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Windows Image Backup: Making a System Disk for Windows 10, 8, 7

Windows image backup allows you restoring an exact copy of your system at any time when you want it. A proper Windows image backup solution will create a logical copy of your drive or partition that contains an OS, to recover it with all its internal data and structure.

Handy Backup can do it!

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Version 8.4.5, built on March 14, 2023
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Windows Image Backup Software: Principal Methods

For Windows system image backup, Handy Backup provides the two options: Disk Image and System Recovery plug-ins, as well as a separate utility for “bare metal” called Disaster Recovery.

Disk Image creates a full, consistent Windows image backup for a disk or a separate partition in internal binary format that users cannot modify – only restore*.
System Recovery saves only entire drives, making an image in a readable, comprehensible VHD format, which allows using, say, an image of Windows 8 in a virtual machine.
Disaster Recovery is a standalone utility, available for free with most Handy Backup editions. It creates a bootable Windows restore disk image on a USB drive.

* You can use a file created by this plug-in for restoring it from scratch with a Disaster Recovery utility.

Handy Backup Small Business

The Small Business Backup Solution is a full edition of Handy Backup for a single machine, which includes all plug-ins and methods for making and storing Windows image backup files!

Windows System Image Backup for Different OS Versions

Windows 10 Image Backup

Windows 10 is a “roll-up” version, which changes itself constantly. A perfect Windows 10 backup utility, such as Handy Backup, can help avoiding many great problems emerging due to unstable updates.

Windows 8 Image Backup

For Windows 8 and 8.1, Handy Backup can fully automate creating a system image backup, replacing a built-in utility. It also automates Windows 8 restore disk image actions, which is useful for cloning an OS..

Windows 7 Image Backup

Used as system image backup Windows 7 software, Handy Backup provides a protection for many users and companies still utilizing that OS. In addition, it can create a Windows 7 image for a virtual machine.

Advantages of Windows Image Backup with Handy Backup

Two Plug-ins and One Utility

You can select between a whole, consistent binary Windows disk image created by Disk Image plug-in and a readable, usable VHD image file that the System Recovery plug-in can make from an entire drive. In addition, you can rely upon the Disaster Recovery standalone utility, based on a spare USB drive.

Regular System Image Backup

When using an internal plug-in, you can schedule your Windows image backup task to run on a regular base, with an interval from a minute to some months. In addition, you can trigger a task to start when some system event will occur (e.g., when you will trigger a USB drive related to a task into a PC).

Backup for a Disk in Use

Handy Backup utilizes the VSS (Volume Shadow Copying service) to create Windows image backup files without stopping a system. This “hot” mode allows you making regular backups of an entire Windows disk image without any trouble or inconvenience

Security and Protection for Windows Image Copies

You can protect your Windows disk image file by encrypting it, as well as saving it to some secure storage (including SFTP or FTPS servers, S3-driven business-level clouds or other protected storage). Handy Backup always uses dedicated data exchange protocols where it is possible to secure data!

How to Make a Windows Image Backup Using Handy Backup?

To create a Windows image backup, you can use a "System Recovery" feature, which can write a VHD file of your entire Windows system drive image. Please follow the simple instruction below, or read the User Manual for some complex details about making backup tasks.

Open Handy Backup and call for a new task wizard through a menu item or by pressing Ctrl+N.
Create a backup task on Step 1. Go to Step 2 by clicking "Next".
Select the "System Recovery" plug-in in the "Disk Clone" group on a left panel of Step 2.
1. In a new window, select a physical drive to copy as a Windows image backup.
1. Click OK and proceed creating a task as usual.

Utilizing Disaster Recovery

Please read the Disaster Recovery user manual section to make a bootable USB pen or HDD drive, from which you can always restore a system image created by Handy Backup. The Disaster Recovery utility has its own OS, independent from a current OS installed on any machine, which allows making a “cold” Windows restore for a disk image.

Video Example: How to Create Backup Image for Windows 10

In the next video, we will show how to make a Windows 10 image backup, but you can also use this technique for system image backup of Windows 7, 8 or Vista.

Firstly, in this video we show how to take a Windows image backup by using a plug-in for Handy Backup.

Note: You have no need to save a backup file on a USB drive from that you later will download and install a copy to your hard drive! In this video, we save our Windows 10 image backup to a non-system drive connected to a PC, and we will have a capability to use it later when we need it.