Saving a Windows 10 Backup Image to a USB is Possible But a Waste of Time

The point of this post is not to instruct how to restore or backup Windows 10, which it does mention, but to point out how instruction have been giving, which allows you to save a Windows 10 system image on a USB, but it's useless because you can't restore from it.

Wouldn't it be nice if you could save a Windows backup/restore image file to a USB? Well you can https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_10-update/how-to-create-windows-10-system-image-on-a-usb/24e84aff-3916-4661-894b-f140005d3b9e?page=3, but it's a useless procedure. The reason is, while the procedure will let you save a WindowsImageBackup file to your USB, there is no way to use it  to restore your system because windows 10 will only restore from a hard drive; you can manually access your personal files from the WindowsImageBack file, but you can't rebuild your hard drive image, meaning you will need a new install of Windows 10, manually move your personal files to their respective folders, and reinstall all your programs/apps.

Rather than deal with such a mess, you have better choices, including saving the Windows backup image a real hard drive or use a Windows 10  utility (File History)  that save all your personal files in real time on a USB, so you can restore them at any time. Now you can't rebuild a hard drive with file history, so for a total reinstall you will still have to reinstall Windows 10, but File History will restore your personal files automatically from a USB afterward. There is a third way, which restores you Windows OS to a prior state/date. This was a great utility called "System Restore", which saves a previous configuration by date, when your OS was operating properly, and allows you to undo what ever changes where made to your computer to make it unstable, reverting back to to that earlier configuration. The problem with the is utility is 1) it is turned off by default in Windows 10 and even if you turn it on, I've not been successful using the utility with Windows 10, ending up with the dreaded error.

"System Restore did not complete successfully. Your computer’s system files and settings were not changed.

Details:
System Restore could not access a file. This is probably because an anti-virus program is running on the computer. Temporarily disable your antivirus program and retry System Restore.
An unspecified error occurred during System Restore. (0x80070005)

You can try System Restore again and choose a different restore point. If you continue to see this error, you can try an advanced recovery method. For more information, see What is recovery?"

I tried the restore in both safe mode and from a recovery disc with the same result. While I only used the utility in XP, it worked flawlessly, but I've read since windows 7, it has been problematic.  So I would not put my trust in this utility anymore