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1 September 2023  Ashley S. Miller  Specialist of Customer Service Dept.
 

Summary
Learn how to restore individual files from a Windows system image when your system fails or cannot be turned on. Discover the solution in this informative article.



Table of contents

table iconI. About system image backup
table iconII. Easier file backup and restore software: Renee Becca
extract individual files from system image

I. About system image backup

1. What is system image backup?

A system image is a copy of your system drive and can be used to restore the contents of your computer if your hard drive or your entire computer fails. By default, a system image contains drive data, the Windows system and your system settings, programs and files that Windows needs to run. When restoring a computer from a system image, a complete restore will be performed. Users cannot select individual items to restore, and all current programs, system settings, and files will be replaced by the corresponding contents in the system image.

2. How to create a system image?

Creating a Windows system image is not difficult, the specific steps are as follows:
Step 1: Run the Windows computer, enter (control panel) in the search box in the lower left corner and enter the application.
Go to Control Panel application
Step 2: Next, click into the (System and Security) option.
Go to System and Security Options
Step 3: After that, find and click into the (Backup and Restore) option.
Click to enter the backup and restore option
Step 4: Then, click the (Create System Image) button to back up the system data. After that, follow the step-by-step instructions on the page. If you want to know how to restore the system image, please click here to view.
Create a system image
The above are the steps to create a system image. Since you cannot directly restore a single file from a Windows system image, but you can use a specific method to restore a single file from a system image, let’s learn together.

3. Extract a single file in the system image through the disk management tool

Before extracting a single file through the disk management tool, you need to ensure that the Windows system image file has been created, and then perform the following operations.
Step 1: Start the computer, press the (Windows+X) keys at the same time and find the (Disk Management) option. Then find and click (Operation)-(Attach VHD) option on the top function bar.
Kind tips VHD, short for Virtual Hard Disk, is a file format that represents a virtual hard disk drive. When you create a system image, the operating system actually creates a VHD file and stores the contents of the hard disk in it. The “Attach VHD” function of Disk Management can make the VHD recognized by the operating system, and then you will be able to access the files in the system image through the file explorer. VHDX is the successor format of VHD, and there are some differences between the two: VHD is limited to a maximum capacity of 2TB, while VHDX is limited to a maximum of 64TB, which is more often used for disk images these days.
Step 2: Then click (Browse), select the previously created VHDX or VHD (that is, the system image file), and then click (OK). It should be noted that please do not check (read-only) here, because once this option is selected, individual files cannot be restored.
Select the virtual hard disk that needs to be attached
Step 3: Next, you need to assign a drive letter to the virtual hard disk in order to access it normally. Select the virtual hard disk with the right mouse button, then select the (Change drive letter and path) option and add the drive letter. After the operation is completed, the file data in the virtual hard disk can be accessed through the file explorer, and individual files in the system image can also be restored or extracted.
Change drive letter and path
Step 4: The virtual hard disk will be unmounted when restarting, or you can manually unmount the virtual hard disk after accessing the files. Right-click the mounted virtual hard disk in Disk Management and select (Detach VHD).
Disk Management Detach VHD
Step 5: Click (OK) to unmount the virtual hard disk.
Make sure to detach the virtual hard disk
Although the files in the system image can be accessed through the above methods, if the files inside are accidentally modified, the contents in the system image may be affected. If you want to maintain the integrity of the system image and do not want to destroy the contents, you can actually back up the files in the Windows system through other file backup methods, such as the file backup function of Renee Becca , which supports automatic backup of files at regular intervals, which is very practical.

II. Easier file backup and restore software: Renee Becca

1. What is Renee Becca

Renee Becca It is a tool specially used for system/hard disk data backup and restoration. It can help you back up and restore important data in your computer, such as programs, system configuration, emails, photos, videos, documents, bookmarks, etc. It adopts the leading incremental/differential backup technology, which can save you more time and disk space. In addition to supporting system backup, it also supports partition backup, hard disk backup, file backup, and disk cloning to meet your needs. need.
Renee Becca - Reliable Data Backup & Restore Software

Quick Backup files at up to 3,000MB/min.

Fullfill different backup needs Supports system backup, disk / partition backup, file backup and disk clone.

Intelligent Automatically analyze the differences between source and backup data.

Convenient Support VSS, allowing to freely view webpages when backing up system.

Highly compatible Supports various files and storage devices.

Quick Backup files at up to 3,000MB/min.

Fullfill different backup needs Backup for disk, partition and system. Save disk space by backing up incremental /differential data.

Highly compatible Supports various files and storage devices.

Free TrialFree Trial 2000 users have downloaded and enjoy Renee Becca!

2. How to backup and restore files with the help of Renee Becca

Step 1: Download, install and run Renee Becca on the computer, and select the (File Backup) option in the main interface (Backup) column.
Select file backup options
Step 2: Next, select all the files that need to be backed up in (source file (device)), and select the hard disk partition to store the backup data in (destination).
Select files to backup
In addition, in (task plan), you can make a daily/weekly/monthly automatic backup plan and click (confirm) to enable the automatic backup function.
set backup time
In (Backup Scheme)-(Scheme Type), you can choose a suitable backup scheme mode according to your personal needs. Renee Becca has 5 backup schemes to choose from, namely version chain mode, single version mode, overall mode, incremental mode and diff mode.
Select backup plan mode
Renee Becca has 5 backup plans to choose from:
Version chain mode: Only the latest 5 versions are kept, and useless old versions are automatically deleted after the backup is complete.
Single version mode: Only the most recent version is kept, and the previous version is automatically deleted after the backup is complete.
overall pattern: Create a full backup.
Incremental mode: After the initial full backup, only incremental backups are created.
diff mode: After the initial full backup, only differential backups are created.
Step 3: Finally, click the (Backup Now) button to start executing the backup file command according to your settings, and you can see the progress of all backup tasks on the task bar. After the backup is complete, you can click the (Restore) button to restore the files to the specified hard disk when necessary.
extract individual files from system image
Step 4: After that, select the location where the files are to be restored, and click the (Restore) button.
extract individual files from system image