How to Back Up Windows 10

Windows 10 has some really amazing features which everyone should explore. The developers have also made it possible for people to reinstall it easily when an infection strikes.

Backup Windows 10

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This, however, means that each time you format your computer, you will have to reinstall all the applications you have. This may be a tedious and costly thing to do, especially when you had paid software and apps.

Losing files can also be a major drag on your development. Work documents like presentations and articles can do major damage to your reputation if you lose them. You might even have to pay a technician to recover the data for you.

To prevent the outrageous expenses which you may face each time your computer crashes, you can create a backup of your Windows 10 OS.

It is really easy to create a Windows 10 backup. However, you have to be clear on which type of backup you need.

There are two types of backups:

  • File backup
  • System backup

File Backup

A file backup is a copy of a certain file that you keep separate from the original file so that you can recover it when the file is lost.

This means that a file backup can simply be a copy of any document contained in any physical drive.

It is pretty simple to create this type of backup. All you need is Windows Explorer and an external drive. To copy these files to the drive, select them and copy them to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl + C.

Go to the destination drive and paste by pressing Ctrl + V. it is as simple as that. You have just created a backup of your files.

System Backup

A system backup is a complete copy of your operating system. The copy contains the OS, the program files, settings and personal data.

This is the type of backup that you need for your computer’s security. If you have any software that you have purchased, like antivirus or so, you can back it up with the backup tools and recover the state it was on the date of backup.

Luckily Microsoft has offered a software program that helps people back up the Windows 10 OS in a simple manner.

The Windows image backup helps users to back up everything on the computer bit by bit. This means that anything contained on the partition will be backed up.

Sounds like the real deal huh? Well, here is how you are going to go about the backup:

How to Create a Backup Image of Windows 10?

  • Press the Windows logo button and search “Control Panel”.
  • Select “File History” under System and Security

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  • Click “System Image Backup link” in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
  • Connect a USB drive that has enough space for the whole backup. You can check the space required by pressing the Windows logo button and E to open file explorer.

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  • A backup wizard will be started. You are going to be prompted to choose where you are going to save the backup.
  • Select the destination drive you prefer.

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You can backup to DVD and a network alternatively. However, this will slow down the backup process since you will be sending it through a connection with a capped speed.

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  • Click on next and wait for the process to end.

Duration

I know it might be a bit odd to wait for more than one hour for the process to end. As long as it is showing progress, however, the backup process is going on smoothly.

Do not worry if the backup process has taken more than 2 hours. Some of the Windows 10 users have reported having to wait for more than 3 hours for the whole backup to complete.

There are some measures that you can take to ensure that your image backup finishes faster and without errors:

How to make Windows 10 Backups Faster?

Waiting for a whole day in order for your backup to complete may drive you insane. There are chances that there will be interruptions between the day (blackouts and human interferences).

Here is how you can ensure that your backup is faster and error-free:

  • Backup a freshly installed copy of Windows 10. It is advisable to back up the copy of Windows on your computer as early as possible. You can install a bunch of common software like MS office and drivers before you commence.

Avoid the bulky software which you can easily get back. You should also avoid copying any files on the hard drive.

This way, you will have a compact system to back up and hence the process will complete faster.

  • Kill tasks running in the same instance. You should kill unnecessary task that is affecting the CPU performance and disk speed. By doing so, you will have created enough memory and speed for the process to run faster.
  • Uninstall software and delete bulky files. Since the process backs up everything contained in the system partition, you should reduce the number of files in it to make the backup smaller.

This especially applies to the people who have been using their computers for a while.

Restoring the Backups

It is important to note that the backups cannot be restored on any computer other than the one you created the backup on.

However, if you just need individual files from the backup, you can mount the image and select the file you need. This can be done on any computer with the necessary pre-requisites.

These are the steps you should take to restore the backup:

  • Reboot your PC with startup options by clicking on the start menu while holding the shift key.

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  • While holding the shift key, click on the power logo, then reboot.
  • Your computer will show a menu for choosing the type of action you want the computer to reboot with. Click on the second/ third option, which is Troubleshoot.

Advanced Startup Options Windows 10

  • Click on advanced options and then system image recovery.

Repair Windows 10

  • Select the image and click on next. The backup restoration process will start immediately and will not take more than a few hours to complete.

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