How to Create a Windows 10 System Image on an External Hard Drive: Two Methods

Creating a system image on an external hard drive is an efficient way to keep your data secure in case something goes wrong with your system. After you create a system image of Windows 10 on an external drive, you can quickly restore the system image to your computer. In this article brought to you by Tools, we'll show you how to create a system image of Windows 10 on an external hard drive using two different methods. Let's get started.

Why would you want to save your system image to an external hard drive?

A Windows 10 system image is typically a copy of your operating system (OS), settings, programs, registry, boot sector, and files on the C drive. It ensures that your computer is safe and allows you to quickly and easily restore your installation of Windows 10.

There are several reasons why you might want to create a system image of Windows on an external hard drive. This is an excellent way to protect your data, and the most common reasons include:

1. Back up your data and reinstall Windows. Your system can fail for a number of reasons, such as crashes, computer viruses, or hard drive failure, which can be frustrating since reinstalling your system can take a long time.
2. Faster disaster recovery. If you've created a system image on an external drive previously, you can quickly restore the system image from the external hard drive, saving you a lot of time and effort.
3. Saves space. By storing your system image on an external drive, you save a lot of space on your internal hard drive (HDD or SSD).

Use professional backup software to export system images to an external drive

When it comes to creating a system image, the most efficient and reliable method is to use professional backup software, as it offers advanced options and fewer limitations. In this case, tools like Todo Backup come in handy. All you need is an external hard drive.

Todo Backup Home is a practical all-in-one backup and recovery tool for Windows 11/10/8/7. It serves as a comprehensive backup and recovery solution for personal or business use. It allows you to automatically back up files to an external drive, as well as back up your system, disks, partitions, and computer applications.

It also lets you create ISO images from your operating system and save backups to various locations, including Network Attached Storage (NAS), cloud storage, safe spots, external drives, USB drives, and local drives. You can also use it to create a Windows 10 System Repair Disc for future needs.

Here is why this backup tool deserves recommendation.

1. One-click backup and restore
2. Install Windows 10 from one PC to another
3. Schedule full, incremental, and differential backups
4. Create an SD card image and clone hard drives
5. 250GB of free cloud storage

Here's how to create a system image backup of Windows 10 on an external hard drive.

Step 1: Launch Todo Backup, click “Create Backup” on the main interface, and then click the big question mark to select backup contents.

2. To back up your Windows operating system, click Operating System to begin the backup.

Step 3: All system-related files and partitions will be selected automatically; you don't need to do it manually. Then, click on the area as shown below to choose a location to save the system image backup.

Step 4: The backup location can be another local drive on your computer, an external hard drive, a network, cloud storage, or a NAS. Generally, we recommend using an external physical drive or cloud storage to keep your system backup files.

Step 5. If interested, click on the Options button to customize settings like enabling daily, weekly, monthly or event-based schedules for automatic backups, and differential and incremental backups. Click on "Backup Now" to start the Windows backup process. The completed tasks will be displayed as cards on the left side.

Create a system image on an external drive (Windows 7)

Another way to create a Windows 10 system image to an external drive is by using the built-in Windows 10 backup tool - Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

"Backup and Restore" (in Windows 7) is a built-in backup utility that has long been one of the most popular data backup tools among Windows users. It can also create a snapshot of your hard drive and generate an image file from it. One of its great features is its ability to back up data on both local and external disks.

Yet, you may encounter issues like long backup time in Windows 10 and system image backup failure when using the built-in tool.

You can create a system image backup on an external hard drive by following these steps:

Step 1: Connect the external hard drive to your computer.

Step 2. Press the Windows key + R to open the Run dialog box. Type control panel and hit Enter.

Step 3: Click on "Backup and Restore" under "System and Security."

Click “Backup and Restore” (for Windows 7)

Step 4: Click on "Create a system image" on the left.

Select “Create a system image”

Step 5: Choose the external hard drive connected to your computer as the location to save the image backup. Then, click “Next.”

Select the external hard drive

Step 6: Select the disk you want to back up. (By default, the system partition is selected by Backup and Restore.) Click Next.

Select the disk to be backed up

Step 7. Review the backup information. If everything is correct, click the Start Backup button to begin the backup process.

When the process is finished, your Windows 10 system image will be stored on the external hard drive.

### Tip: How to recover a system image from an external drive

After creating a system image on an external hard drive, you can easily and quickly restore system image from external hard drive.

Scenario 1: Create a system image by backing up and restoring

If you created a system image of Windows 10 on an external hard drive by using Backup and Restore (Windows 7), you can restore it to your computer by following these steps.

Step 1: Open Settings and go to Update & Security > Recovery.

Step 2: Click on “Advanced startup” and then “Restart now.”

Step 3. After the computer restarts, go to Troubleshoot > Advanced options > System Image Recovery.

Then, you can restore from the Windows 10 system image backup created on an external hard drive as per the on-screen instructions.

Case 2: Create a system image with Todo Backup

If you used a professional backup software, such as Todo Backup, to create a Windows 10 system image on an external hard drive, follow this guide.

* For unbootable computers, try to start the computer with a Todo Backup Emergency Disk to perform system recovery.

Step 1: Launch Todo Backup and click on "Browse for Restore".

Click to browse and restore.

Step 2. Navigate to your backup destination and select the system backup file you need. (Todo Backup creates backup files with .pbd extension.)

Step 3. Select the recovery disk. Make sure that the partition style of both the source and recovery disks is the same.

Step 4. Customize the disk layout as you wish, then click Continue to start the system backup restore.

To summarize,

This article will illustrate how to create a Windows 10 system image on an external hard drive with two different methods. After reading, you can easily make a Windows system image on an external hard drive with Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and Todo Backup.

However, the backup and restore features may not work as expected, and system image backup might fail. Thus, it is recommended to use Todo Backup to help you with such tasks. It can also assist you in restoring a system image to a different computer. There's more to discover. Just download and give it a try; it won't disappoint you.

Frequently Asked Questions on How to Create a Windows 10 System Image on an External Hard Drive

How do I create an image from an external hard drive?

To image a hard drive, you can use tools like Todo Backup and Backup and Restore (Windows 7) to help you. A disk image is a copy of a partition or a disk. Hence, you can create a disk image with professional disk imaging software - Todo Backup. Backup and Restore (Windows 7) enables you to create a system drive image.

2. Can I create a system image on a USB flash drive?

Yes, you can. Creating a Windows system image on a USB drive can free up space on your system drive. A USB drive is a secure backup location for the operating system, programs, and files installed on the system drive. You can carry the USB drive with you to restore the system image to any computer.