How to Schedule Backup Files and Folders in Windows 11/10/8/7

Overview for files and folders schedule backup

You may be already aware of the potential threats to computer files and folders - viruses attacks, software bugs, system or hardware failures, human errors, etc. To avoid the tragedy of data loss or corruption, the most powerful move is backup - you can arrange the source and the target as you like so as to restore the data after a disaster.

But in practice use, it's common to forget about setting up backup tasks, especially when your computer is running smoothly, and that's where the demand for schedule backup arises.

To keep your important files and folders secure, the best bet is to backup them on a fairly regular basis - monthly, weekly, daily or when a special event occurs. It's convenient, but also brings an insufficient capacity problem as more and more backups pile up.

Therefore, schedule backup is also associated with incremental backup and differential backup, which only copies the changed files to save your time and space.

Advantages to schedule backup files and folders

As mentioned above, you can schedule backup files and folders to place important data under automatic protection. More specifically speaking, you will enjoy the following benefits:

● Use the computer carefreely without the worry about data loss;
● Always keep the backup up-to-date without setting up the task manually;
● Capture every change of the files or folders and restore any of the versions as you want...

Since there are so many advantages to perform automatic backup on regular basis, you may want to give it a try. But how to do it in Windows 11/10/8/7?

How to auto backup files and folders in Windows 11/10/8/7

For this question, one good news is you can create schedule backup in Windows 10 as well as Windows 11, Windows 8, Windows 7 with the built-in utilities, but given the fact that File History only allows you to backup files & folders to external hard drive, Backup and Restore has very limited options and doesn't support multiple tasks at the same time, the built-in utilities may not be the best solutions. 

So, how to automatically backup files and folders on schedule with more flexibility? In my opinion, the backup & restore freeware AOMEI Backupper Standard is definitely worth trying.

☛It enables you to schedule backup not only files and folders, but also partition, system and even the disk on basis of Daily/Weekly/Monthly. If you want to backup files to a cloud drive, try its new feature - Cloud Backup. And it still offers you 1TB of free cloud storage in 15 days after you register an AOMEI account.

☛The supported destinations include internal/external hard drive, USB drive, cloud drive, NAS, network location, etc. You can configure different automatic backup tasks with different settings flexibly. 

☛The scheduled full backup and incremental backup modes are both available. If you want to run scheduled differential backup, you may upgrade to advanced editions.

Learn how to schedule backup files and folders in Windows 10 as follows. The steps in Windows 11/8/7 are the same.

Step 1. Launch the software and select Backup and then choose File Backup to backup your files or folders.

Step 2. Click Add Folder or Add File according to your needs. For automatic folder backup, just select the former. You can select multiple folders or files by repeating the process.

Step 3. Specify another location as the destination. You can also click the small arrow on the right side of select box to Add Share or NAS Devices or Select a cloud drive.

Step 4. To auto backup files and folders, you can click Schedule Backup at the bottom, choose from five schedule options, and configure the corresponding settings. Automatic backups based on event triggers or USB plug in are available in higher editions.

Backup Scheme lets you choose scheduled backup mode as full backup, incremental backup (default) or differential backup. The scheduled differential backup is available in AOMEI Backupper Professional or higher.

Step 5. Manage other settings in Options, such as compress or split the image, choose backup mode, write comment, enable email notifications, etc. Finally, click Start Backup to schedule backup the files or folders you selected.

Tip: When you set up a schedule and tap Start Backup, the Add the schedule and backup now option will back up the file or folder right away while the Only add the schedule option will save the settings and execute backup at the next scheduled time point.

That's all about how to schedule backup files and folders with the best free backup software - AOMEI Backupper. If you want to enable backup scheme to auto delete older backups, use backup filter to include or exclude files with specific formats, or set contiunous data protection with real-time sync, please try higher editions.