{"id":11256,"date":"2016-06-21T15:21:39","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T19:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=11256"},"modified":"2016-06-21T15:21:39","modified_gmt":"2016-06-21T19:21:39","slug":"the-image-backup-feature-in-windows-10","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/the-image-backup-feature-in-windows-10\/","title":{"rendered":"The Image Backup Feature in Windows 10"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Image Backup Feature in Windows 10<\/b><\/p>\n

First, if you have something like Genie Timeline<\/a><\/span> or another image backup program, that\u2019s great. We don\u2019t want you to think Windows image backup tool is better or that Windows backup has as many features as some of the other image backup programs. But if you want a basic image backup program that requires minimal configuration\u2026read on.<\/p>\n

First you\u2019re going to need an external hard drive of at least 500 gigabytes (1 terabyte or larger is recommended). And you\u2019re going to need to leave it plugged in most of the time. By most of the time we mean if you have a laptop, leave it plugged in when you\u2019re not traveling with your laptop. If you do unplug it, remember to plug it back in as soon as you can, otherwise you\u2019ll get error messages that Windows cannot find the backup drive.<\/p>\n

That being said, we\u2019ll tell you that Windows 10 does not make it very easy to find the backup feature, and even more \u201ccuriouser\u201d it\u2019s has the moniker \u201cBackup and Restore (Windows 7)\u201d. It makes it sound like they forgot and left a Windows 7 component in Windows 10 by mistake. But it\u2019s no mistake, it\u2019s a decent backup program what will create image backups virtually (no pun intended) automatically.<\/p>\n

OK here we go.\u00a0Here’s how to create an image backup on Windows 10 without using any 3rd-party software.<\/p>\n

1. Open Control Panel, make sure you\u2019re icon view (not category view) and navigate to:<\/p>\n

2. All Control Panel Items \u2014> Backup and Restore (Windows 7)<\/p>\n

(Windows 10 Tip: You can get to Control Panel easily by right-clicking the start button and choosing Control Panel from the menu. Alternatively, you can press the Windows Key + X and choosing Control Panel from the menu.)<\/p>\n

3. When you click on Backup and Restore (Windows 7) you will see this dialog:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a closer view. You\u2019ll need to click \u201cCreate a system image\u201d and then click \u201cSet up backup\u201d (see below):<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Windows will scan your computer for external drives or other media. You cannot store a backup on your C:\\ (Windows) drive. Windows finds my main external drive with the most free space available and recommends it (see below):<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

4. Chose the first option under \u201cWhat do you want to back up\u201d. The first option \u2013 \u201cLet Windows choose\u201d backs up your personal files and folders and also creates a system image backup.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

5. \u00a0You will get a chance to review your choices. You should see \u201cSystem image\u201d. Also you\u2019ll note it reminds you to create a system repair disk. You can also use the recovery drive feature (see our tutorial here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Click \u201cSave settings and run backup\u201d and if you followed all of the steps above you should see the \u201cBackup in progress\u201d dialog (below):<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s it. That\u2019s how to use the Windows 10 image backup feature \u2013 even though it came from Windows 7.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

After your backup(s) have been created you\u2019ll need to monitor the backups manually and remove older backups so you don\u2019t run out of space. If you have a new or newer computer and you are doing an image backup, we recommend that you keep the first image backup that you made when your computer was running well, and you keep the most recent, since it is the most current drive image. You want to monitor your disk usage because no drive has unlimited space \u2013 and there is no use of having a dozen image backups, right? Two should be just fine if you have the drive space for two, of course.<\/p>\n

Does the backup feature in Windows 10 have all the bells and whistles that\u00a0Genie Timeline and some other top-notch backup programs have?\u00a0Nope. But it does work fairly well. An image backup can save they day if your hard drive fails or some other catastrophic event befalls your computer.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Image Backup Feature in Windows 10 First, if you have something like Genie Timeline or another image backup program, that\u2019s great. We don\u2019t want you to think Windows image backup tool is better or that Windows backup has as many features as some of the other image backup programs. But if you want a basic image backup\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11256"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11257,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11256\/revisions\/11257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}