You want to back up/restore your data in order to be covered in case of failure on your device or before you give it away? Follow the steps below.
Windows
There are several ways to back up your PC data.
- Select the Start button, then select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.
- Do one of the following:
- If you are using Windows Backup for the first time or have recently upgraded your version of Windows, select Set Up Backup and follow the Wizard procedure.
- If you have already created a backup, you can wait for the scheduled backup to run or manually create a backup, by clicking Back Up Now.
- If you have already created a backup, but want to generate a full backup rather than update the previous backup, select Create New Object, Full Backup, and then follow the steps in the Wizard.
⚠ Very important: Do not back up files to the hard drive already hosting Windows. For example, do not back up files to a recovery partition. Always keep media used for backups (CDs, DVDs, or external hard drives) in a secure location to prevent unauthorized people from accessing your files. We recommend that you choose a separate, fireproof location. You may also want to consider encrypting your backup data.
Create a system image
System images contain all the information about your PC in a particular state.
- Right-click the Start button, then select System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.
- In the left pane, choose Create System Image, then follow the steps of the wizard.
Administrator authorization required If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or confirmation.
Note: To create a system image of a disk, you must format the disk to use the NTFS file system. If you save the system image to a hard drive or USB stick, it must be formatted to use the NTFS file system.
Keep different versions of system images
You can keep several versions of system images. On internal and external hard drives, older system images are deleted when the drive is full. To conserve disk space, delete older system images.
If you save your system images to a network location, you can only keep the most recent system image for each computer. System images are saved in the following format: driveWindowsImageBackup.
If you already have a system image for a computer and you create one for the same computer, the new system image is written back to the old one.
If you want to keep the old system image, you can copy it to another location before creating the new system image by following the steps below.
- Navigate to the location of the system image.
- Copy the WindowsImageBackup folder to a new location.
Create a restore point
You can use a restore point to restore your computer's system files to a previous state. Restore points are automatically created weekly by the System Restore feature and when your PC detects a change, such as when you install an application or driver.
Here's how to create a restore point.
- Right-click the Start button and select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > System.
- In the left pane, select System Protection.
- Select the System Protection tab and click Create.
- In the System Protection dialog box, enter a description and choose Create.
Restore
- Right-click the Start button and select Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Backup and Restore.
- Do one of the following:
- To restore your files, choose Restore My Files.
- To restore all users' files, choose Restore All Users' Files.
3. Do one of the following:
- To browse the contents of the backup, choose Files or Folders. When you search for folders, you are not able to view individual files in a folder. To view individual files, use the Files option.
- To search the contents of the backup, select Search, type in all or part of the file name, and then select Search.
Tip: If you are searching for files or folders associated with a specific user account, you can improve the search results by entering the location of the file or folder in the Search box. For example, to search for all JPG files that have been backed up, type JPG in the Search box. To search for only JPG files associated with the user John, type C:\Utilisateurs\Jean\JPG in the Search box. Use wildcards such as *.jpg to search for all JPG files that have been saved.