Seagate Expansion doesn’t come with backup software, so you need to use Windows built-in utility for data protection. If you find it cumbersome and error-prone, try this portable backup software for Seagate or any other removable devices.
Seagate Expansion offers solutions to add extra space while making file storage faster and easier. It comes in 3 sizes to suit your needs: Seagate Expansion SSD, Seagate Expansion portable hard drive and Seagate Expansion desktop drive. The first 2 are popular portable devices and both have the advantages of light and fast.
Seagate Expansion vs. Backup Plus
There is actually no fundamental difference between them, except that Backup Plus is usually more portable and comes with a backup solution to auto back up data from your PC, so it’s correspondingly more expensive.
Seagate Expansion backup software
Seagate Expansion drives do not come with any backup software and are formatted for Windows. So in Windows PC, you can simply plug in the USB cable and moves files via drag & drop or copy & paste in File Explorer.
However, if you have a more specific plan for data backup, like auto backup data from PC to Seagate Expansion, or backup Seagate Expansion to another portable device, how can you achieve it?
Manual copy and paste is more suitable for moving small batches of files at once, if you want to perform backup with Seagate Expansion drive more flexibly, you may need to use the following backup utilities in Windows 10/8/7.
▶ File History (Windows 8/10/11): Auto backup User folder and selected folders to external hard drive.
▶ Backup and Restore (Windows 7/8/10/11): Set up backup to protect Windows folders, libraries or system image.
Note: Both of them have some limitations in backup functions and speed, and are more suitable for backing up PC files to external hard drive. If you want to backup Seagate Expansion to other portable devices, or do more refined settings with simper operation, you can use another Seagate Expansion backup software.
1. Take Windows 10 as an example, you can enable File History via Start > Settings > Backup > Add a drive.
2. Connect the Seagate Expansion drive and select it as the destination drive, then the Automatically back up my files option is toggled on, and you can click More options to configure specific backup settings.
3. By default, File History will auto backup your files in User folder every hour, and keep versions forever. You can adjust how often to back up, how long to keep the backups, and what other folders to back up manually.
▶ File History not working?
During using the backup tool, you may encounter errors like File History doesn’t recognize this drive, cannot turn on, stops working suddenly, or not backing up all selected files. You could try fixing them according to Windows 10 File History not working, or use following methods instead.
1. Plug in the Seagate Expansion hard drive or SSD, navigate to Start > Settings > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7) > Set up backup.
2. Select the Seagate Expansion drive as the destination, click Next.
3. Select what you want to backup. The recommended option Let Windows choose will include a system image and default Windows folders and libraries. You can also select Let me choose.
4. Confirm the information, and Change schedule if you want to Run backup on a schedule. Frequency options include daily, weekly and monthly. Then Save settings and exit.
The backup may take a rather long time to complete, depending on the size of the data you want to protect.
▶ Windows Backup and Restore failed?
As a backup solution introduced since Windows 7, Backup and Restore remains almost the same in Windows 8 and Windows 10 without much optimization, so there are still many problems that may be encountered during using. You can refer to Windows 10 backup failed.
Compared with Windows built-in utilities, AOMEI Backupper is an easier yet more powerful Seagate Expansion backup solution.
It can back up files, partitions, disk, operating system, and support devices including internal/external hard drive, SSD, flash drive, network share, NAS and cloud. This means you have a great flexibility in planning backups, like backing up Windows 10 OS to Seagate Expansion, or back up the entire Seagate drive to another device. It has rich options, allowing you to schedule automatic backup, perform incremental and differential backup, filter specific files, or auto delete older backups. And in addition to image backup, you can also real-time sync files, or clone hard drive to external hard drive with ease. Another superiority of the backup software is the portability. You can make a portable version of it on removable device, like Seagate Expansion hard drive or SSD, then plug the drive into any target computer to backup, sync or clone without installation.
This can make Seagate Expansion a portable backup device like Backup Plus, but much more powerful.
*You can download AOMEI Backupper Technician or Technician Plus to try this portable backup software. The difference is that Techinician Plus supports Windows servers in addition to Windows PCs.
How to run portable backup software on Seagate Expansion drive:
1. Install AOMEI Backupper on a Windows PC, connect the Seagate Expansion drive to it. Then launch the software and click Tools > Create Portable Version.
2. Normally the connected removable device will be auto selected as the target location. You can also click Browse to specify it manually. Then Start Creating.
When it’s done, you can find the installation directory and registration tool in target path.
How to auto backup files to Seagate Expansion drive with this portable backup software:
1. Plug the Seagate Expansion drive into any Windows PC, and double-click Backupper.exe to run the backup software without installation.
Note if AOMEI Backupper has been installed on the target computer before, you may encounter problems while using the portable version. Then you can use the Register.exe to Register for correct advanced edition.
2. Go to Backup tab and choose File Backup. Optionally, You can back up Windows operating system with System Backup, or entire disk with Disk Backup.
If you want to auto sync files to external hard drive in real time, please go to Sync > Real-Time Sync.
3. Click Add Folder or Add File to specify what you want to backup. You can also click on the funnel icon to include or exclude files with specific extensions.
4. Select the Seagate Expansion drive as the destination. Then click Schedule to automate the backup. Options include Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Event triggers/USB plug in. Click Start Backup to execute it.
Incremental or differential: Automatic backup is run in incremental mode by default, you can also choose scheduled differential backup or full backup in Advanced tab. Backup options: Manage backup compression, splitting, encryption, comment, email notifications, etc. Scheme: Auto delete old backup images to save your storage space.
If you want to back up your Seagate Expansion drive to PC or other portable device, just select the source and destination paths accordingly.
Seagate Expansion offers lightweight and fast portable devices to instantly add extra space. But since it doesn’t come with backup solution like Backup Plus do, you may need another Seagate Expansion backup software to increase its practicality as a storage device.
With AOMEI Backupper, you will enjoy almost everything you need to protect the data on Windows PCs and external hard drives. You can create a portable version of this backup software on Seagate Expansion and drive, and use it on any target computer directly.
In addition to backup and restore, you can also use AOMEI Backupper as Seagate cloning software to migrate hard drive or only OS to smaller SSD/larger HDD.
