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The Only Windows 10 Backup and Restore Features Guide You'll Need |
Backup windows 10
Creating frequent backups is one of the best strategies to protect your documents, pictures, videos, custom configurations, and Windows 10 files against software problems, hardware failure, hackers, and malware such as viruses and ransomware attacks. Although there are many third-party utilities that you can use, Windows 10 ships with the legacy "Backup and Restore" experience, which allows you to create full backups automatically at regular intervals.
A full backup using this tool means that Windows 10 will make a copy of everything on your computer, including installation files, settings, apps, and all your files stored in the primary drive, as well as those files stored in different locations.
Then when your device suddenly stops working, a critical error prevents the device from starting correctly, or files get damaged, you can use the "Backup and Restore" feature to recover individual files or the entire system as necessary.
Backing up should be an essential part of everyone's regular routine, whether you work in an office or work at home. In this Windows 10 guide, we'll walk you through the steps to set up full backups of your device automatically. Important: Backup and Restore is no longer a maintained feature on Windows You can still use it, but in the future, it may stop working.
Also, as a deprecated feature, Microsoft can decide to remove this tool in future releases completely. Once you complete the steps, an initial backup of your device will be created, and then incremental backups will be performed on the schedule you specified. During the process, you can click the View details button to see more information about the files being copied and an option to interrupt the process if necessary. After the backup is complete, in the "Backup" section, you'll be able to view the current size of the backup and drive location as well as the date and time of the next and previous backup.
After configuring the automatic backup feature on Windows 10, you can manage many of the settings to prevent running out of space in the backup drive and changing the schedule to a different date and time.
After you complete the steps, the external drive should have more space to allocate future backups. If you have a lot of data to protect and optimizing the backup drive storage doesn't make a difference, you should consider getting a larger external storage. If you don't know which one to pick, check out our external hard drive guide to select the best option for you. Once you complete the steps, backups will run automatically during the new schedule that you specified. When the time comes to restore your computer from backup, you'll need a bootable media.
Although the tool includes an option to create a disc to boot your device to restore a backup, newer devices don't come with disc drives anymore. If you don't have a disc drive, you'll need to use the Media Creation Tool opens in new tab to create a USB bootable media, which you can use to access the recovery environment when your computer doesn't boot. After you complete the steps, you can use the disc or USB bootable media to start your computer in the Advanced startup mode to recover your files.
When the unexpected happens, you can use the Backup and Restore feature to restore files individually or recover your entire system and data.
Once you complete the steps, you'll be able to access the files and folders from the location that you specified during the recovery process.
If your computer doesn't boot or you're replacing the hard drive, you can restore your device using the most recent backup. The only caveat is that the process is often different depending on the manufacturer and even the computer model. So make sure to check your device manufacturer's support website for more specific instructions. After you complete the steps, the recovery process will start, and it'll restore everything since the last backup. The completion time will depend upon the data and hardware configuration.
If you work with files frequently, and you don't create backups daily, it's recommended to complement the backup with another kind of file backup.
For instance, using a OneDrive subscription allows you to keep a more up-to-date copy of all your personal files in the cloud. In addition to the Backup and Restore tool, you can also use the system image backup tool to create a full copy of your entire computer, but there are a few key differences between these tools.
When using Backup and Restore, you can create automatic backups during a specified schedule, and you get more options. For example, you can configure the data that you want to protect, manage the storage, and you can restore one or multiple files as well as the entire device. However, this solution also has at least a couple of things to consider. When doing backups automatically, it means that the backup drive has to be always connected to the computer, which could be a risk as if malware infects the device, it may also damage the backup.
In contrast, the system image backup feature allows you to create a full backup, but you must go through the process manually every time that you want to protect your files and installation. Typically, this feature is more suited as a temporary backup when modifying the system settings or replacing the hard drive. One significant benefit is that unlike the automatic option, you can always disconnect the backup drive and store it in a safe location, which can protect your data from malware and hackers as well as from natural disasters.
Similar to the automated process, system image backup also has a few caveats. You can only restore files since the last time you ran the feature. As a result, if you're not proactive in creating backups, you could lose a lot of data during the restore process. Also, this feature is meant to restore your entire system, not individual files.
We're focusing this guide on Windows 10, but the Backup and Restore tool has been around for a long time, which means you can refer to these instructions if you're using Windows 8. Mauro Huculak is technical writer for WindowsCentral.
His primary focus is to write comprehensive how-tos to help users get the most out of Windows 10 and its many related technologies. Windows Central Windows Central. Mauro Huculak. More about windows Windows 10 version 22H2 announced, and its first build is available fo This new interactive map shows the scale of Microsoft Azure's global c Topics Windows 10 Help.
See all comments Great post, Mauro! I have been doing this already, but there were a couple little hints about space management that I had forgotten about. Hey frett, thanks! Yup, this guide is good for those who don't know about the feature, and it's also a reminder for those who do know. Great post indeed. Never did backups of the entire system, nor a repair disk. I'm on windows 10, the most stable OS to date, but I'm following your advice, we'll never know.
One question, though: how big does the usb pen has to be? Can it be a DVD? Yes, you can use a DVD to create a bootable disc. Thanks for your answer. I've got the 64 bits version. That means a DVD won't work since it has less that 6gb of space, right?
The best way to tell is to download the Media Creation Tool and see what the app tells you. Alternatively, you can simply create a repair disc which uses the size of the normal CD. This is a good example of how something that could be so simple is made so difficult by Microsoft. Sure all of us geeks can follow these procedures just fine, but its the neo-phytes that need the help.
Those are the people I help all day long every day. What Microsoft needs to do is have an additional backup tool that is simple; saves chosen folders; defaulting to Docs, Music, Pics, and Videos, pointed to an external device, that simply; perfectly syncs all files over to that device. This is so Gdamn easy for them to do, but they make us go looking for these tools instead of just building it in. SyncToy is great for this, but its not a built in solution for average joes.
File History is just confusing, and does not give a proper status window for whether or not it is currenlty saving files etc. Any good backup tool should also warn folks to unplug the drive when done, and plug it back in if it is not visible when re-initiating the backup. Just my opinion.
Infact they're deprecating all this stuff from Fall Creators Update on. That's why I see weird an article NOW in this site. I believe they said it's going away. Maybe next year. Why would Ms remove it? While I do not use the built in Wijndows backup, I know some who do. Seems crazy that microsoft is removing this feature. I use it all the time. I believe it is important to note that if you're using an external hard drive, that it be compatible with Windows Backup and Restore.
I get the feeling they want you to use their software agent on all Windows clients. However, Microsoft is just like if I can make things complicated, why should I make it easier.
At least, it make things much easier. You also forgot to tell that you have to create a recovery CD after every '6 months' update. The same problem brutally happen if you forgot to remove the 'recovery' partition that Windows creates automacally after these updates, destroying the bootmanager. I suppose they justify removing it because "not enough people use it". But they buried it so it's hard to find and made it perhaps more complicated than necessary or I should say the simplest form is not simple enough but don't remove features either.
To quote Einstein, make it as simple as possible but not simpler. The one drive backup is NOT a replacement for an offline backup, it's just not. This should not be removed. File History should not be removed. I'm new to Windows since 10 but I've heard countless people tell me this tool is unreliable crap. And I agree with the person who asked why does MS make something so simple so hard. Back when I was a Mac user they had a button that did all this.
Back up and restore your PC.
This article explains how create a backup by taking a Windows 10 system image and how to restore a backup. Windows 10's System Image Backup is an intuitive and versatile tool for creating a Windows 10 backup and is ready to use right away if you're running Windows It's somewhat of a legacy feature and is no longer maintained by Microsoft, but it still functions as it ever did and for now at least, remains one of the best ways to create a Windows 10 image backup.
If you want to save your backup to an external drive , make sure it is connected before beginning this process. If it doesn't work, take a look at this guide to fix it.
Select Update and Security. In the resulting Settings window, select Backup from the left-hand menu. Under the heading Looking for an older backup? Select Go to Backup and Restore Windows 7.
This is an original Windows 7 feature, it is not something that you can only use if running Windows 7. A new Control Panel window will appear. On the left-hand side, select Create a system image. In the new window, under Where do you want to save the backup , use the various toggles and drop-down menus to select whether you want to store your image on a hard drive be it internal or external , a series of DVDs, or on a network connected drive somewhere on your LAN.
Then select Next. Select which drives you want to include with the backup using their relevant check boxes. Look over your selections, then when you're happy and ready, select Start backup to begin the process.
You will also be given the chance to create a system repair disk. If your system has an optical drive and you want that option, choose Yes. Otherwise, select No , then Close. The backup will then begin and can take some time depending on how big the installations are that you're backing up and the speed of your drives.
You can, however, continue to use the drives while it's happening, so feel free to continue to use your system as before. If you did backup the drive to an external drive, make sure to disconnect it once the backup is complete and store it somewhere safely. Hopefully you never need to restore a backup because your data remains safe and secure, but if you have a data failure or need access to data you've accidentally deleted, restoring the backup is no more complicated than making the backup in the first place.
Connect your internal or external drive containing the system backup to your computer. Boot your computer and repeatedly press the F8 key to access the troubleshooting menu. For more information, look at our guide to accessing advanced startup options. Select Troubleshoot. Select Advanced options. Select System Image Recovery. Select Windows In the Select a system image backup Window, select Use the latest available system image option.
Alternatively, if you have multiple backups, you can manually select a system image instead. Select Next.
If you're restoring to a new drive, you should use the Format and repartition disks option before continuing further. Just be sure to Exclude disks to prevent your other disks from also being formatted in the process. Select Next followed by Finish. The backup will begin and can take some time depending on the size of your backup and speed of the drives involved. Once complete, however, you should be able to boot to your newly restored system as it was before.
If you run into problems, make sure to use the system boot menu to confirm you're booting to the correct drive. When you visit this site, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies.
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Microsoft no longer maintains System Image Backup, but it's still one of the best ways to create a Windows 10 image backup. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Email Address Sign up There was an error. Please try again. You're in! Thanks for signing up. There was an error. Tell us why! More from Lifewire.
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