
The disk saving system image must be formatted as NTFS, etc.The function “Create a system image” is not working for USB drive.Thus, even if you create a system image successfully, you still cannot use it to restore image to a different computer with dissimilar hardware. It only works for the same computer or at least computer with similar hardware. Your priority choice is the built-in Backup and Restore (Windows 7), but sometimes you may feel frustrated with the weak compatibility of it, especially you want to create system image in Windows 11/10/8/7 for another computer.

You need the help of a free backup software to help you if you want to create a system image in Windows 11, 10, 8, 7,Vista, XP. Built-in backup tool or third-party backup software That’s because those messages indicate your hard disk is failing. When receiving some error warnings, such as "SMART failure predicted on hard disk", "Hard disk failure is imminent", and "Windows detected a hard disk problem", you need to create a system image or disk image at once. If hard drive and SSD can be connected to your computer simultaneously, you can migrate OS from HDD to SSD by system clone (in AOMEI Backupper Professional), saving much time and effort. You can create a system image, swap hard drive out for SSD and restore system image to SSD.

▶ You want to replace your slower mechanical hard drive with a speedy SSD. Once something bad happens later, you will be able to bring computer to its original state. This is probably the best time point to image system, because everything is clean and your computer runs smoothly. ▶ Create an initial backup after clean installation OS and commonly used programs. When should I create a system image backup?Ī system image is very useful for OS development, hard drive upgrade, performance optimization, etc, so it is necessary to create a system image backup in Windows 11/10/8/7. This is the greatest advantage of system image.

And you don't need to reinstall Windows and programs.

Then, you can restore your computer easily and quickly when it fail to boot. A Windows system image is an exact copy of the system partition or entire hard drive(if the disk only has one partition with Windows installed on), including operating system(OS), System Reserved Partition/EFI System Partition (ESP), recovery partition, boot sectors, custom settings and all programs installed & files saved on those partitions.
