always highly detailed because every computer has different applications and different data. But if you know the general steps, you will be able to do it successfully.
I would watch this entire video (link below), just to get a full understanding of all the steps. Some of them will be different in your situation, but this shows the entire process from windows 10 to windows 11, so it will give you a good idea of what you need to do, and also show you the Belarc Advisor tool, which is GREAT for getting application license keys off old computers to be used on the new system.
th-cam.com/video/O53zJLFtpXg/w-d-xo.html
Clean Microsoft Windows 11 Factory Operating System Install - Step by Step Tutorial.
Here are the steps I will cover in this video:
1. Preparing what you will need 6:56
2. Backup up your user data (files) and software license keys 7:51
3. Creating a bootable USB drive with Windows 11 on it 13:40
4. Updating the system BIOS/firmware 19:34
System BIOS/firmware UEFI boot mode settings 26:22
5. Installing a new Solid State Drive 23:17
6. Installing and activating Windows 11 27:26
7. Restoring your user data to the new Windows 11 system 31:11
Dose it restore program file
Hi. Good question. The system image backup will include all the files, settings, applications (programs and program files), and the operating system itself. It is a 100% exact copy of the entire system drive, and when restored it will run exactly like when the image was taken.
A file level backup COULD include application (program) files, if you chose to include those in the file level backup. But it won't actually reinstall those applications (programs) or any settings associated with those applications.
I don't get it. Why not tell people to use a brand-new USB?
Hi, and thanks for watching. I do actually say exactly that. I say to get a large Seagate or Western Digital 2 or 4 TB external USB drive and dedicate it specifically, and exclusively, for backups.
Microsoft is telling to use third party backup software
If the backup and restore application from Windows 7 wasn't any good, it wouldn't still be in Windows 11. It's a basic tool that works, and that's why it's still here. Why mess around with 3rd party software and licensing if you can get the job done without it?
You should’ve went into regedit and deleted a bunch of keys 😂😂
Haha, yeah no registry hacks here. There are times when we (IT people) make registry modifications. But we always back up the registry first, and I don't recommend playing around with the registry unless the person knows exactly what they are doing.