Restore disk image using EaseUS Todo Backup Free in Windows

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Restore disk image using EaseUS Todo Backup Free in Windows

In this tutorial: How to use EaseUS Todo Backup Free Emergency Disk for completely restoring a Windows XP, Vista or 7 computer

Last modified: 2012-02-26 18:23:09 EET

Please remember to connect the external drive you dedicated for backups before booting your computer from EaseUS Todo Backup Free Emergency Disk!

If you have not created the Emergency Disk, read the Configure EaseUS Todo Backup Free in Windows article first and then burn the bootable rescue disk on another Windows computer.

Please note that the Linux-based Emergency Disk does not support restoring Windows installed on hardware RAID, or restoring to a different computer with different hardware (but a different hard disk is supported as long as its interface is the same). In such cases, you need the WinPE version of the Emergency Disk.

To make your computer start from a CD or DVD, read the Computer boot order article.

Restoring Windows computer from a disk image backup

After your computer boots from an Emergency Disk, a menu appears. Press Enter to run EaseUS Todo Backup Free.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk boot menu. Press Enter to run EaseUS Todo Backup Free.

Program loading will take a while, so don't hold your breath.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Loading, please wait. This might take a while, stand by.

When EaseUS Todo Backup Free is ready to rock, make sure Home tab is open and then click Disk and partition recovery.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Home tab. Click Disk and partition recovery.

In the Select an image in the list to recover screen, your disk backup plan/task should be available. Click Next. If the list is empty, click Browse and locate it manually.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Select an image in the list to recover. Click the available image, then click Next.

Type your backup password (not your Windows password!), but please remember that the U.S. keyboard layout is active here!
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Please enter the password. Type your backup password and click OK.

Here's the standard U.S. keyboard layout to help you with your passwords:
Standard PC keyboard layout for United States

In the Select a backup time point screen, click the backup you want to restore and then click Next.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Select a backup time point. Click the needed backup time in the list. Then click Next.

It is strongly recommended to select the whole disk, not just one partition in the Image information screen. This will make sure that the disk's MBR (Master Boot Record) will be correctly restored along with data on the disk. Remember the Disk number (e.g. Disk1) and Capacity of the disk here, this can be helpful in the next step.
If you have several hard disks installed in your computer, partition with "Boot" written in the Status column is probably the one where Windows is.
As usual, most Windows Vista and 7 have a hidden System Recovery partition with size around 100 MB (megabytes).
Click Next after making your selection.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Image information. Select the whole disk, not just one partition here. Windows is most probably installed on the partition with Status "Boot".

In the Select destination location screen, click the hard disk where the unusable Windows is currently installed on. In most cases, it has the same Disk number (e.g. Disk1) and capacity as in the previous step.
If you are restoring Windows to a new hard disk, the capacity might differ and disk map below might be dark yellow and gray (meaning "unformatted" and "unallocated").
Click Next after making a selection.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Select destination location. Click the hard disk the unusable Windows is currently installed on. Then click Next.

If you are restoring the backup image of Windows to the same hard disk it is currently installed on, just click Next in the Disk layout before and after recovery screen after verifying that the layouts are the same.
In case you are restoring the image to a new, larger hard disk, you might want to drag the white area of the partition in the Layout after recovery section all the way to the right to cover the whole disk (cover the gray "Unallocated" area) - there is no need to create separate partitions and mess with Disk Management afterwards. Then click Next.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Disk layout before and after recovery. If layouts match, click Next. If not, drag the white area of lower layout to the right to cover the whole gray area; then click Next.

In the Recovery information screen, click Proceed to start the recovery process.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Recovery information. Click Proceed to restore the selected disk image.

EaseUS Todo Backup will warn you that all data on the destination location (disk) will be lost. Yup, that's the whole idea of reimaging your computer, so click OK to verify you want to perform a complete PC restore.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, The data on the destination disk will be lost, do you want to continue? Click OK.

The recovery might take up to several hours, depending on the size of the hard disk restored and speed of your external disk. You might want to activate the Shut down computer when operation completed option to automatically turn off the PC after restoration is complete. If not, click Finish in the Recovery progress screen after the process is complete.
EaseUS Todo Backup Emergency Disk, Recovery progress. Click Finish after disk recovery is complete.

Click the X mark in the top right corner to exit EaseUS Todo Backup Free Emergency Disk. This will restart your computer automatically - please remove the Emergency Disk before boot process begins.

Remove the Emergency Disk from your CD/DVD drive shortly after clicking X and wait for Windows to start normally. You might want to restore more recent versions of some of your files from a daily backup next.