How Do I Backup My OS Drive in Windows 10?

Of course, you can backup Windows OS. Usually, the most common data backup type is file backup and computer backup. In addition, there is another type of data backup - system backup. If you are looking for ways to create Windows 10 OS drive backups, don't miss this article.

Here, we will provide you with practical methods and detailed guides to backup OS drive on Windows 10 with ease.

What is OS Drive and Why Need to Backup OS Drive?

OS is the abbreviation for Operating System. An OS drive refers to the storage hard drive on which a computer stores its operating system. Generally, the C drive is considered as the main hard disk of the Windows operating system, used to store the operating system, system files, applications, and other related files.

We believe that many users have encountered a Windows system crash. Is this disappointing? As you know, although reinstalling the system can make the Windows system run again, it is very time-consuming to reinstall the system, and all the previous settings and installed applications will disappear after reinstallation. Creating a Windows OS backup can effectively avoid these problems.

How to Backup OS Drive on Windows 10 with 3 Easy and Free Ways

Where can you get Windows 10 OS drive backup? The most commonly used locations are local drive, external hard drive, and cloud storage. In the following, we will list 3 solutions for you to easily backup OS to external hard drives, local drives, or cloud storage.

#1. Backup OS Drive with Backup and Restore

Backup and Restore is a Windows 10 native backup tool that allows you to backup and restore data required for Windows to run by creating system images. You are also enabled to backup additional drives with this tool. It supports you to backup OS drive to a flash drive, local disk, and network drive.

How to backup system drive on Windows 10 with Backup and Restore? Here are the steps you should follow:

Step 1. In the Control Panel window, select System and Security, and click Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 2. Click on the Create a system image button.

Step 3. Then, select a location to save your backup. If you want to backup C drive to external hard drive, choose the On a hard disk option, and tap on Next.

Step 4. The OS C drive will be selected to backup automatically, and you can also check other hard drives for backup. After selecting, click Next.

Step 5. Make sure you select the hard drive you want to backup and press Start Backup to begin the process of creating disk image on Windows 10.

#2. Backup OS hard disk using AOMEI Backupper

Another Windows 10 disk image backup solution is AOMEI Backupper, which lets you create a full backup for your system drive, including system files, boot files, and so on. It also provides a variety of storage media like a local drive, USB drive, network shared location, etc. The following is a detailed tutorial about how to backup OS to USB using this software.

Step 1. Download and run AOMEI Backupper. Choose Backup and select System Backup.

Step 2. Then, the partitions that are included to boot Windows 10 system are listed by default. Click the arrow-pointed location and select your USB as the destination path.

Step 3. Hit Start Backup to backup Windows 10 to external drive without any effort.

Note:✎...

If you want to back up your OS drive automatically, you can click on the Schedule button and set a fixed backup interval according to your needs.

# 3. Backup OS hard drive via CBackup

What if you don't want to create a full OS backup, but just want to back up some important system files? CBackup is the best answer. CBackup is a free cloud backup service for Windows that supports various backup and restore solutions, such as system file backup, partition backup, full computer backup, etc.

It allows you to backup system drive on Windows 10 to Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, CBackup Cloud, and more cloud drives. It enables incremental backups to help you save backup storage space and you can employ it to backup system files regularly based on daily, weekly, or monthly. After backup, you can restore system file backups to another system or the original one.

Step 1. Download and launch CBackup on your computer. Register a free account for it and sign in.

Step 2. Click Storage > Select the cloud drive where you want to save the OS drive backup to grant CBackup to access your cloud files. Here we take OneDrive as an example.

Step 3. Tap Backup and choose Backup PC to Public Cloud.

Notes:✎...

You can also perform an OS backup to CBackup Cloud (with 5GB of free space) directly by selecting the Backup PC to CBackup Cloud option without adding a public cloud account to CBackup.

Step 4. Select the system files or the whole system C drive you wish to back up, and then choose the added cloud to store the backup. You can also perform a Windows 10 full backup by selecting all hard drives.

Step 5. (Optional) Click Settings to enable customization settings like setting up an automatic backup schedule at a specific time, daily, weekly, or monthly, enabling email notification and file filtering.

Step 6. Tap on Start Backup to create a recovery image for Windows 10 to OneDrive.

Final Words

You could get 3 ways about how to backup OS drive on Windows 10 on this page. If you want to create a Windows 10 restore image to external hard drive or local drive, you can choose either Backup and Restore or AOMEI Backupper. If you wish to backup Windows 10 system to cloud storage services, the best and fastest method is CBackup.

Besides, you can use this professional cloud backup software to backup files between clouds for free, like transferring Google Drive to another account or other clouds for protection.