Want to image a computer in Windows 10 but don’t know how? This article from MiniTool will offer the answer to you. After reading, you can learn how to image a computer Windows 11/10 using professional imaging software – MiniTool ShadowMaker and Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

What is Imaging a Computer

Imaging a computer also known as imaging a disk, means to create an image backup for the whole hard drive, including the operating system, boot files, applications, and all the other files. Creating an image of the computer or imaging the hard drive is an effective way to keep the computer and files safe. System imaging is a full backup of everything on the hard disk or a single partition of your PC. Once you have a complete system image, you can copy it back to a drive to restore your system state.

If your computer fails to boot due to the system crash, Windows update errors, incompatible drivers, virus attack, malware or some other reasons, you can choose to restore your computer to the previous state with the hard drive images created before. In addition, if your data is lost by accidents, you can restore them by the backups.

However, do you know how to image a computer Windows 11/10? In this post, we will introduce 2 free computer imaging software to do that.

How to Image a Computer Easily: 2 Options

To create a Windows computer image, two ways are available. The first method is using the Windows built-in imaging tool, Backup and Restore (Windows 7), to create a system image. The other option is using a third-party computer imaging software, such as MiniTool ShadowMaker. In this section, we will show how to image a computer with the two software.

Option 1: Image a Computer with MiniTool ShadowMaker

It is highly recommended to create system image Windows 10 with MiniTool ShadowMaker. It is a piece of professional backup software and is designed to back up the operating system, files, folders, disks and partitions. It also enables you to move Windows to another drive when you just buy a new HDD or SSD.

Besides those backup features, MiniTool ShadowMaker is also a piece of file sync software which enables you to sync files to two or more locations so as to keep data safe.

With the system image created by MiniTool ShadowMaker, it is able to restore your computer to a normal state when the system is crashed or attacked. Or, you can restore the files if they are deleted mistakenly.

Now, follow the instructions on how to use this computer imaging software.

Step 1: Download MiniTool ShadowMaker, install and launch it.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 2: Click Keep Trial to enter its main interface and click the Backup tab.

Tips:
In the SOURCE tab, you can see the operating system is selected by default.

Step 3: Click SOURCE and choose Disk and Partitions to select the system disk and check all partitions on this hard drive. Then click OK.

select disks and partitions

Step 4: Next, click DESTINATION to choose a target disk to save the backup image. A USB drive or an external hard drive is recommended to be the destination path. And then click OK to continue.

Step 5: After that, you can click Back Up Now to start to image the computer immediately or to delay the backup task by clicking Back Up Later.

choose Back Up Now or Back Up Later
Tips:
You can also image your computer on a regular basis by clicking Options and taking advantage of the Schedule Settings feature. You can use it to set an automatic backup. In addition, MiniTool ShadowMaker also allows you to change the backup scheme. You can select Full backup, Incremental backup or Differential backup. The Backup Scheme feature is disabled by default.

Once all steps are finished, you successfully create a disk image Windows 10. To further protect the computer, you had better go to the Tools tab to click Media Builder feature to create a bootable USB drive. When your computer fails to boot, you can use it to boot and restore the computer to a normal state with the system image created before.

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Option 2: Image a Computer with Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

As mentioned in the above part, Microsoft provides a Windows built-in imaging tool, Backup and Restore (Windows 7) which helps users to back up and restore PC when needed. Here are the details on how to use this software to image a computer.

Step 1: Open Control Panel > click System and Security > Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 2: In the pop-up window, click Create a system image from the left menu to activate system backup.

click Create a system image

Step 3: Next, you are required to choose a target disk to save the backup. It enables you to select a hard disk, a DVD drive, or a network location (another external hard drive is recommended). After the selection, click Next to go on.

choose a target disk
Note:
This Windows built-in tool does not allow you to save backups to a USB flash drive. Otherwise, you will receive the error message the drive is not a valid backup location.

Step 4: Decide which drives to be included in the backup. All system-related partitions are checked by default. You should check the left partitions on the system disk. Then click Next.

select the backup drive

Step 5: Finally, confirm the backup settings and click the Start backup button to perform computer imaging.

click on Start backup

Once all steps are finished, you have created a system image Windows 10 successfully. If your computer comes across some errors, you can restore your computer to a previous state with the created system image backup. Just do that by entering WinRE and go to the Troubleshoot > Advanced Options > System Restore.

In addition to the Windows built-in imaging tool, this article introduces another free computer imaging software called MiniTool ShadowMaker. I am so surprised by its various powerful features. I highly recommend it to you!Click to Tweet

Another Way to Back up Hard Drive – Disk Clone

What’s more, MiniTool ShadowMaker supports cloning HDD to SSD and also enables you to clone SSD to larger SSD. When your old HDD/SSD is not performing well, you can clone the entire disk to another drive for disk data backup and then replace the old disk with the new one.

To clone disk, here are details.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Tips:
MiniTool ShadowMaker only supports cloning data disk for free. If you want to clone system disk, you are required to register it with an advanced one.

Step 1: Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker and click Keep Trial to enter its main interface.

Step 2: Go to Tools tab and select Clone Disk.

Clone Disk

Step 3: Click the Options button at the bottom.

Step 4: Select Same disk ID or New disk ID under the New disk ID tab according to your requirement.

select New disk ID
Tips:
New disk ID is selected by default, here, it’s recommended to keep the default option.

Step 5: Switch to Disk clone mode, and then select Used sector clone or Sector by sector clone. Then click OK to save the settings.

select Disk clone mode
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Step 6: Choose the disk you want to clone, then click Next.

select the source disk

Step 7: On the next page, choose where to store the copy. Then click Start to begin the process.

select the target disk
Tips:
All data on the target disk will be destroyed, so please make sure there is no important data on it. If there are crucial files on it, please back them up first.

Step 8: When you confirm the disk cloning, the cloning process begins. Please wait patiently until the process is finished successfully.

When the disk cloning process is finished, if you select Same disk ID in step 4, you will receive a warning message which tells you that the source disk and target disk have the same signature. Therefore, one disk is marked as offline by Windows, you need to remove one that you don’t need.

Once all steps are finished, the original system disk has been backed up. If your computer encounters some accidents, you can connect the target disk to the computer and boot from it.

MiniTool ShadowMaker vs Backup and Restore (Windows 7)

MiniTool ShadowMaker and Backup and Restore (Windows 7) are two pieces of computer imaging software. What are the differences between MiniTool ShadowMaker and Backup and Restore (Windows 7)? MiniTool ShadowMaker is more powerful and flexible than the Windows built-in feature, for example:

  1. MiniTool ShadowMaker supports imaging a computer to a USB flash drive, while Backup and Restore (Windows 7) can’t.
  2. MiniTool ShadowMaker offers 3 backup schemes and you can change them yourself. The Windows snap-in tool does not have this option.
  3. MiniTool ShadowMaker provides more features, such as syncing file, cloning disk, creating a bootable drive, PXE, encrypting the backup image, etc.
  4. MiniTool ShadowMaker allows you to make multiple backups and previous backups won’t be deleted. While Backup and Restore (Windows 7) only enables you to keep one system image backup on a drive and all other previous backup versions will be overwritten.
  5. When using Backup and Restore (Windows 7), you may encounter some errors, such as Windows Backup not working, Windows Backup stuck, etc.

Further Reading: How to Image One Computer to Another?

If your computer is replaced with a new hardware, your computer is likely to crash due to hardware incompatibility problems. Thus, you are required to restore the operating system image to different hardware. To do it, MiniTool ShadowMaker is a good choice.

MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Step 1: Back up the operating system of the computer with MiniTool ShadowMaker.

Step 2: Create a bootable USB flash drive with Media Builder in the Tools page.

Step 3: Then, enter the BIOS page to boot your computer with a new hardware from the bootable USB drive.

Step 4: Go to the Restore tab and find the system image you have created, and click the Restore button to choose a version. Then click the Next button.

Tips:
Make sure all system drives are checked. And remember to check MBR and Track 0 to ensure a successful boot.

Step 5: After the system is restored, go to Tools to click the Universal Restore feature.

  • MiniTool ShadowMaker will then automatically detect the installed operating system on the hard drive, for example, Windows 10. Just click Restore button to perform a repair.
universal restore
  • Later, you can reboot the PC with a new hardware without incompatibility issue.

Bottom Line

There are two pieces of computer imaging software mentioned in this post, you can try them to create a system image to protect your computer from a system crash or hard disk issue.

If you have any problem with MiniTool ShadowMaker, please feel free to contact us via [email protected] and we will reply to you as soon as possible.

How to Image a Computer FAQ

What does it mean to image a computer?
Computer imaging is technically a process of copying all the data, including the operating systems, applications, and settings, to other targeting computers. This process is also called "cloning". Computer imaging can also be used as a backup method, which can be critical and helpful in case of system failure.
What does it mean to reimage a computer?
Reimaging a computer is a recovery process of installing a fresh operating system on a Windows machine in case of serious errors, malware, or crashes on your computer. It will remove everything on the drive where the operating system is installed. When the process is finished, all your settings will be reset by default.
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About The Author

Aurelie
Aurelie

Position: Columnist

Aurelie is a passionate soul who always enjoys researching & writing articles and solutions to help others. Her posts mainly cover topics related to games, data backup & recovery, file sync and so on. Apart from writing, her primary interests include reading novels and poems, travelling and listening to country music.