Have you come across a system crash or even a disk crash?

Its annoying to lose important data because of these failures.

These original contents can be systems, programs, setups, and personal files.

choose the backup source

Disk imaging software is most commonly used in case of system crashes or even disk crash wheredata recoveryis urgent.

Top 1.

Step 2.Click theBackuptab, and it requires you to opt for source content and the destination location.

choose the backup destination

Note:better to back up to another hard drive such as an external hard drive.

Do not put all eggs in one basket.

Source:

Destination:

Step 3.Then chooseBack Up NoworBack Up Later.

click Back Up Now or Back Up Later

If you chooseBack up Now, MiniTool ShadowMaker will immediately deal with the backup task.

If you chooseBack Up Later, you’re free to manage the backup task later under theManagetab.

Thats how to image a hard drive using MiniTool ShadowMaker.

click Restore

Then lets see how to restore the disk image.

How can you get the bootable media?

Step 1.Navigate toRestoreand go for the backup task which needs restoring.

click Next

Step 2.Select a backup version and clickNext.

Step 3.Then grab the volumes to restore from the backup file.

Note that the MBR and Track 0 should be chosen altogether.

choose MBR and Track 0

Step 4.Now select a disk for restoration.

If the selected disk contains partitions, MiniTool ShadowMaker will inform you which partition will be deleted.

like be careful when selecting the target disk.

choose a disk for restoration

Finally, you might click theStartbutton and wait until MiniTool ShadowMaker tells you all is done.

Here lets have a look at how to back up a disk using it.

Step 1.Open Control Panel and clickBackup and Restore (Windows 7).

wait patiently until the operation process is completed

Step 2.SelectCreate a system imagefrom the left panel.

Step 3.Now select a location to save the backup file.

better to chooseOn a hard diskand select an external hard disk.

click Create a system image

Step 4.Choose which drives to back up.

Step 5.Finally, confirm your backup tweaks and hitStart backupif everything is alright.

You may also like:How to Restore Windows from a System Image?

choose the destination to save the backup

This tool allows sync with various cloud storage services like Amazon s3, Google Drive, etc.

However, to use this program, you need a stable Internet connection.

Top 4: Clonezilla

There is another disk imaging software for you Clonezilla.

choose the content you want to back up

It helps you to do system deployment, bare metal backup, and recovery.

However, this program doesnt support decremental and incremental backup.

Top 5: Active Disk Image

The last disk imaging software is called Active Disk Image.

click Start backup

It also supports scheduled backups.

However, its paid edition is a little expensive.

In this part, we would like to introduce two powerful programs.

Iperius Backup

MiniTool ShadowMaker

The first recommendation is MiniTool ShadowMaker.

It can help you to clone hard drives or partitions to the SSD with ease and with great speed.

MiniTool ShadowMaker even can help you to clone the dynamic disk.

Clonezilla

MiniTool Partition Wizard

The second recommendation here is called MiniTool Partition Wizard.

MiniTool Partition Wizard DemoClick to Download100%Clean & Safe

Further Reading: Disk Imaging VS.

However, many users are not clear about the differences among copy & paste, clone, and image.

How to Use Clonezilla in Windows 10? Is a Clonezilla Alternative?

After all, all of them can be regarded as backup methods.

Thus they may choose an improper way to do system and tool backup.

Next, we will talk about their differences and in what situation should they be applied respectively.

Active Disk Image

Most important of all, a copy & paste system backup wont boot.

Besides, data on the destination drive will be identical to the source drive when it was created.

If you need more copies, you should prepare more hard drives.

Disk Imaging

Disk imaging is a great prevention solution for backup issues.

The process of making an image backup is very similar to that of disk cloning.

However, one more step is carried out file compression.

Moreover, unlike disk cloning, a single hard drive can be shared with multiple disk images.

Nevertheless, the latter two are more reliable ways, and its hard to tell which one is better.

Hope these are helpful to deal with your backup issues.