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[Article] How to Create a System Image in Windows 11 and Windows 10 - 2021 Edition

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2025-07-17T07:44:15.8166667+00:00

📌 Note: This article was originally created by Andre Da Costa on Answers Support Community. It provided meaningful insights and proved helpful to many. We're recreating it here to preserve its value and ensure continued access for others.

For many years, Windows has included backup solutions that lets you capture a complete replica of your Windows installation. This means, the operating system, applications and files are backed up at a certain point in time, which you can restore to a new external hard disk in case of failure.

Before you start using any backup solution in Windows, you might want to make sure your drive is initialized or prepared:

Depending on the version of Windows you are running, finding Backup and Restore will be different. Below are steps to find and start Backup and Restore in Windows 11 or Windows 10:

Windows 11:

Press Windows key + R

Type: control

Under System and Security click on

If you are running an earlier build of Windows 11, open Settings > System > click on Storage > Advanced Storage options > Backup options

Windows 10:

Click Start > Settings > Update & Security > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

Backup And Restore Option in Windows

Even though System Image is based on the same technology introduced in earlier versions of Windows, the functionality works the same in Windows 10 and Windows 11. Proceed to connect your external drive then power it on. In the Backup and Restore control panel, click on Create a system image under Control Panel Home.

Create a System Image Using Backup and Restore in Windows 10

Wait while the System Image wizard detects your external hard disk.

Select a Backup Drive to Save System Image Of Windows 10 Computer

If your external drive has multiple partitions, make sure you click in the On a hard disk list box and choose the right partition where you want to store the image.

See: Partition a Hard Drive for macOS Time Machine and Windows 10 Backups

Choose the system drives (which are selected by default) and any partitions you want to backup. If you see foreign drives appearing, uncheck those. For instance, my partition for my Macintosh Time Machine backup appears, but I don't want to back that up. The same goes if you have partitioned drives for other operating systems such as Linux.

Review the changes and keep in mind the information at the bottom which lets you know that encrypted partitions will not decrypted. This means, contents of those system images will be accessible when mounted in Disk Management.

Click Start backup to begin the backup process. 

Your Guide to Using BitLocker Encryption on Windows 10

How to Attach and Copy files from a VHD in Windows 10

start the backup process

The process can take some time depending on the size of your backup.

data backup

Click Close when complete. You will be prompted to create a repair disc, which you can use to facilitate the restoration of the image on a new hard disk in case of system failure.

[How to: Create a Recovery Drive for reinstalling Windows]

Windows for home | Windows 11 | Install and upgrade

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