System Image - Create in Windows 8

How to Create a System Image in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

A system image is an exact copy of a drive. By default, a system image only includes the drives required for Windows 8 to run, and also Windows 8 and your system settings, programs, and files. You could also select to include any other drive in the system image as well. When you restore your computer from a system image, it's a complete restoration; you can't choose individual items to restore, and all of your current programs, system settings, and files are replaced with the contents of the system image.

This tutorial will show you how to create a system image backup in Windows 8 and 8.1 to be able to use to restore the contents of your computer back to the state it was in when the system image was created if your HDD or computer ever stops working.

You must be signed in as an administrator to be able to create a system image.

   Note

System Images are saved in this format:

drive letter:\WindowsImageBackup\computer name\Backup YYYY-MM-DD HHMMSS

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For example: If your computer name is Brink-PC, your backup location is on hard drive (network or local) D: , and you backed up on August 29th 2012 at 1:53:41 PM (it will use 24 hour time), then your system image would be located in the folder below.​

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D:\WindowsImageBackup\BRINK-PC\Backup 2012-08-29 135341​

   Tip

Available Hotfixes for issues:

You cannot create a system backup image in an x86 version of Windows 8 that is running on a UEFI x86-based computer

If you want to keep multiple system image versions on the same drive or partition, then you can use either method below to do so.

METHOD ONE:
This method is usually better if you use a scheduled Windows Backup with an included system image to help keep multiple system images. Personally, I like using METHOD TWO below instead to keep multiple images and avoid having a large amount of restore points.

Change the maximum space used for system images on the drive letter you are saving the Windows Backup to by changing the maximum space used by System Protection for the same drive letter. This is the same setting.

You do not have to have System Protection turned on for the drive letter, but do need to adjust the maximum space to what you like.

The "max usage" size in System Protection does not limit how big a single system image can be. Only the size of the hard drive will limit the size of a single system image. It's only if you want to be able to keep multiple system images using this method that you would need to be sure to increase the "max usage" size in System Protection accordingly. The size of a system image can be quite large since it will include all system drives in the image by default plus any drives you have included.


METHOD TWO:

1. Navigate to the backup location above for where you saved a system image that you want to keep before creating a new system image.

2. Right click, or press and hold, on the WindowsImageBackup folder, and click/tap on Rename.

3. Rename it to something like WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1, press Enter, and click//tap on Yes if prompted by UAC.
NOTE: This way you can just easily change the 1 an the end of the name to 2, 3, 4, etc... for each new system image that you make a copy of.

4. You now have a different system image version that you can leave at this location to be able to keep multiple versions.
NOTE: When you want to restore a system image in a renamed WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1 folder in the future, then you must rename the current WindowsImageBackup folder first, then rename the WindowsImageBackup-Copy-1 folder back to WindowsImageBackup in order to be able to restore it. The WindowsImageBackup folder must be in the root directory of the drive, and not within another folder.

   Warning

• Only the Windows 8 Pro and Windows 8 Enterprise editions can backup to network locations.
• If you're saving your system images in a network location, you can only keep the most current system image for each computer. If you have an existing system image for a computer and are creating a new one for the same computer, the new system image will overwrite the existing one.
• You can only include drives formatted with the NTFS file system in a system image.
• You will not be able to include a partition or drive that you are saving the system image to in a system image.
• You will not be able to save a system image to any partition or drive that is included in the system image.
• You cannot restore a 64-bit system image on a 32-bit system.
• You cannot restore a 64-bit system image with a 32-bit Windows 8 installation DVD/USB or System Repair Disc.
• You cannot restore a 32-bit system image with a 64-bit Windows 8 installation DVD/USB or System Repair Disc.
• A system image that was created on a computer using UEFI cannot be restored on a computer using legacy BIOS. It can only be restored on a computer using UEFI.
• When restoring a system image from a dynamic volume, the drives (disk) on your computer cannot be formatted to match the layout of the drives included in the system image. To have full functionality, select a volume (drive letter) on a basic disk as your save system image to location instead.
• It is recommend to create a system image on a separate HDD instead of just another partition not included on the same HDD that is included in the system image for the best reliability. CDs or DVDs are just not as reliable.
  • See: Creating a system image on Windows 8 may fail if the CD/DVD is not formatted

OPTION ONE

To Create a Windows Backup of Files and Include a System Image

   Note

When you use Windows Backup to back up your files, you can also have a system image created each time your files are backed up on demand or on an automatic schedule.

If a system image was created through Windows Backup on an automatic schedule with the Include a System Image of Drives box checked, then you can set Windows to retain as many system images as it has space for on the backup disk or to only keep the most recent system image. If you're saving your system images in a network location, you can only keep the most current system image for each computer.

By default, Windows automatically saves as many system images as it has space for without taking up more than 30 percent of available space on the backup disk. Once the disk starts running out of room, Windows will automatically delete older system images to make room for the new system image.

   Note

In Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1, the Windows 7 File Recovery (aka: Windows Backup) feature in this tutorial is no longer available.

If you like, you could use File History instead of Windows Backup, and a custom refresh image instead of System Image. You could also use a 3rd party program like Macrium Reflect or AOMEI Backupper instead.

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1. While setting up, changing the settings of, or creating a Windows Backup, check the Include a System Image of Drives...... box. (see screenshot below)​

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2. Afterwards, you can use Back up now or the schedule to create a Windows Backup including a system image.​

OPTION TWO

To Create a System Image without Windows Backup

NOTE: This option allows you to be able to create a system image on demand without going through Windows Backup in OPTION ONE.

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1. Do step 2 or 3 below for what Windows 8 you have.​

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2. In Windows 8 and Windows RT, open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the Windows 7 File Recovery icon.​

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A) In the left pane, click/tap on the Create a system image link, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)​

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3. In Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1, open the Control Panel (icons view), and click/tap on the File History icon.​

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A) File History will do a quick "searching for drives" first. (see screenshot below)​

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B) In the left pane, click/tap on the System Image Backup link at the bottom, and go to step 4 below. (see screenshot below)​

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4. If prompted by UAC, then click/tap on Yes.​

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5. Select where you would like to save the system image to, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)​

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   Note

Only the Windows 8/RT/8.1 Pro and Windows 8/8.1 Enterprise editions are able to back up to a network location.

   Note

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You are able to save a system image to either one or more CDs/DVDs (not recommended), an external hard drive (best backup protection), any separate internal hard drive, or to a network location.​

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If you wanted to save the system image to one or more CDs/DVDs, then see the link below first:​

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Creating a system image on Windows 8 may fail if the CD/DVD is not formatted​

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6. Select (check) any drive that you would like to also be included in the system image, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: The grayed out checked drives are "system" drives that are required for the operation of Windows 8, and cannot be unchecked.​

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7. Confirm your system image backup settings, and click/tap on Start backup. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: If your settings are not correct, then click/tap on the back arrow at the top left corner to go back and make changes.​

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8. Windows will now start creating the system image backup. (see screenshot below)​

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9. When it's finished in Windows 8 or Windows RT, click/tap on Yes or No for if you would like to create a system repair disc or not. You will not see this in Windows 8.1 and Windows RT 8.1. (see screenshot below)​

NOTE: For how to always hide or show this message, see this tutorial.​

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10. Click/tap on Close. (see screenshot below)​

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11. If you like, you can now close the Windows 7 File Recovery or File History window.​

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

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• How to Do a System Image Recovery in Windows 8 and 8.1
• Manually Extract System Image Files Using Disk Management in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to View and Manage Space for Backups in Windows 8
• How to Create or Set Up Windows Backup to Back Up Files in Windows 8
• How to Create a Custom Recovery Image to Use to Refresh Windows 8
• How to Enable or Disable Backing up to a CD or DVD in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Enable or Disable Backing up to Local Hard Disks in Windows 7 and Windows 8
• How to Do a Repair Install of Windows 8 without Losing Anything
• Macrium Reflect - Imaging with
• How to Create a Bootable Rescue USB Flash Drive for Macrium Reflect

 

[citroen]

Brink-Sorry not to have let you know how I got on using Macrium.My laptop is away for repair,I think the HDD has packed in.When I get it back,I will try Macrium.I am thinking of getting an SSD so I will have to try Macrium then.

 

[Brink]

No problem Citroen.

I'm sorry to hear that your HDD may be dead.

 

[sunnystaines]

brink

not got a PrtScn keyon the laptop, will any other key combination work?

just found the key its the insert key

 

[sunnystaines]

brink
screen shot added

hoping this helps, now know how to post a screen shot.

 

[Brink]

Yep, you just don't have enough free space on D for all of the others.

A system image is a snapshot of the all system drive/partitions, and any you include in it. For this reason, you should really only save a system image to a separate physical hard drive than the one you are creating a system image of. If you don't and the HDD fails, you will loose Windows and your system image. If you save the image to a separate HDD, then you will still be able to use it to restore to a new HDD if your Windows HDD fails.

 

[sunnystaines]

brink

do you think if i used partiton wizard 7.7 to shrink "c" dowm to 100gb I will have room. i have read that w8 puts MFT files at opposite end of the partitons from other files which may cause the problems trying to shrink the partition. Not sure even if parition wizard will do the trick or foul up the whole laptop.

 

[Brink]

No. The size of the HDD doesn't matter. It's the amount of space used on the HDD that does instead. Shrinking it would make no difference since the amount of used space would still the same.

The problem is trying to save the system image to a partition in the middle of the same HDD/partitions that you are including in the image.

It should really be saved to a separate internal or external HDD instead.

 

[sunnystaines]

brink
thanks will look out an old sata drive and plug in via usb. still lost on the w8 logic but understood your advice thankyou.

 

[Brink]

Your welcome. Please let us know how it went.

 

[sunnystaines]

brink the create a disk option at th end of the imag will it be just one dvd i need?

 

[Brink]

brink the create a disk option at th end of the imag will it be just one dvd i need?

Sunny,

I would not recommend to save a system image to DVDs. It will take several DVDs when only about 4.3 GB per DVD, and DVDs are not very reliable at all.

It's best to only save to a separate hard drive.

 

[johnedit]

Hi. As a Newbie to Windows 8, I have been learning of 'problems' associated with backing-up Systems that boot Windows 8 via EFI. However, I hope someone (probably our ultimate Guru - Brink) will save me from wasting more time and trying to find an answer that may not even exist!


Basically, I have a Lenovo Z500 and I would like to produce an external 'ghost' image of the Hard Drive but, as the Laptop is preloaded with Windows 8 which boots via EFI, this is impossible. Correct?

As I understand it, even if I produced a Backup via Windows 8 (to an external Hard Drive or to DVD's) there is no way to 'copy' such an image back to the Hard Drive as the EFI Menu does not have an option to boot using USB or the DVD. Correct?

And, even if I changed the BIOS to Legacy Mode in order to boot via the USB or DVD, it is impossible to produce a 'ghost' image of the Hard Drive that will recreate/reinstall the original EFI booting Windows 8 (even if I swithched back to EFI Boot after ' reinstalling the 'ghost' image under Legacy Mode). Is that correct?

Apologies if this question is too basic for this group of experts, but there just doesn't seem to be a solution to this - unless I have completely missed something?

 

[Brink]

Hello John, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Yes, you will be able to create and restore a system image using UEFI as well.

You would be able to do a normal System Image Recovery to restore the image without having to do anything else. In fact to be able to restore a UEFI image, you would need to have your motherboard firmware remain in UEFI mode.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[johnedit]

Hi, Shawn. Thanks for taking the time to respond and it is good to hear that there is a sloution to my question....but

Under the EFI Boot Options there isn't the ability to select either USB or DVD as the preferred Boot Source - only Windows Boot Manager or 2 EFI Network options - so how can I stop it automatically going to the original Boot Partition/Windows 8 and instead boot from the USB or DVD?

I understod that the only way to get the DVD as a Boot Option was to swap over to Legacy Mode?

Confused I am!

 

[Brink]

No, you can still boot from a USB or DVD at boot while in UEFI mode. Sometimes you may need to disable a "Fast Startup" option in UEFI to allow booting from a USB though.

It varies by motherboard, but you could press the say F12 key to open the Boot Menu at boot to temporarily select to boot from a DVD or USB flash drive.

The only problem is that you have very little time to press this key during startup. You're timing has got to be good.


If able, it's best to use one of the options from within Windows 8 to do the System Image Recovery to avoid trying to do so at boot.

 

[johnedit]

Thanks, Shawn.

Evidently there are more hoops to jump through with EFI than is at first evident. I obviously need to dig deeper!

 

[Brink]

You're welcome John.

 

[b100d]

Hello,

I was looking for an answer to an issue I've been running into:

I am trying to make a bootable system image on my new Windows 8 laptop (just like described in option 2 in the OP). Whenever I try to run the backup, I am unable to start the process because there is a yellow " ! " icon with the following text: "Not a valid backup location"

I was trying to use a 16GB flash drive. I reformatted and checked for errors. This kept happening, so I decided to get a 32GB flash drive, same error. Has anyone else seen this? I would assume if so you were able to fix it, because it looks like you guys are pretty good at figuring out Windows stuff around here.

Thanks for any info,

 

[Brink]

Hello b100d, and welcome to Eight Forums.

Sorry, but a system image can only be saved to an internal or external hard drive (HDD or SSD) instead.

 

[b100d]

Ok thanks for the info! I thought it would be something like that...

I am curious: Is it possible to make a system image and then transfer it over to my flash drive? I have way more than enough space on there... Or at least that Macrium software mentioned in the thread earlier. I might try that out.

Or possibly there is a way to trick Windows into seeing my flash drive as a HDD? Ikd I'm just wondering now.


At any rate, thanks a lot for the info! I think I'm going to like these forums.