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How To Restore A PC From A Windows System Image.

When your computer is not working well, you can use the system images that you’ve created using Windows Backup & Restore to return it to a working state.

There are many reasons why computers become unusable, sometimes it’s down to a failed Windows update. Maybe a malfunctioning driver or badly written software. And of course, sometimes it’ll be because of a virus or malware infection.

If you’ve been using Windows Backup & Restore to make regular backups, then if all else has failed, it might be time to bite the bullet and recover the whole PC.

Before You Restore Your Computer.

Using any system image backup to restore your computer comes with a few caveats that you should be aware of.

  • Anything added to the computer since the last backup was made will be lost. If you’ve recently saved some pictures, documents etc to your PC, then be sure that you’ve got copies if they’re not already included in the system image.
  • Make sure that you know your passwords. You may need to use your account password to log into your computer after the recovery is complete. You might also find yourself logged out of online accounts.
  • Finally, restoring a PC using a backup won’t fix hardware issues. If your computer’s hard drive is failing, or you’ve got faulty RAM etc, then just restoring your PC won’t fix it. Backups can only remedy software issues.

How To Recover PC Using A Windows Backup Image.

For this guide I’m going to assume that you can actually get your computer to start up (boot up). It may be slow and dysfunctional, but it does start up.

To restore your computer from a Windows Backup Image, click the Start button and then type “recovery options

Then click Recovery Options (System Settings) on the search results.

Search results in Windows 10 for Recovery options.
Searching for Recovery options in Windows 10.
Searching Windows 11 for Recovery Options.
And searching for Recovery Options in Windows 11.

If You Can’t Start Your Computer At All.

On the next page we’ll look at how you can your Windows backup image to recover a computer when it won’t start up at all.

Advanced Start-up.

When the Windows Recovery page opens, find the Advanced Start-up section and then click the Restart Now button.

That’ll cause your computer to reboot into the Windows Recovery options.

Advanced Start-up section is marked and the Restart Now button is highlighted in Windows 10.
Under Advanced Start-up, click on the Restart Now button.
Advanced Start-up section is marked and the Restart Now button is highlighted in Windows 11.
Click Restart Now.

Windows Recovery.

Once the computer has restarted you’ll be in the Windows Recovery options.

  1. On the Choose an Option screen, click Troubleshoot.
  2. Then click Advanced Options.
  3. Next, click on See More Recovery Options.
  4. Finally select System Image Recovery.
Troubleshoot option is being clicked on.
Click Troubleshoot.
Advanced Options is selected.
Then Advanced Options.
"See more recovery options" link is highlighted.
Then choose “See more recovery options”.
System Image Recovery option is selected.
And finally click System Image Recovery.

Windows will search all your connected drives until it finds the one with your system image on it.

By default it’ll automatically select the latest system image to use. Click the Next button.

Windows is searching for a recovery drive.
Give Windows a few moments to find your recovery drive.
System image is selected and the Next button is being clicked.
Then click the Next button.

On the Additional Restore Options screen, there isn’t really anything for you to do except click the Next button.

Then you’ll see the Re-Image your PC confirmation screen. Click Finish.

Next button is indicated.
Click on Next.
Finish button is marked.
And then click Finish.

You’ll see a warning pop up. It’s telling you that all data on your computer will be replaced with the data held in the system image.

Anything not included in the system image will be erased.

Click the Yes button to continue restoring your computer.

Pop up windows warning that system is about to be re-imaged. Yes button is indicated.
Are you sure? Click the Yes button.

Note that this is the last chance that you have to cancel out of the restoration. After clicking the Yes button the recovery operation will start.

Windows will display a progress bar as the restoration of your computer proceeds.

There isn’t any way for me to guess at how long it might take on your PC. Everyone’s machine is different.

But be prepared to wait a few hours.

Progress bar at about 20 percent.
Nothing to do now other than wait.

The Computer Is Restored.

If all goes well your computer should make one more re-start and then it’s done.

The computer will be back to how it was when the system image was made.

Windows login screen.
It worked. Computer is back up and running.
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