What Is A System Image? Everything You Need to Know About Creating System Image Backups

Is a system image the same as a backup? A system image, in short, is a snapshot or an exact copy of an entire hard drive. A system image is a complete backup of everything on your computer's hard drive, so it saves everything, including Windows OS, your system settings, executable files, installed programs and all other files. The biggest advantage of a system image is that if a hard drive crashes or the computer stops working, you can easily restore everything back the way it was, with no need to reinstall Windows and applications.

A System Image Essentials

You may take a look at some essential aspects of creating a system image on your hard drive, and following the proper way to restore a computer from a created system image.

#1. A system image is a file with the same file size of the backups

Since a system image is eventually a file that contains the content on a PC's hard dive, or just from one single partition, its file size is just the same of the used disk space. For example, if you have 200GB of space used on a 500GB hard drive, the system image will be around 200GB. But not for the case you compress the system image to a smaller size.

Windows inbuilt backup programs would not be able to compress a system image, the ability of file compression is basically found in professional third-party backup and recovery utilities, e.g., EaseUS Todo Backup.

#2. Different backup programs use different types of system images

You can only use the same tool to backup a computer so as to be able to restore the computer from the image backup. Windows creates system images with the .xml and .vhd file extensions, while third-party programs use their own file extensions. To ensure the system image is valid to restore it, you can keep several backup tools but make sure that image A is created by tool A, and image B is by tool B. Each backup image file is independent when it comes to restore.

How to Create A Reliable System Image for Windows 10/8/7

Windows has its native system image backup solution included in the Backup and Restore feature. But here what we want to share before the default program is a third-party alternative - EaseUS Todo Backup. It's a free Windows backup tool that makes the system backup as easy as one click, and offers unique features over the default program as follows:

• Compress a system image to save disk space
• Encrypt a system image to protect privacy
• Execute a system backup when you turn on/off the computer
• Automatically backup to external hard drive when plugged in
• Save the system image to cloud drive
• Set task for full/differential/incremental backup

What makes the EaseUS disk imaging software the top one choice is not limited to the given free features in backing up the entire operating system, if you require more advanced features, such as restore a system image to a different computer, you can upgrade to a home version to enjoy that.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup on your computer, and click Create Backup on the home screen and then hit the big question mark to select backup contents.

Step 2. To back up your Windows operating system, click "OS" to begin the backup task.

Step 3. Your Windows operating system information and all system related files and partitions will be automatically selected so you don't need to do any manual selection at this step. Next, you'll need to choose a location to save the system image backup by clicking the illustrated area.

Step 4. The backup location can be another local drive on your computer, an external hard drive, network, cloud or NAS. Generally, we recommend you use an external physical drive or cloud to preserve the system backup files. 

Step 5. Customiztion settings like enabling an automatic backup schedule in daily, weekly, monthly, or upon an event, and making a differential and incremental backup are available in the Options button if you're interested. Click "Backup Now", and the Windows system backup process will begin. The completed backup task will display on the left side in a card style.

How to Restore Computer from A System Image

As we describled, you must use the same tool to create and restore a system image to ensure the 100% compatibility. Once you've created a system backup image using EaseUS Todo Backup, in case you have the need to restore a crashed or damaged computer from the system image, follow the guide in the following.

* To perform system recovery on a none-bootable machine, try to boot the computer through the EaseUS Todo Backup emergency disk.

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup, click "Browse to Recover".

Step 2. Guide to your backup destination, choose the system backup file you need. (The backup file created by EaseUS Todo Backup is a pbd file.)

Step 3. Choose the recovery disk. Make sure that the partition style of the source disk and the recovery disk are the same.

Step 4. You can customize the disk layout according to your needs. Then click "Proceed" to start system backup recovery.

FAQ on System Image

What does system image do?

A system image is a snapshot or an exact copy of an entire hard drive. It can save everything, including Windows OS, your system settings, executable files, installed programs, and all other files. If a hard drive crashes or the computer stops working, you can quickly restore everything without reinstalling Windows OS and applications.

What is the difference between a backup and a system image?

A backup is a copy of your files. A system image is an exact copy of everything on your hard drive, including Windows OS, settings, and all other files.