How to Perform System Image Recovery Windows 10 Step by Step

What Is a System Image Recovery

System Image Recovery is a crucial feature in computer systems that serves as a safety net when things go wrong. It’s like a snapshot or a mirror image of your entire operating system, along with settings, programs, and files at a specific point in time.

• Disaster Recovery: In case of a major malfunction, you can recover your system entirely, sparing you from reinstalling the operating system and all your applications from scratch.
• Time-Saving: Instead of spending hours or even days reinstalling everything, a system image recovery can bring your system back to a previously stable state in a relatively short time.
• Data Preservation: It helps in safeguarding your personal files and data since a system image includes everything, not just the operating system and software.

How to Use System Image Recovery on Windows 10/11

To use the System Image Recovery feature, it's essential to prepare an empty USB flash drive of at least 2 GB, creating a bootable device to access the Windows Recovery Environment. Additionally, you'll need another local drive to store the system image, especially if your computer has multiple local drives.

Tips: For those with a single local drive, an external USB hard drive is necessary to store the Windows system image. Ensure the free space on this external drive exceeds the used space on the current system disk.

The process consists of the following main steps:

• Create a system repair USB flash drive
• Create System Image
• Use System Image to recover your computer

Step 1. Create a system repair USB flash drive (for Bootable Recovery)

1. In the search box on the taskbar, search for Create a recovery drive and then select it. You might be asked to enter an admin password or confirm your choice.

2. Connect the USB flash drive that you want to create a bootable device to enter Windows Recovery Environment to your computer.

3. Insert your USB drive to your PC, select it and choose Next.

Tips: Consider using an empty USB drive. If you intend to use an external USB hard drive to store the system image, you can also utilize the same hard drive to create a bootable device for accessing the Windows Recovery Environment. Notably, Windows will automatically generate a new partition on the external USB hard drive, simplifying the process.

4. Select Create to start the process to copy the recovery partition to the USB.

Step 2. Create a System Image of Windows 10/11

1. Go to Control Panel, then select Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

2. Select Create a system image on the left side of the window.

3. Choose a location where to store the backup — such as backup to external drive, a DVD or a network location. Click Next.

• Make sure your external storage device is plugged in and turned on
• Make sure that the storage carrier is formatted using the NTFS file system; otherwise, you won't be able to transport the backup to it successfully.

4. Choose the drives you want to include in the system image. Click Next.

5. Click the Start Backup tab.

Step 3. Restore Your PC from a System Image

Here’s the last step on how to restore system image in Windows 11/10/8.1/7.

1. In Windows 10, go to Settings > Update & Security > Recovery. Then click the Restart now button.

2. Connect, Boot your computer from the recovery drive (USB flash drive) you created to your computer.

3. After choosing the keyboard layout as US, click Troubleshoot on the “Choose an option” screen.

4. Under Advanced options, select System Image Recovery.

5. Select the Windows 10 operating system to restore.

6. In the Choose other restore options window, choose additional restore points.

• Format and repartition disks: If you're restoring to a new hard disk, it's better to enable this option.
• Exclude disks: If you have multiple hard drives and don't want to restore system image backup to all of them, select the drives that you want to exclude from the restore operation.
• Advanced settings: Configure additional options for system image recovery. You can also change where Windows will search for the system image backup files. If your system image is stored on a network location, select that option.

Automatically Creating System Image Backups on Windows 10 or 11

AOMEI Cyber Backup offers complete system image backups, minimizing the risk of data loss and system failures. The reliable tool simplifies the backup process by scheduling system image backups and automating data protection.

💡 Discover the capabilities of AOMEI Cyber Backup:
✻ Flexible Scheduling: set daily/weekly/monthly backup to back up any changes regularly.
✻ Various Backups: schedule full or incremental backups of your system to guard against data loss.
✻ Quick Recovery: entire system or specific data to original or new computer quickly.
✻ Comprehensive Compatibility: compatible with various Windows operating systems such as Windows Server and Windows 11, 10, 8, 7.

You can download and install the system image backup software -AOMEI Cyber Backup from the button below:

✢ First, you need to install the AOMEI Cyber Backup Agent on your target device and connect to AOMEI Cyber Backup Management Server.

1. Navigate to "Backup" tab after opening this software, then choose "Create New Task" > "System Backup".

2. Select a system you want to back up. Then choose a destination to save the backup.

4. Schedule backup method as full / incremental / differential backup and run the backup tasks at daily / weekly / monthly.

5. Configure retention policy to auto delete the old backup files and save storage space.

6. Click Start Backup to protect your system.

 

✍ To restore the entire system easily and quickly: After completing the backup, you can click Restore to recover the system quickly when the unforeseen happens. It’s easy to make a clone of your system in the same or another computer.

Conclusion

System Image Recovery in Windows 10 offers a crucial safety net for restoring your PC to a stable state. The process involves three key steps mentioned in this article. This method helps recover the operating system, applications, and files. Regularly creating and updating system images is essential for ensuring a reliable backup, allowing quick restoration in the event of system failures or errors