Backup Your Hard Drive Using DriveImage XML

Backing up your hard drive can be one of the more important things that you can do before disaster strikes. If you create hard drive backups before something bad happens you can then just restore your machine back to the way it was before but you will also lose all of your data you have saved in the time period between the backup and the present. When making backups of your hard drive it is a good idea to keep the backup files on a hard drive that is not your C: Drive/OS so either try to keep them on an external or an extra internal drive. Then disconnect after the backup is finished so there is less of a possibility for something to go wrong with it like it getting infected with a virus or something similar. So with that being said lets get started.

First you will need to go to http://www.runtime.org/driveimage-xml.htm to download and install DriveImage XML. Now you will need to run DriveImage XML and you should get a window that looks similar to the one below.

DriveImage XML main window

Now you will want to click on the Backup button that is located in the left bottom corner. This will then bring you to a screen where you can choose which drive you would like to backup (not the drive that you will be saving the files to).

Choose which drive to backup

Once you have chosen the drive all you should need to do then is just click Next. This will then bring you to the Drive Backup Wizard. If everything is correct on the first screen then you can proceed by clicking Next.

Drive Backup Wizard

Now you should be at a screen where you choose where to save your backup to (preferably not the same drive as the OS). You can change some of the settings on this screen to fit your preferences. The settings that I have chosen are shown in the image below.

Options I have chosen to use

Once every thing is set to how you like it you can now click Next. This will now start the backup process. This may take awhile to complete depending of how much stuff you have saved on your hard drive.

Backup in progress

When the backup is completed you will see a small notification window pop up saying that the backup was completed then closes after a few seconds. Now all you have left to do is just click on Finnish.

Backup completed successfully

Now you can start making backups of your hard drive with just a few clicks. You may be wondering how you can restore your machine using these backups and that is just as easy as making them.

You will just need to go to the Restore button in the main window in the bottom left corner. Then you will want to select the drive you would like to restore and click Next. Now the Drive Restore Wizard should pop up. You will then need to browse to where you have the backup .xml file located. Once you have located the file click Next. Now your Drive should be restored back to what it was before.

Drive Restore Wizard