How to create and restore OS from backup image file using AOMEI Backupper

[@georgeabelev5625]

Thank you Tyler! Good manual and very helpful!

[@footprinttechnologies]

My pleasure! Glad it helped!

[@paulb5125]

well done keep up the good work.

[@muhammadsaadbinzahid9496]

So i have a question If I do system image for just "C" partition only and not include "D" and "E" partitions of that same internal hard drive, so suppose in future if I need to restore my system image which has just the "C" partition, so will the other partitions (D,E) be affected or formatted/deleted upon the restoration of that system image? Or will the other partitions remain intact as original states as they weren't disturbed in the first place ??

[@footprinttechnologies]

In that case, only the partitions backed up into the image file will be restored (that is, only the C partitions). The leftover space will be simply left as unallocated space without a partition. And yes, your original partitions D and E will be formatted and written over if the image is set to system backup. If you wish to back up and restore a single partition, I recommend using the partition backup option.

[@grafiit2]

After system restore, aomei backupper was create d partition with boot windows files. My second hdd disc installed in computer was named d, and now is e. Is boot partition was not be hidden?

[@footprinttechnologies]

On your system drive, it is normal for some partitions to not have drive letters. However, it is rather strange that what was your C drive got reassigned the letter D. Was your main drive with the letter D when you made the backup?

[@user-cz3qw9oz9q]

Is this a good tool to use when downgrading from windows 11 to 10 without losing any data?

[@footprinttechnologies]

It would be a feasible option. If you have your Windows 10 system backed up into an image file, just restore the file on top of your current OS to downgrade it back to Windows 10

[@n.c.8976]

I’m so dumb all I want to do is backup my whole directory on my c drive and merge it on a new ssd I’m installing windows on. Which option should I do?

[@footprinttechnologies]

Sorry for the late reply. No idea why the last one wasn't successfully posted. In your case, a system backup should do it all, it backs up all the data and system files on your OS so that you don't need a fresh installation. But if you want a new installation of Windows, doing backups of only your Documents, Desktop, and other user folders containing personal data would do just ok

[@mahook]

once I restarted pc and into aomei backupper it is coming with cmd not and app i dont understand why

[@footprinttechnologies]

I have not had the same thing happen to me, so I cannot ensure that my answer solves the problem exactly, but the most plausible reason I can think of is file corruption, which may prevent the UI from loading. At the core, GUIs on Windows are based on cmd, so failure to load the UI would likely leave cmd visible.

[@sahilthapar3168]

After restoring backup it is showing Preparing for automatic repair? Could you please help me with this. I successfully installed backup to other computers before, using same backup image,

[@footprinttechnologies]

Is the universal restore checkbox ticked when configuring the backup? If not, changes in hardware is likely to cause bootup issues.

[@sahilthapar3168]

Yes@@footprinttechnologies

[@footprinttechnologies]

Sorry for the late reply. KZbin fails to notify me sometimes about new replies. Have you tried running sfc (system file checker) on your original OS? Have a try using sfc /scannow from the command line and see if there is any system file corruptions.

[@BooLee01]

I installed AOMEI Backupper and have made a complete Disk backup. What happens if I crash and cannot launch Windows, and therefore cannot launch AOMEI? How can I restore the backup I created?

[@footprinttechnologies]

As shown in the video, a recovery environment can be created to prevent against such problems. Check out timestamp 4:13 for more details. On another note, it seems that you did a disk backup on your Windows boot drive. Would you like the backup to be bootable once restored? If so, I would recommend using the System Backup feature instead.

[@BooLee01]

@@footprinttechnologies OK. I saw the option to create a recovery environment, but it's only available in the pro version; I have the free version, from which I created a backup. But I guess I can't use that in the case of a total crash.

[@footprinttechnologies]

@@BooLee01 Oh I see. If you don't have the Pro version of Backupper, follow this video to check out an alternative to recovery environment. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oGbYk2RjiZdsitE Depending on the drive you create the PE environment on, the speed may be slower than that of a recovery environment, but it is still a great option

[@BooLee01]

@@footprinttechnologies That helps. Thank you.

[@SubhanHamid]

Can we use backup system image in completely new machine ? I don't want windows fresh installation in my new machine. I want to replace my old computer with a new one. Or do I have to use clone feature ?

[@footprinttechnologies]

Both methods work! You can either follow this video and restore the backed-up image of your OS or refer to the clone method (kzbin.info/www/bejne/gZzFgnqCp9t6fqs) in this video. With that said, the clone would likely be more time-efficient since no encoding and decoding has to be done

[@SubhanHamid]

@@footprinttechnologies thank you

[@Firestar-rm8df]

So, what if you don't want to overwrite the files on the new system?

[@footprinttechnologies]

Restoring the OS will erase everything that is on the destination partition(s). However, you can partition your drive, or better yet, install another drive to hold the files you don't want erased, ahead of time and then proceed with the OS restore

[@chaosordeal294]

I recently attempted to restore my OS using Backupper, and it just didn't work. One option is gave me was to restore all three of my system partitions to a single partition (not a single disk, a single partition), which is dumber than crap. I paid for Backupper. My mistake, I guess.

[@footprinttechnologies]

Even if it did restore to a single partition, it would restore however many partitions you've backed up into that one partition. It is recommended that drives backed up from and restored to be of the same size. If you encounter any unexpected issues, please contact AOMEI directly at [e-mail].

[@sasta_Gamer143]

Giving mtf file error

[@footprinttechnologies]

To my knowledge, there is no such error ("MTF error") in Backupper. Assuming you're talking about the Master File Table (MFT) error, it indicates that Backupper has a hard time accessing the data stored on the drive. This can be caused by corruption in the MFT system file (containing information about the data on the system) itself or the file system in general. Run the chkdsk command-line tool and follow this guide (kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKWZlZWIZdWfocU) to try to remedy this problem. As a last measure (if all else fails), you may want to manually back up your data and reinstall Windows.

[@molonlabe8792]

i try backing up my system to a usb drive and Aomei system backup stops the process by claiming it's an unknown file system. This happens on all my drives. Anyone have solutions?

[@footprinttechnologies]

Which file system are you running on the USB? Check if it is NTFS or other Windows-compatible system

[@molonlabe8792]

@@footprinttechnologies The drive is 15T formatted in exfat.

[@footprinttechnologies]

@@molonlabe8792 That make it all the more weird. Have you tried having the drive in NTFS?

[@molonlabe8792]

@@footprinttechnologies Yes but Windows to format it in anything but esfat.

[@footprinttechnologies]

@@molonlabe8792 Sorry I'm struggling to understand. In my experience, Windows can format your drive to most common file systems (exfat, fat, ntfs) other than Apple proprietary ones like APFS.