This is a brief tutorial on how to create a system image which is a copy of everything on the computer that you can use to recover the computer later if needed. This is an efficient way to back up everything on the computer.
There are only Minor Variations between windows 10 and 11, I will include screenshots to highlight them.
Creating recovery media
The first thing you will want to do before setting up your system image will be to create Windows Recovery Media, this process is the same for both windows 10 and 11, please see our guide here.
Accessing Control Panel
Windows 10
- Select the Start Menu:
- Click the Settings Icon, it will look like a gear:
- In the search bar in windows settings, type Control panel and select the matching option:
Windows 11
- Select the Start Menu:
2. Click the Settings Icon, it will look like a gear.
3. In the search bar at the top of the settings window type Control panel and click on the option that matches:
In Control Panel
From here the process in both Windows 10 and 11 is Identical.
- In the right corner click the drop down next to View by:
- Click Small icons
- Click Backup and Restore (Windows 7) This will still work on Windows 10 and 11:
- Click Create a system image:
- Your computer will look for backup devices, this may take a couple of minuets:
- Select either on a hard disk (external preferred) or one or more DVD’s:
- Select all drives wanted in system image, select Next:
- Select Start backup
And that's all you need to do, Windows will now backup your system along with your selected drives!