Connect the USB pen drive to the computer and then format it to make it clean without any data in it.

Download Tuxboot, which will mount the image taken to the USB pen drive.

Download Clonezilla, which will help you to create an image of your system.

Make sure you have a USB pen drive, an external hard drive and an active Internet connection. But that is not the only way! You know you could take a snap shot of your computer’s hard drive and use it to quickly get back to the same settings with all the programs and files without having to reinstall. The System Image Backup tool is located in the Windows Control Panel, but it’s in a different place on different versions of Windows.In case you are afraid if your computer will crash suddenly and you will have to reinstall windows which will wipe away all your data, then data backup would be the first way to protect data. But free is free, and if you don’t need the extra features, the Windows tool offers a solid way to perform a full backup of your system. For example, both support incremental backups, password-protected images, and the ability to browse backups for individual files. Third-party apps like Macrium Reflect or Acronis True Image-at least, the paid versions-do offer some advanced features you won’t find in the Windows system image backup tool. RELATED: How to Use All of Windows 10's Backup and Recovery Tools With that in mind, however, image backups can still be really handy. It would be like trying to plug your hard drive into another PC and expecting everything to load well.

You’re creating an image of your full Windows installation and, since Windows is set up specifically for your hardware, it just won’t work as-is in another PC. The biggest disadvantage with system image backups-other than taking a bit longer-is that you can’t restore the backup to a different PC.

On the other hand, normal backup tools, including online backup services like Backblaze or Windows’ built-in File History feature, essentially copy your files to another location. No need to reinstall Windows or your apps. The advantage of a system image is that if a hard drive crashes, you can replace it, restore the image, and have your system right back to where it was when the image was captured. Open System Image Backup in Windows 10 and Windows 11Ī system image backup is essentially a complete snapshot of an entire hard drive.

Hard drive snapshot