Free｜How to Create Full Backup of Your Windows 11 PC (2 Ways)
Reasons for creating full backup of your Windows 11 PC
Creating a full backup of your Windows 11 PC indicates that you will have an exact copy of your Windows system files, programs, and user data, etc. in hand. It is one of the best ways to protect your current settings and files from Windows 11 boot loop, hardware failures, upgrade problems, malware attacks, file corruption, etc. In other words, if you don't have a full backup, you could be at risk of losing your data due to numerous unpredictable situations.
If you are using Windows 11 or any other operating system, create backups regularly as this will prevent data loss and easily restore your system to a previous state in case of major problems. But how to backup Windows 11 entirely? What is the best way to enable that? Moving on, I'll show you more detailed information.
How do I backup my Windows entirely?
How to create a full backup of your Windows 11 PC including all needed sytem boot files, settings and other user profile? Here I've listed two backup tools that are easy and free to use:
1. Windows 11 Backup and Restore
Windows 11 still comes with the Backup and Restore features carried over from Windows 7, you can use it to backup your new Windows system or other important files. If there is a problem with your system or file, you can use the created backup image to restore it.
2. Free backup software—Qiling Disk Master Standard
The best free backup software—Qiling Disk Master, is a comprehensive, professional utility that helps you easily backup your Windows 11 OS. And it is configured with the following features:
❂ Multiple backup types: It offers 4 backup types including System Backup, Disk Backup, Partition Backup, and File Backup to meet your different backup needs.
❂ Various backup locations: It supports backing up to various locations, such as backing up Windows 11 to USB, local disks, external hard drives, network share, NAS devices, cloud drives, etc.
❂ Schedule backup: This feature allows you to automate your backup tasks on a daily, weekly, monthly, etc. basis, so that the modified data won't be missing.
❂ If you encounter more serious problems such as system crashes or disk failures, it is recommended that you create a bootable media in advance.
You can choose to use the tool that comes with the system or use a free third-party backup tool depending on your situation. The specific process of the two methods will be described in the following part.
Method 1: Backup Windows 11 with built-in utility
Create a full backup of Windows 11 with Backup and Restore:
Step 1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security. Then click Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
Step 2. On the next screen, select Create a System Image.
Step 3. Choose a location to save your system image, and then click Next.
Step 4. The drives that are required for Windows to run are selected by default. You can add other drives to be backed up and click Next.
Step 5. Confirm your backup settings and then click Proceed.
Tip: After you have created a system backup, you'll also receive a prompt to create a system repair disc, but you can skip it. If you need to roll back to a previous installation, you can use a USB installation media to access the recovery settings.
How to restore after having created a system backup image:
Once you have created a system image, you can easily restore it to the previous state, and the process is fairly simple.
1. Go to the Start menu search bar and type Settings > System > Recovery.
2. Scroll down to Advanced Startup and click Restart Now.
Follow the simple instructions above to finalize the recovery of your old system files.
Method 2: Create full backup of Windows 11 via Qiling Disk Master (easier)
The step-by-step tutorial on how to use this software to create a full backup of your Windows 11 PC and restore it will be listed as follows:
Step 1. Download and install Qiling Disk Master Standard Edition and launch this software.
Step 2. Click Backup on the left side, and then select System Backup. If you want to backup your entire computer disk, you can choose Disk Backup.
Step 3. The program automatically chooses the system-related partition(s) as the source data. You just need to select a destination path.
Step 4. Click Proceed to backup Windows 11 and wait for the process to complete.
Notes about the lower-left settings:
Options: It offers you flexible backup features such as write comments for your backups, choose the compression level or set up email notifications.
Schedule Backup: It allows you to automatically backup your files, and you can set the fixed frequencies such as Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Event trigers (paid)/USB plug in (paid).
Backup Scheme: It provides you with full, incremental and differential backup (in advanced versions). The last two backup methods can help you save space on the destination disk because they only back up changed files. (Available in the Professional edition)
How to restore the system image backup:
Click Restore > Select Task or Select Image File. Then, follow the wizard to complete the system recovery process.
Note: You'd better create a Windows 11 bootable disk in advance, so that you can restore your computer if it fails to boot.
Tip: If you buy a new computer, you can use the "Universal Restore" feature (paid) and the bootable media to recover the system files on the new computer.
Conclusion
That's the complete process of how to create full backup of your Windows 11 PC. You have two options to overcome this task. Compared to the Windows built-in utility, Qiling Disk Master is more comprehensive because it offers different types of backup for different needs and it enables users to backup their computer systems on a scheduled basis.
What's more, Qiling Disk Master is a free SSD clone tool, which enables you to clone SSD to SSD in Windows 11 easily. Why not try it now!
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