How to Image a Laptop Hard Drive in Windows 7
- 1). Plug an external hard drive into your laptop. Ideally, you should choose a drive with the same or more capacity than the hard drive on your laptop.
- 2). When your external drive is plugged in and recognized by Windows 7, proceed to the Control Panel by clicking the "Start" Windows icon in the left corner of your task bar, and then selecting "Control Panel" from the menu options.
- 3). From the Control Panel, select "System and Security" and then "Backup and Restore" from the menu list. Note that the Backup and Restore menu deals with the more common task of using Windows 7 to create regular backups of your individual files. The Drive Image feature is a menu selection on the upper-left side of the window.
- 4). Select "Create a system image" from the menu. Windows will automatically locate your external devices first. Assuming you have no other drive devices like a flash drive or secondary internal hard drive installed, the external hard drive you plugged in should be your first option. If not, select your drive from the pull-down menu.
- 5). Click the "Next" button, and a dialog box appears allowing you to select what you want to include on your drive image. Some laptops include separate partitions for the operating system, data and system recovery tools installed by the laptop's manufacturer. If you have a secondary internal hard drive you do not want included in the drive image, uncheck it. Otherwise, check all the boxes shown and click the "Next" button.
- 6). The System Image program will display a confirmation dialog box showing you the estimated space required for the backup and advise you that any previous system images created will be overwritten. Confirm your settings and click the "Start backup" button on the lower-right side of the window. A dialog box will display a bar showing the progress of your backup.
