Both system image recovery and system restore are designed to fix PC’s problems and errors. However, many users cannot figure out the difference between the two. This article gives a detailed introduction and comparison of the two. If you are interested, please continue reading.
Both System Image Recovery and System Restore are designed to fix your PC’s problems and errors. But many users don't know the difference between the two, and don't know which function to use when they need it. After all, both of them are related to the rollback of files from the hard disk, registry, system memory or other storage media. First of all, I will introduce both in detail.
System Image Recovery is one of the options in System Recovery of Windows. System Recovery is a technique set by the manufacturer to help you can regain the default factory setting of Window OS. When your Windows is damaged, crashed, or stopped working, you can use System Image Recovery to restore the entire image to make it work again.
System Restore is a Windows tool designed to protect and repair computer software. It allows the user to revert their computer's state (including system files, installed applications, Windows Registry, and system settings) to that of a previous point in time, which can be used to recover from system malfunctions or other problems.
Although they can all help you fix computer problems and errors, they are different from each other.
1. Data erasure
System Restore only deletes data installed after the system restore point or date, except for My Documents Folder. Therefore, it is recommended that you backup important data to external hard drive or save them in the folder -"My Documents" for safety after system restore. While System Recovery will delete all your data, whether it is personal data or installed software and will retain only those features installed by the manufacturer. Before using the system recovery option, you can save your important data on any external hard drive or other removable media.
2. Practicability
System restore is associated with computer system, which allows reverting the system to a previous state designated by the user. System restore affects only the registry and system files. System recovery is a set of useful utilities related to windows operating system, which can repair and troubleshoot windows operating system failures. Compared with system restore, system recovery is difficult to perform. But it can delete all bad files and viruses that are sometimes missed by system restore from the system.
3. Operation time
System restore is a simple and short process. System recovery is a very difficult and long process. It takes hours to perform system recovery, and sometimes even days to perform system recovery.
System Restore vs System Image Recovery, which one is easier to perform? The detailed steps for doing both in Windows 10 are as follows.
In order to perform system recovery, you need to create a Windows 10 recovery image backup. You can back up to external disk, USB drive or network location. Here is an example to create system image Windows 10 on a hard disk.
Note: The external hard drive should be formatted using NTFS in order to store the image.
After the backup task is 100% complete, you will be asked to create a system repair disc to use if Windows is ever incapable of booting up on its own. If you don’t have bootable media, please do so. A CD or DVD disc is needed. If you don’t have any of them, you can still use USB to create Windows 10 recovery drive.
◉ If your computer still can boot:
Tips✍: ◑ Format and repartition disks: If you're restoring to the same hard disk, you don't need to select this. If you are recovering to a new hard drive, this option may be selected by default and are not available. ◑ Exclude disks: If you have multiple drives, you can click this to choose the drive(s) you want to leave untouched.
◉ If your computer cannot boot:
System restore is disabled by default, so you must enable it before the system can automatically or manually save restore points.
When System Restore is enabled, it will create a checkpoint when system changes are automatically detected. However, if you plan to configure it manually, the steps are as follows.
If an accident occurs after installing or modifying system settings, you can use System Restore to apply a restore point to undo the changes and fix the problem.
◉ If you have access to the Windows 10 desktop:
◉ If the computer does not start correctly:
It seems a bit cumbersome to perform system image recovery or system restore using Windows built-in utilities. I strongly recommend that you use AOMEI Backupper—the most reliable free backup software to protect your data and operating system. Each operation can be completed with just a few clicks. With its user- friendly interface, you can easily find the functions you need.
✾ With its Backup feature, you can create system backup, partition backup, disk backup and file backup. You can use it to automatically backup folders to USB drive, NAS, cloud, network location, etc. ✾ With its Restore feature, you can restore your files or system effortlessly when there is a problem with your computer. No matter where you save the data, this software will make the recovery operation handy, such as recovering files from Synology, restoring hard disk image file.
Download this free software and learn more about its features.
After you have installed this free software, launch it. In order to create a system image backup, you can go Backup->System Backup to backup Windows and create an image of system partition.
In order to restore your system or files, go Restore->Select Task or Select Image File to complete this operation.
After reading this article, you may have a complete knowledge and understanding of System Image Recovery and System Restore. But the operations of them are a bit troublesome. And when using these two tools, some problems often occur. Such as system image restore fails because of EFI/BIOS, system restore points missing in Windows 10.
AOMEI Backupper will be the best alternative to these two tools. Once you switch to this software, all the problems mentioned above will disappear. Why hesitate? Try it right now.