The worst-case scenario has befallen even the most careful computer user: a coffee mug spills on your laptop or an update wipes all your files and photos. Despite your best effort, accidents happen.

Making a full system image backup preserves not only your files, but Windows and all its settings as well. Here are the best free Windows backup and recovery tools with step-by-step instructions. When ...

How do you recover from a dead internal hard drive or SSD? Or if Windows becomes so messed up it’s useless or even unbootable? You can always reinstall Windows from ...

Create a System Image Backup The quickest way to get to the system image backup is through Control Panel. Use the Windows search function from the Taskbar to type Control Panel, then select it from ...

Of all available backup options, the most reassuring one is the image backup, which creates a snapshot of your system configuration, complete with apps and settings and data files, ready to be ...

There are many situations that can render your Windows system backup image invalid; for example, if you have stored data on a scratched hard drive, the backup image might be damaged. Consequently, ...

PowerShell recovery scripts using WBAdmin no longer work in Windows 11, but VHDX mounting offers a manual workaround for restoring files. I recently wrote an article in which I walked you through the ...

Sarah is a freelance writer and CNET How To blogger. Her main focus is Windows, but she also covers everything from mobile tech to video games to DIY hardware projects. She likes to press buttons and ...