Our Favorite Ways to Back up Windows PCs
One of the digital tasks I love to do on a regular basis – yes, regularly – is to clean my computer and reinstall Windows 10 from scratch. It’s worth spending an hour or two restoring my system to its maximum potential performance, and it couldn’t be easier. Yes, that means you have to spend a little time reinstalling or restoring your apps and data, but it’s also easy if you back them up ahead of time.
How easy is it? Let’s get down to business. Here are some options to help you make data recovery easier on a fresh copy of Windows 10.
Live in the cloud
It’s easy. If you store all of your critical information in the cloud, you won’t have any personal data that can be restored to a new Windows 10 PC from everything you have. You just need to restore your connections to whatever services you use, or install any apps they offer that sync your cloud content to your hard drive, and you should be fine.
What does this mean in practice? Well, instead of using your custom Windows 10 folders to store documents or pictures, for example, you just save it all to your Google Drive / Dropbox / Mega / OneDrive . If you remember to do this in all cases, including moving files from your real Windows 10 desktop to a secure cloud folder, you’re done. Otherwise, you can fantasize and customize symbolic links ( symlinks ) to pin this change to Windows 10 itself; you can also right-click your custom folders and change their location via Properties . Drag them to the main folder that you sync to the cloud.
You will, of course, have to re-install these links after reinstalling Windows 10. And if you just make a mental note of keeping all your photos and documents in the cloud, you won’t be able to access other folders. as will your AppData folder (containing your web browser settings, history, etc.) later. If that doesn’t matter to you, great! Just make sure you are aware of the differences between copying the contents of various custom folders and copying an entire custom folder to the online storage.
Use a backup app that’s always online
I confess I let my Backblaze account expire because I never used her to restore any files in the years she spent backing up my PC to the cloud. This does not mean that it is useless; I just have a bunch of different backup techniques. Backblaze was one of them, but ended up unnecessary.
However, if you use this or any other service that adds an app to your system to automatically back up all your files to the cloud, you are a gold medalist. Assuming you don’t mind loading or restoring the service processes, you can easily get the freshest files back in the new version of Windows 10.
This approach works best for your personal data; don’t expect to be able to use it, say, to restore all previously installed apps and games.
Copy your details directly from the explorer
In my Windows 10 setup, all my personal data is in my main C: \ Users folder. Whenever I want to back up everything important on my system to one of my secondary drives, I simply drag and drop my entire User folder to the backup destination. He puffs, I’m going to dinner; I go back, process multiple requests for nonessential tiny or temporary files messed up, and I have a full backup of everything I care about.
Nothing is easier than this if you have some storage space (which you can check by right-clicking the Users folder and choosing Properties , or using a great app like WizTree to really see what’s going on.) eats up a lot of space). Connect an external drive to your system, or use an additional drive on your desktop PC, copy the files and you’re done. No complicated program required.
Use a third party application to create a disk image (or clone)
We have long been fans of Macrium Reflect at Lifehacker. This free app makes it easy to clone an entire drive to a secondary drive – whatever is on it takes a leap – or create a complete disk image that you can download later on to your brand new, updated operating system.
Since I have already covered this application in detail, in this article I will not describe the process of creating images for you. For most people, this is pretty easy to figure out. In fact, I’m not sure if you can be wrong if only you check the created clone or image before erasing the original disk with a new version of Windows 10. (Even so, it’s always good to have as many backups of your data as possible, so consider about uploading important data to the cloud, copying it to any other storage you have, or temporarily shoveling it into another system).
Back up browser tabs separately
You should already sync your browser data such as bookmarks with the cloud depending on which browser you are using. Before you say goodbye to your old operating system and reinstall a new copy, use an extension like OneTab to combine all your open tabs into one and then export your list. Save it to the cloud, email it to yourself, or put it on a flash drive, but you want to keep that data – that’s okay. Just don’t lose sight of this file as it contains all of your tabs, and if you’re like me, it’s a pretty impressive list.
How do I get my apps and games back after reinstalling Windows 10?
Let’s say you’ve backed up all of your data, took a deep breath, reinstalled Windows 10, and are running a brand new version of the operating system. We’ve already covered all the important steps and settings you need to know about, but there are a few important ones that you will want to do right now:
- Connect your Microsoft account to Windows 10 to activate the OS and start syncing settings.
- Start copying data back to your system. I recommend creating an “old computer” file on your desktop, copying everything to there, and figuring out the final location of your files using that as a source. (Remember, it never hurts to have too many backups.)
- Use a tool like Ninite (or Chocolatey ) to start reinstalling essential apps.
- Grab your favorite gaming services – Steam, Epic, Battle.net, and more – and install them. However, do not re-download your games. Find them in the backup if you saved them and copy them back to their original location. You can then use the app to “install” each game to that location, which shouldn’t cause the entire game to be downloaded again, just check the existing files and download minor updates as needed. (Your game service application might even scan existing game files, such as Battle.net.) This is a great way to avoid having to increase your monthly internet data limit for data you probably already have.
- While all this is going on, set up your online accounts. This can include any apps you need to sync content to or from the cloud storage, your primary email and calendar services, and anything else that requires a username and password, including a password manager.