Backing up a Windows system may seem like a complicated, long and tedious operation, instead it is vital for being able to recover personal data and get the PC back in working order without having to restore or reformat the disk every time! With a Windows backup we will obtain a precise image of the entire Windows operating system including all personal folder data, all installed programs, all configurations made, all registry keys so that once loaded and all licenses purchased for paid programs.
In this guide we will show you how to backup and restore your computer using a free and simple to use program like Macrium Reflect .
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How to backup and restore your computer
By carefully following all the steps described in the following chapters, we will be able to make simple and immediate backups, to be restored in the event of problems with the operating system, in the event of disk breakage or in case of heavy infection (such as a ransomware).Preliminary operations
Before starting with the backup and with Macrium Reflect, we will have to have a "container" where we can safely store our backups. This container must be external to the operating system, so as not to be affected by any faults or infections in progress on the main machine; for this purpose we can use USB external hard drives, such as the 2 TB Western Digital Elements Portable Hard Disk (€ 69).
We connect the disk to our computer using a USB 3.0 port (we don't use USB 2.0 ports, too slow) and format it in NTFS, so we can host the large backup files generated by Macrium Reflect.
After preparing the disk, we download our free copy of Macrium Reflect from the official website, by clicking on Home Use and starting the downloaded installer, which will take care of recovering the actual program and installing it on our computer.
After the download, the real Macrium Reflect installer will start, in which we will only have to confirm the Home license when required (so as to benefit from the free version without limits).
How to make full backup with Macrium Reflect
With the disk inserted in the computer, open the Macrium Reflect program by looking for it from the Start menu, check for the presence of both disks in the interface (the system disk and the external disk), then click on the Image this disk item, present just below the system disk.
A new window will open, in which we will have to select all the partitions on the disk, choose the USB hard disk as destination (in the Folder field) and finally click Next .
A new window will now open where you can choose whether to perform an automatic backup at regular intervals; we can safely ignore this guide and click Next again. In the last window that appears we will find the summary of the backup that we have created; to start it, just click Finish .
The program will start generating an image file of the entire system disk: the process may take several hours, therefore we advise you not to touch the PC for any reason (so as to speed up the process as much as possible).
After creating the system image, click on Other Tasks at the top and select Create Rescue Media .
We have several methods to create the partition or recovery disk, to be used to restore the newly created system image. For maximum safety we advise you to insert a blank CD or DVD inside the burner and use the CD / DVD Burner item to be able to create the recovery disc; alternatively we can insert a USB stick suitable for the purpose (2 GB is enough) and using the USB Hard Drive item .
The program allows you to add a recovery environment directly to the system disk: in this way, at each startup, we will be able to choose whether to start Windows normally or start the Macrium Reflect recovery environment (based on Windows PE), thus you can quickly restore a backup in case of freezes or problems (this method is particularly effective on laptops). We always recommend adding this boot media (CD or USB) to this option: in the unfortunate event that the hard disk should break completely we can restore the image on the new disk.
How to restore backup with Macrium Reflect
Restoring the system image is very simple: we start the CD or USB stick with the recovery environment (changing the boot order ) or choosing the recovery environment when the computer starts (if we chose to add the dedicated partition), connect the external USB disk to the computer then in the Macrium Reflect interface provided in the recovery environment click on Browse for an image or backup to restore, selecting the image stored on the external disk.
After selecting the image, it will appear below the system disk, in the right part of the interface: to start the recovery procedure, all we have to do is click on the Restore image item among the items available next to the image.
The program will start the restore sequence, bringing the operating system back to the exact moment the image was created. At the end, all we have to do is reboot and check that the restored system starts correctly; if we encounter problems at boot after recovery, we recommend you read our guide to Fix MBR on Windows to restore boot loader and computer boot .
Conclusions
Using Macrium Reflect we will obtain an extremely fast and practical backup tool to create system images for any version of Windows; the created images are easy to restore, also thanks to the use of the dedicated recovery environment (available both as a separate boot partition and as an emergency disk).Still with a backup theme, we can avoid using Macrium Reflect by reading the steps described in our guides on how to create a backup image of Windows 10 and 8 and on Backing up Windows 10 automatically .
If we are looking for alternative programs to Macrium Reflect, we recommend reading our guides to the best free programs to backup files and the Guide to Easus Todo Backup free for PC .
