How to Create an Image Backup for Disaster Recovery

Disaster Recovery image backups create a snapshot of your local hard drive, allowing you to recover your entire computer in the event of a hardware failure, not just your files. Image backups do not need to be performed as often as standard file backups.

For most PC users, scheduling a monthly disaster recovery image backup is sufficient. If you do not make frequent changes to your system, you may opt to create one image backup initially and then wait until after installing new applications or making other significant changes to your system to create another image backup (there is an option to do these manually rather than scheduled).

I’m going to walk you through the steps needed to create a Disaster Recovery (DR) image backup of your computer using NovaBACKUP express wizards.

If you would rather watch a video on how to create a disaster recovery image backup, I have included this as well.

How to Create an Image Backup for Disaster Recovery

If you have not done so already, install NovaBACKUP. If you need a trial of the software to follow along, you can download a trial here.

After launching the software, just follow these steps:

Step 1: Run the Express Wizard

Upon launching the program this screen will come up allowing you to quickly run the Express Wizard, but you can also access it from the application home page.

Step 2: Select Backup

Since you are creating a Disaster Recovery image backup and not doing a restore, you will need to select Backup.

Step 3: Select Disaster Recovery

Click on Disaster Recovery to get started. This process may take a few moments as it gathers the drive information.

Step 4: Select the Drive

Select which physical drives and / or partitions you would like to create an image of. Select everything you would like to be able to recover in the event of a disaster.

Step 5: Select the Destination

Select the destination of your backup jobs.  If you have not already plugged in the storage device you plan to use, do so now. Unique credentials may be entered for network devices at this step.

Step 6: Schedule Your Backup

Next schedule how often you would like your image backups to run. I would recommend just once a month for image backups. To do these backups periodically, just check the box to disable scheduling.  You can also set up unique credentials for when a job is run in the background.

Step 7: Verify Your Backup Info

Verify the backup job info, and get an estimate of the size of the backup. If everything looks good, you can go ahead and start your backup.

Next, you will need to create a Disaster Recovery Boot Disk, which will allow you to boot your system and recover everything you just saved in your image backup.

If you do not have time to create your Disaster Recovery Boot Disk right now, it can be done from your new computer in the future, should you ever need to restore from your image backup.