Make a complete system image both before and immediately after the Windows 10 upgrade
It goes without saying that making a regular copy of Windows systems – known as Images - are crucial. Losing confidential private or business files is not only expensive but some files like photos and videos are irreplaceable. All that pain can be avoided if you have a backup. Losing an operating system must not necessarily result in lost data but it will see the loss of settings and software licenses. It takes a lot of time and stress to get a system back to its previous state when this happens.
We strongly recommend you make a copy of your whole system – known as an Image – before and after upgrading to Windows 10, with O&O DiskImage 10, for example. Should problems arise during the upgrade process or your other software is incompatible, with a system image you can quickly go back to where you were beforehand.
Regular images are also essential once the upgrade to Windows 10 is complete too!
Up until now it was relatively easy to simply make a backup of the entire PC (known as an “Image“) and restore it when trouble strikes. Modern backup and imaging programs such as O&O DiskImage also come with hardware independent restoration so that old systems can easily be restored onto newer, more modern hardware. It was always irrelevant how old this system image was. It could be a few days, months or even years old, it didn’t matter.
This is all over with the release of Windows 10. For the first time, Microsoft will now “force” users to install all important updates practically in real-time. These can be “postponed” for a maximum of 12 months, but no more. After that your device is in effect “out” of the Windows update loop – in other words, Microsoft says you missed the boat. So if you try to restore an image that is older than 12 months, it can no longer be updated. As far as Microsoft is concerned, this PC was not connected to the net for 12 months and has literally been left behind. A harsh reality indeed.
What can be done? There is only one solution – make regular system images. This was always a good idea in the past, but with Windows 10 it is now a must!
More background information:
Disks and Drives: To backup or clone? The Pros, Cons and differences