Quick Start
This page gives you the shortest reliable path to your first O&O DiskImage backup.
Before You Start
Prepare a backup destination that is separate from the data you are protecting. Good choices are an external USB drive, a NAS share, WebDAV storage, or S3-compatible object storage. A second folder on the same system drive is convenient for testing but not safe as a real disaster-recovery destination.
Also keep the computer connected to power for large backups. Drive images can take time, especially the first full backup.
Create Your First Backup
- Open O&O DiskImage 23 Premium Edition.
- Choose Back up your PC for complete system protection.
- Review the selected source. For a full PC backup, O&O DiskImage includes Windows, applications, settings, and personal data.
- Choose a backup destination.
- On the options page, decide whether to run the backup now, schedule it, encrypt it with a password, or open advanced settings.
- Select Start backup.
- After completion, open Reports and verify that the run completed successfully.
Recommended First Setup
| Setting | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Backup type | Back up your PC |
| Destination | External drive or NAS |
| Backup strategy | Incremental |
| Backup technology | Used sectors |
| Backup format | O&O DiskImage format |
| Compression | On, standard |
| Reports | On |
| Validation | On for important backups, with enough time reserved |
What To Do Next
After the first backup, configure a schedule. Daily or weekly is enough for many PCs. Hourly or continuous schedules are better suited to small, frequently changing, business-critical data.
Then prepare a recovery path. Use Fortress Mode for recovery built into the local PC, or create bootable rescue media for recovery from a USB stick or ISO image.