Best Free Windows Image Backup Software for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7

Windows image backup software is one of the most safest ways to prevent data loss or system crash by backing up system and files on it. Get it here and start backup now.

By @Delia Last Updated December 13, 2024

“I'm looking for something that will create periodic images of my machine's boot drive. I don't care about file backup...I just want to not start from scratch next time my stupid drive dies. I'm making images manually using the old skool, built in backup tool in Windows right now, which works, but I'd really like something that can automate it. I was planning to make a batch or powershell script that'll do it, but thought there's probably a better way to do it, any recommendations?”

– Reddit

Windows image backup is the safest option if you want to guard against any system crash, or data loss and provide the possibility of recovery in any situation (even when the computer cannot boot). You can also combine it with file backup to create a flexible backup strategy.

Well then, what‘s the best free Windows image backup software for desktops and laptops? How to perform system image backup in Windows 10/11 and other previous OS? Get all you want to know the following.

What’s the best system image backup software?

Many users say the built-in backup utility cannot meet their needs, so, we provide another backup software that can make up for these shortcomings - AOMEI Backupper Standard.

AOMEI Backupper
Easy Hard Drive and SSD Cloning Software

  • It includes the features to create Windows image backup, file backup, partition backup, as well as entire disk backup.

  • It can help you backup data automatically using the daily/weekly/monthly backup schedule.

  • It offers the incremental backup feature to capture only changed data since the last backup.

  • There are many other useful options, such as clone disks or partitions, image inspection, and browsing, creating a bootable CD/DVD, etc.

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You can benefit from it in various scenarios, for example:

  • Backup system-related partitions or the entire hard disk.
  • Back up multiple drives located on different disks at the same time.
  • Back up several hard disks simultaneously (without unallocated space).

Download the Windows 10/11 backup software with the above button and follow the guide below to start the journey.

Create system image backup for Windows 11/10 step-by-step

Now, you can follow the detailed steps to create a system image backup in Windows 10 or Windows 11. 

Tip: Before you start to back up Windows 10, please prepare a target disk to store the image file, it can be any detected storage, including local disk, external drive, USB flash drive, network storage, cloud storage, etc.

Step 1. Launch this software, and click Backup and System Backup in order. Then, it will select the operating system(OS) and hidden boot-related partitions automatically required to start Windows, which greatly reduces the risk of the computer failing to start.

โœŽNote: You can choose to backup specific partitions, disks, or files per your needs.

Step 2. Click where the arrow points and select the prepared storage to store the system backup.

Step 3. Optionally, you can click Schedule Backup to create Windows image backup regularly or choose a backup method in the Backup Scheme (the default backup option is daily incremental backup). If you upgrade to the Professional edition, you can also Enable Automatic Backup Cleanup to delete old backup images intelligently.

โœŽNotes: Options: You can comment on this backup, enable email notification, create pre/post-command, compress the backup image with normal or high compression level, etc. Schedule Backup: You can backup the system daily/weekly/monthly plus full, incremental, or differential backup. Also, there are 2 more schedule options - USB plug-in and Event triggers. Backup Scheme: In the Professional edition, you can set a policy to delete old backups regularly, which will retain several number of the latest backups you specify. This is very useful if your target disk does not have much space.

Step 4. Confirm this backup task and click "Start Backup" to backup Windows 10 system.

Now, you may already have a system image backup for Windows 10 computer. Besides recovering the original computer, you can also restore the system image to a new hard drive, or even use it on a different computer with dissimilar hardware via the Universal Restore option (available in the Pro edition).

Also, it's suggested to create a bootable USB, so you can recover your computer without booting into Windows.

What type of Windows image backup you should choose

Backing up regularly with AOMEI Backupper should be one of the best data protection means for every computer user, because the system may crash unpredictably, causing great inconvenience and even severe data loss. But what kind of backup should we create? Usually, there are 2 types you can consider:

File Backup - The backup of certain files/folders that are valuable to you. You can recover them in a running OS. Windows Image Backup - Also known as system image backup. It's the backup of all the partitions required by Windows 11/10/8/7 to run. You can also include some additional parameters so as to get a complete PC backup which can be used for bare metal recovery.

Bonus tip: best free centralized backup software

If you have a bunch of PCs that need to be backed up, you can try the best free centralized backup software - AOMEI Cyber Backup.

  • It enables you to create a system image, disk image, or partition image for client Windows PCs and Servers.
  • You are allowed to save backup images on a local disk, external hard drive, network share or NAS device, etc.
  • You can schedule a backup task to run every day/week/month using the full/incremental/differential backup method.

Download this powerful centralized backup software now and have a try!

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Further Reading: Built-in Windows image backup tool, is it good?

In our daily lives, hard drive failure or system crashes happen frequently, whether it's a breakdown or a completely unexpected disaster. Therefore, choosing the correct Windows backup software is particularly important.

For system image backup, you may first consider the built-in utility Windows Backup and Restore. It can create a system image including the operating system (OS), system files, installed programs, stored data, etc. It supports backing up to a local drive, external hard disk, and network drive.

However, this backup tool has some shortcomings that need to be noted:

  • You may receive the error that you can't backup the system to a USB drive, or the system image backup failed for various reasons.
  • The image backup and recovery process is complicated and error-prone.
  • The backup image created by this tool will overwrite the previous one. In other words, you always have only one backup and your computer data will go forever if this image is damaged.
  • It cannot be restored to a different computer.

Written in the end

That's all for the best free Windows image backup software for Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP/Vista. You can choose to back up your computer with built-in backup software or AOMEI Backupper Standard. It's all your decision.

But honestly, AOMEI Backupper is a better choice, it makes up for the shortcoming of built-in Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Meanwhile, it supports full backup solutions and multiple backup options, such as OS, disk, partition, file backup, incremental & differential backup, schedule backup, compression, encryption, etc. Don't be hesitate, download the freeware to have a try.