How to take a disk image of your computer

Take a fail-safe backup of a hard disk so you can return your PC to a functional state

Why would you want to spend all day formatting your hard drive, loading your windows operating system and all your programs back onto your PC or laptop when in an hour or two you could have it all ready and working.

To do this all you have to do is take an image of your hard drive when it is working just as you like it, and if the worst happens at least you know you can roll back to a happier time.

Choosing the right program

It used to be the case once upon a time not too long ago that you would have to shell out your hard earned cash on a disc imaging program that may have been unreliable and messy to use, not any more.

Here we are going to look at two programs that are available free of charge, the first is EASEUS Disk Copy and the second is Macrium Reflect Free

Both are completely free and are listed on our Disk Imaging page which is here

Choose a method

The key requirement when backing up is choosing the right backup medium, dont use the same hard drive you are backing up from because if you suffer a hard drive failure you will lose your backed up copy.

Macrium Reflect and Easeus supports three backup locations: a network drive, recordable CD/DVD or a second ‘local’ hard disk (either inside the PC or an external drive connected by USB).

For most the simplist and easiest option is the last, but if you dont have a second hard drive connected to your computer then go for the CD/DVD option.

When to Backup

The best time to take a drive image is when Windows is running smoothly. Unlike Windows System Restore, which only backs up certain files and does'nt work when you really need it to, a disk image preserves an exact copy of the selected hard disk or partition

If you plan to re-install Windows from scratch, taking a disk image is good for another reason: data protection. Taking an image backup of the old setup as well as a backup of important files ensures that no files or settings are lost.

A disk image backup can also be used to replace an original Windows disc or manufacturer-supplied recovery disc.

Remember that restoring from a disk image backup will wipe all the existing files on the disk.

Download a disk image backup program from here

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