Creating a Windows 10 ISO System Image With DataNumen

One popular use for disk images is creating a clone of your hard storage (hard disk drive or solid-state drive), which might be on its last legs.

DataNumen Disk Image (a.k.a. “DDKI”) is one such solution, runs on all versions of Windows and is available as freeware.

After downloading and installing the utility, use the Clone tab to select the drive you wish to make an image of; to clone multiple drives, use the Batch Clone tab.

Select the destination location and assign a filename in the Output image file as box, where you should select the target disk drive. This is device you’re using to save the backup to. It might be an existing external drive, or a HDD you’ve recently purchased.

Click Start Cloning. This copies your disk to its destination device, ready to use. Our look at HDD cloning covers this topic in greater depth.

Creating an ISO Disk Image in Windows 7

Although cloud backups are easy, there’s no reason not to prepare an ISO disk image for disaster recovery scenarios. You might make an image of the system in its current state. You might alternatively create an image of a freshly installed operating system. Perhaps this will include some apps and games that you have installed.

If you’re using Windows 7, backing up to an ISO disk image is part of the Windows 7 backup and restore feature.

To create a system image in Windows 7, open Start > Getting Started > Back up your files. In the left-hand pane, click Create a system image, and select the destination.

This might be an external hard disk drive or some other large volume. You can also write to DVDs (you’ll need more than one) or Blu-ray.

Do you have a home server, or some large storage on your network, perhaps in the shape of a purchased NAS? If so, you can use the On a network location option. If you want to use a USB flash device, connect this to your computer in advance and select it as the destination.

Also ensure that the System drive (by default the C: drive) is selected.

The confirmation screen will detail how much space will be taken up by the backup. Check this to ensure the figure matches the remaining space on the target device. Proceed with the backup and wait while it completes. The duration will depend on the size of the backup and the speed of the drive.

Restoring the Windows 7 Disk Image

Once complete, Windows will suggest you create a system restore disc. This is a good idea, so find a blank disc and follow the instructions. You can then use this to boot your PC and select the System Image Recovery option to restore the ISO Disk Image of your Windows installation following a disaster scenario.

Creating an ISO Disk Image in Windows 8.1

The same tool for creating a disk image is available in later versions of Windows. You ideally need to have upgraded Windows 8 to Windows 8.1 before proceeding here.

To find the system image creation tool, press Start and type “file history“. The automatic search will display Restore your files with File History entry first, so click this to open the File History tool, then System Image Backup in the lower left corner.

You can then proceed as detailed in the Windows 7 section above. With the ISO backup created, use the steps for Windows 8.1, below, to restore the image in Windows 10. In a disaster recovery scenario, you will need to boot into the Windows 10 equivalent of Safe Mode to restore the image.