Image for Windows – Making a Full Backup

The following tutorial walks you through backing up the main Windows drive on your computer to an external hard drive connected to your computer through a USB port using the most commonly selected options. You can back up using other types of devices and use other options; please see the Image for Windows manual for complete details. Using Simple Operations mode is not shown in this tutorial.

This tutorial assumes that you will be creating the backup using either VSS or PHYLock so that you can back up Windows while it is running. If VSS is not available and you did not install PHYLock, you can install it by running the Image for Windows setup again, or you can create the TBWinRE boot media and use it to back up under a Windows-like environment where you won’t need VSS or PHYLock. Use the tutorial, “Creating a TeraByte Recovery Environment, WinRE Boot Disc, or UFD Containing Image for Windows (TBWinRE)” to create the TBWinRE boot media and boot your computer with it.

1. Attach the external hard drive to a USB port on your computer.
   
   
2. Use the Windows Start menu to browse or search for the Image for Windows program. If browsing the Start menu folders, Image for Windows is in the TeraByte Drive Image Backup and Restore Suite folder. There will also be a shortcut for the program on the Desktop if that option was selected during installation.
   
   Run Image for Windows.
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. On the Welcome to Image for Windows screen shown below, click Backup and then click Next.
   
   
   
   
4. On the Backup Type screen shown below, click Full and then click Next.
   
   
   
   
5. On the Select the hard drive or partitions to backup screen shown below, check the box for the Windows drive (HD0, in this example) and click Next. Image for Windows automatically selects all partitions on the drive when the drive's checkbox is checked..
   
   
    
   
6. On the Select Where You Want to Save the Backup screen shown below, select the USB drive from the list of Windows Drives.
   
   
   
   
7. On the Enter a filename for the backup screen shown below, make sure the drive you selected in the previous step appears in the upper right corner. After selecting the desired folder for the backup, accept the suggested filename or type a name for your backup in the Filename box. Click Next to continue.
   
   Tip: The suggested filename includes identifying information about the backup. In the figure below, "w" identifies the Image program used to create the backup (Image for Windows). The "0" identifies the number of the drive you selected to back up, and the subsequent characters append the date and time you created the backup to the filename. If you are backing up a partition instead of a complete drive, the partition ID number would appear after the drive number.
   
   
   
   
8. On the Backup Options screen that appears, select the options you want to use and then click Next. Many people select Validate Byte-for-Byte along with the options pre-selected by Image for Windows. Selecting this additional option makes your backup take longer but ensures the integrity of the backup by catching any unknown system related problems; by selecting this option, you’ll know you have a valid backup in case you need to restore it. For details on using the rest of the options shown on this screen, see the Image for Windows manual.
   
   
   
   
9. When you click Next, the Summary screen appears, showing you the actions you're about to take.
   
   
   
   
10. When you click Start, the imaging process begins, and a progress bar appears on-screen. You can interrupt the backup and validation operations at any time by clicking Cancel. Image for Windows will ask you to confirm that you want to cancel before it interrupts the current operation.
    
    
    
    
11. When Image for Windows finishes, a message appears on-screen indicating that the backup completed successfully and you can click Close to exit Image for Windows.