Your Windows operating system is more than just the building blocks of your PC’s user experience – it’s a treasure trove of precious memories captured in videos, photos and songs. You probably have years of files that paint a picture of you, your life and your lifestyle. So the last thing you want is for these meaningful moments to disappear. This is why it is important to learn how to create a Windows backup. And fortunately, we know a lot about how to carry out this task.
Whether you’ve never backed up Windows in your life or need a quick refresher on some parts of the process, our step-by-step guide is here for you.
Backup and restore Windows 11
The easiest way to back up Windows 11 is with the operating system’s backup and restore feature. This feature is a holdover from Windows 7 and still works fine when backing up individual files and folders. You can find it in the classic control panel. Here’s how to get started.
Step 1: Open your Start menu and search for Control panel
Step 2: In the Search Control Panel Box, search Save and recover and click on the top result for Backup and Restore (Windows 7)
Step 3: On the page that opens, click Set up backup Shortcut. This will open a wizard. Follow the instructions on your screen. You will be asked to select an external drive to back up as well as the specific folders and files you want to back up. All files on this external drive will be deleted. Wait for the process to complete. Depending on the number of files to be backed up, this could take hours or just minutes.
Step 4: Once the backup is complete, you can remove the backup drive from your computer. You can restore files from the drive at any time by connecting it, returning to the same settings page and selecting that Select another backup to restore files from Possibility.
Windows 11 system image
System Image Backup is a more comprehensive solution to back up your entire PC. This allows you to save an exact copy of your system and then restore it if your PC crashes or malfunctions. This type of backup includes not only your files but also all your programs and apps.
Step 1: Open your Start menu and search for Control panel
Step 2: In the Search Control Panel Box, search Save and recover and click on the top result for Backup and Restore (Windows 7)
Step 3: Press that Create a system image Link in sidebar.
Step 4: In the wizard that appears, select the option On a hard drive Possibility. Then from there, click on your external hard drive or solid state drive that you connected to your PC. If you want, you can also choose a DVD. However, a floppy disk is the best option as it offers more storage space.
Step 5: Press that Next Click the button and select all the drives you want to include in the backup. Then choose Start backup when you are ready to backup. This full backup can take a while, and if you use a traditional spinning hard drive as your backup method, it can take even longer.
Step 6: If you receive a system repair disk prompt, click NO. You don’t need this for a system image backup if you already have a USB drive or CD with Windows installation files. Otherwise, click Yes.
Step 7: Once the backup is complete, you can restore from this system image at any time Repair your computer Option from the Windows 11 installer. Just select that Troubleshooting option and then select System image recovery. From there you can choose Use the latest system image and follow the steps on your screen.
Why should I create a Windows 11 backup?
It may seem annoying, but as a PC owner, creating an operating system backup is one of the smartest things you can do for your system. Not only does this preserve a number of settings, customizations, and layout elements of your Windows interface, but your backup also acts as a retrievable snapshot of your PC up to the time you created the backup (or whatever date range you choose). The backup copy).
So even if the version of Windows 11 running on your PC decides to turn nasty and delete all your pictures, videos, music and other important files, you can restore them using your backup.
What are the best hard drives and SSDs for backing up Windows 11?
Asking which company makes the best external drives is somewhat similar to asking who makes the best TVs, computers, phones, tablets, etc. With so many brands to choose from, it can certainly be daunting to figure out which drive you should buy for your Windows 11 backup. But based on our experience and expertise, there are definitely a few names we can recommend.
When it comes to hard drives, you can’t go wrong with products from Western Digital and SanDisk. When it comes to SSDs, we prefer models from Samsung, Crucial and Lexa. Each of these companies makes external drives that are easy to use, durable, and offer exceptional transfer speeds.
Can I save a Windows 11 backup to cloud storage?
This all depends on the cloud storage platform you use. In general, most of these tools allow you to store operating system backups and other important files that you want to keep safe.
If you want to keep things in the Microsoft ecosystem, OneDrive is a great platform. You can even set up automatic backups for your most important files and content so you don’t have to worry about doing it manually.
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