Key Difference and Operation Guide: System Backup vs Disk Backup

What Are System Backup and Disk Backup?

System backup is a kind of backup for imaging the system partition and other system-related partitions (the system reserved partition and the boot partition), including system files, boot files and data on these partitions.

Disk backup is a single image file that backs up all partitions on a selected disk. When you perform a disk backup operation, all data and programs on the disk are backed up to this image file. When your disk has any problems or you want to replace the disk, you can use it for disk restoration.

What Is the Difference Between System Backup and Disk Backup?

Many users don't know whether they should choose system backup or disk backup. You can read on to learn the difference between them and then choose either system backup or disk backup according to your own needs.

As we mentioned before, a disk backup backs up all partitions in a particular disk you have selected and all data on it, while a system partition backs up only the system and its relevant partitions.

If the disk you want to backup is a system disk, performing a disk backup will backup your system, installed software, games, applications, and personal files. At this point, the system backup is included in the disk backup.

If you only want to backup your system and its related partitions, you can choose to do a system backup. It is less time-consuming compared to a disk backup. When your computer accidentally encounters any problems, you can use this system backup to restore and then use the system normally.

The Best Software for System Backup and Disk Backup

When you need to perform a system backup or disk backup, you need to choose the safe and reliable backup software, such as AOMEI Backupper Standard, which not only helps you backup your system or disk for free, but also provides various backup functions to protect your data in all aspects.

• Scheduled backup: This software allows you to set scheduled automatic system/disk backup on a daily, weekly or monthly basis, so you can always keep the latest backup version of your system/disk.
• Multiple backup methods: You can choose to perform your backup tasks with full backup or incremental backup method. Incremental backup will only backup the changed parts, thus this method will help you to save backup time and storage space.
• Different compression levels and backup modes: You can select the compression levels (High/Normal/Low) or use its Intelligent sector backup mode to help you greatly reduce the size of system/disk image files and backup time.
• 2 backup services: It supports Microsoft VSS and AOMEI backup services, so it can ensure that your backup task will not be interrupted in the midway.
• Different paths: You can backup your system/disk to different destination locations, such as local disk, external disk, HDD, SSD, USB drive, NAS, etc.
• Various systems: It supports all Windows operating systems, including Windows 7/8/8.1/10/11/XP/Vista, etc.

How to Protect Your Computer with Backup

Next you will learn how to protect your computer with backup. This article will introduce the two backup types in turn. So how exactly does AOMEI System Backup vs Disk Backup? You can keep reading for more details.

How to Perform System Backup

Step 1. Download AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch the software. You can click Backup > System Backup.

Step 2. You can modify the Task Name to distinguish it from other backup tasks. The software will select the system and boot partitions by default as the source. Please select a destination path for your system. 

Notes:

• Schedule: You can set the fixed intervals to run the system backup task automatically such as daily, weekly, monthly event trigger or USB plug in. The last two are available in the Pro version.
• Schemes: You can select a backup scheme and it will help you save the target disk space by deleting the older backups. And this feature is supported by the professional version or higher versions.

Step 3. Confirm all your operations and click Start Backup to perform the system backup.

How to Perform Disk Backup

Step 1. Open AOMEI Backupper Standard and click Backup > Disk Backup.

Note:

Except for System Backup and Disk Backup, it also provides Partition Backup and File Backup, you can choose them if you need.

Step 2. Click Add Disk to choose the disk you want to backup.

Step 3. You need to select the destination for your disk backup and then click Start Backup.

Summary

This article shows you the difference between system backup and disk backup as well as how to easily perform system backup or disk backup with the best free backup software AOMEI Backupper Standard.

Backing up system or disk can effectively protect data, and you can restore it with a backup image when the system or disk becomes unusable. This software also provides various backup functions, such as scheduled backup, incremental backup, etc to help you backup your system or disk better.

Besides, if you want to rescue a computer that can't boot or restore a system to a computer with different hardware, its Universal Restore feature will be very helpful. You can download this software to explore more useful features.