The most basic problem for every system administrator is what to do when you see corrupted Windows, this mean that you must separate a long and tedious time that is required in his restoration.
Reinstalling Windows along with the frequently required software and basic hardware drivers take hours. To prevent this you can create backup of your system or entire hard drive. Best way to do this is to use Acronis True Image or Clonezilla. In this tutorial i will use Acronis True Image, this is one of the best software for create backup of entire hard drive.
I use Acronis True Image even for the Linux, and this is one of the most stabele backup software on the market. If you prefer open source software you can use Clonezilla, i have a good experience with this software.
To create backup image you need to create bootable USB or CD with chosen software. In our case this is Acronis True Image. First you need to create account on Acronis.com then you follow the steps:
- Log in to your account (if you do not have one, you will need to create it).
- Once logged in, click Products.
- Scroll down to the registered product and click Downloads:
- Click Bootable Media:
- Acronis Bootable Media will be downloaded as an ISO file. Now you can burn it to a CD or DVD or use rufus to create bootable USB.
When you complete this step, use the bootable media and start the computer with it. When you boot CD / DVD / USB you can see image as this below. Choose Aconis True Image or Acronis True Image (64-bit) and wait for loading next screen.
Whan the next screen load, from the available options under the Backup section, click My Disks to create backup of your system or entire hard drive.
On the Partitions to backup window, check the checkboxes representing the drives that are to be backed up or partitions that you need to backup and click Next to continue.
On the Target backup archive window, under the Target selection section, click to select Create new backup archive to create a new backup.
Under the Backup location section, click Browse and on the opened window, browse for a location for the new backup and create the name of the backup file. Then click Next to continue.
On the Next window, click Proceed and wait till Acronis True Image creates the backup of your system. You can choose to restart or shutdown system when create backup, just check checkbox.
Restore Hard Disk to Your Computer
First, you need to boot Acronis True Image. Then choose Aconis True Image or Acronis True Image (64-bit) and wait for loading next screen. From the available options under the Home menu choose Recover section and click My Disks to start recovery of your system or entire hard drive.
On the next screen select the system disk or partition backup to be used for recovery. When the backup is not displayed, click Browse and specify path to the backup manually. Then select Recover whole disks and partitions and click next.
Select the disk(s) or partition(s) on the What to recover screen. Check all partitinos and then click Next to continue like on image below.
Review the Destination of Disk 1 and click Next if they are correct. Otherwise, change the settings as required before clicking Next. Changing the settings will be needed when recovering to the new hard disk of a different capacity.
When you complete with destination click Next and go to Finish step. On this window check the summary and if everything fine click Proceed.
On this window you can check Restart the computer when the operation is completed or Shut Down the computer when the operation is completed. When process is finished start computer and check is everything is ok.
