Create System Image

1. Go to “Start Menu” – “All Programs” – “Maintenance” – and then click “Backup and Restore” as shown in image 1. You will get into the backup and restore screen.

2. Now click on the “Create a system image” option on the right hand side of the screen as shown in
image 2.

3. Choose “Yes” to proceed on the window’s user account security dialog box.
4. You will reach the system image creation screen as shown in image 3. Here you will see several options asking you to choose the destination drive to save the image based your PC’s configuration. If you have a tape drive or an external hard drive, the system will also show those options in addition to the basic options shown in image 3.

5. Here you select your preferred option. If you want to save the system image in a network location, choose the 3rd option and select the exact location of the network by hitting the “browse” button. If you want to save it in an external hard drive, choose the option linked to your external hard drive and then click “next”.
6. Now you will see the drive selection screen asking you to select the logical drives that you want to include in your system image.  By default, the logical drive associated with your system (OS) will be selected already. For example, I have Windows 7 installed in my C drive, so it is already selected by default in image 4.

7.  If you have Windows installed in your D drive, Drive D will be selected instead. Here you can add more logical drives if you want to back them up as well. You can have a look at the “used space” column to get an idea of how much storage space you need in the destination drive. For example, with the default selections showing in image 4, about 17 GB (16.18+29.81) space will be necessary to create this image. If you add the G drive, additional 1.96 GB will be required. Since I don’t keep a lot of data and programs in my laptop, I will only need about 20 GB of space in the network to create a system image for myself as shown in the image. But your case could be totally different! You might have loads of things in your PC and in that case it is better to put all your important files let’s say in the G drive and then select G drive to include also in the system image. After you have done making selections and choosing destination drive, hit “next”.

8. A confirmation screen will appear to get your confirmation about the selections you have made. Hit “Start Backup” button next. Depending on the size of the image and the nature of the destination media, backup process may take somewhere between 30 to 60 minutes. Once the process ends, you have a system image that could be really useful in a crisis situation in the future.

Create a System Repair Disk to Boot and Restore Windows

You can also create a system repair disk on the same backup and restore screen. A repair disk normally needs very little space; an empty DVD or CD should be more than enough to create a repair disc.

1. Just put it in your DVD writer and then choose “Create a System Repair Disk” option as shown in image 5.
2. Then click “next” – “Yes” to confirm – “and Create Disc” options to complete the process. Mark the disk as a “System Repair Disk” and keep it in a safe place too.
3. You will need this to boot your computer if your system crashes and then easily restore your Windows by selecting the restore option.
4. You will need to plug in the system image drive into your PC and then point the restore program to this designated location where the image is placed.