How Do I Backup My Entire Computer on Windows 10?

I am using Windows 10 and seriously thinking about making a backup of my computer in case of a serious hardware or software problem. How to backup the computer on Windows 10? What is the easiest/most efficient way to backup my Windows and files? Thank you!

Case from answers.microsoft.com

Importance of Backing up Computer Data

Many people are accustomed to storing important files, such as family photos, music collections, and work files on their computers. But hard drive crashes, hacking, malware software, and many other problems can easily lead to computer data loss. Once it is lost, data recovery may take a lot of time and effort. A worse case is that your data may not be recovered anymore.

Given that, it is recommended that you back up the computer in advance so that you can recover your files in case of data loss or corruption. How to backup your computer on Windows 10 easily? Below we collect 3 different methods for you to back up your PC on Windows 10 without effort. Please keep reading.

How to Backup Your Computer on Windows 10

For Windows PC users, there are many options for them to backup the computers. In the following content, we list 3 Windows 10 backup options with step-by-step guides for you to choose from. You can compare them and choose the most suitable one.

Way 1. Create System Image Backups on Windows 10 Using Backup and Restore

Backup and Restore is a Windows built-in backup tool that allows you to create backups of system images, computer files, and folders. Read on to learn how to backup PC on Windows 10 using this tool.

Step 1. Go to Control Panel on your computer and tap on Backup and Restore (Windows 7) under the System and Security column.

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

Step 3. Select the location of your backups and click Next. You can opt to save backups to a hard drive, a DVD, or a network location based on your needs. Then, finish your backup settings and hit Start Backup to initiate the Window 10 backup.

How to Restore Backups from Backup and Restore

After you backup files with Backup and Restore, you can restore the system image backups with the steps below:

Step 1. Head to the Backup and Restore (Windows 7) tab similarly, and press the Restore my files in the Restore section.

Step 2. Select the files you want to restore and click Next to finish the restoration.

Way 2. Make Computer Backups with on Windows 10 via File History

File History is also an inbuilt backup utility on Windows 10, originally introduced in Windows 8. With it, you can backup your computer to an external hard drive or a drive on a network. After you set up File History, it will automatically backup your Windows files to the location when you connect your external hard drive to the computer the next time. Let’s have a look at how to do a backup on Windows 10 with File History.

Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to the computer. Then, Click Start > Settings > Update & Security in turn, and tap the Backup position.

Step 2. Hit the Add a drive under the Back up using File History tab, and choose the connected external drive.

✎Note: After connecting your drive with File History, the switch of Automatically back up my files will be turned on automatically, and your computer data will be automatically backed up to the drive whenever you connect it to your device.

Step 3. Click on the More options button to enable more settings of your backups and start to backup Windows 10.

✎Note: File History is set to backup files that are stored in the Desktop, Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders by default. If you want to backup items outside these folders, you add them to one of the folders.

How to Restore File History Backups

Now that you have backup your Windows with File History, you may also be interested in restoring backups of files on this tool:

Step 1. After completing file backups, tap the More options and scroll down to select Restore files from a current backup.

Step 2. In the file list, press the leftward or rightward arrow to find the version you want to restore, hit the Settings button to select Restore to recover data, or pick Restore to to restore data to a new location.

Way 3. Easy and Free - Backup Computer with CBackup on Windows 10

Another option for backup your computer on Windows 10 is to use a third-party backup tool, like CBackup. Needless to say, the professional cloud backup service is more powerful and easy to use than Windows built-in tools. It provides you to backup the entire computer or certain files to mainstream cloud drives, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and its CBackup Cloud with free 5GB space.

This software can perform Windows PC auto backup on a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule, and add email notifications for backup tasks making you know the process in real-time. It also makes hard drive backups on computers an easy job. For example, you can backup D drive to OneDrive in minutes.

Files backup and restore on Windows 10 is handy with Cbackup. Here are detailed steps to get it done:

Step 1. Download and install CBackup on your laptop. Sign up for CBackup and sign in to its desktop app.

Step 2. Head to Backup and click on Backup PC to CBackup Cloud.

✎Note: You can also backup Windows 10 to Google Drive. You can add your Google Drive account to CBackup, and then choose Backup PC to Public Cloud when creating backup task. After that, you can select Google Drive as the backup destination.

Step 3. Add all computer files or specific folders as the backup source. 

Step 4. Click on Start Backup to come to an end.

How to Restore Data Backup in CBackup

If you want to restore backed-up data on CBackup, you can simply click on the three-dot button of the backup task, and opt for Restore to finish file restoration effortlessly.

Written in the End

That's all about how to backup your computer on Windows 10. Backing up your computer with CBackup is a better choice for new hands, which is a proficient cloud backup and restore solution and can help you make a backup of your PC easily and freely. The other two methods are a little bit difficult. If you have enough time and patience, backing up computers with File History or Restore and Backups are good options as well.