How to Backup iPad to External Hard Drive Windows

iPad is a powerful gadget for recreation. It is lighter than a laptop. You could lie down and watch your favorite shows on it for a whole afternoon. Save the showings, films, music, etc. on your iPad and then you could easily enjoy them next time without the Internet.

The high-quality videos and music would quickly take up your iPad and you could not download new apps or other data. A good way to let your iPad be fresh again is to transfer files from iPad to external hard drive and then safely delete the data on iPad. 

In this guide, we'll show you how to backup iPad to external hard drive with or without iTunes. Go through the methods shown in this guide, and choose either to do you a favor.

Part 1. Backup iPad to External Hard Drive via iTunes

You may used to backup your iPad via iTunes, where you buy music and videos. After you make an iPad backup using iTunes, you could find it in C Drive. The question is that your iPad backups would also gradually take up your system drive. If you have a large external hard drive, you could use it to save your iPad backup.

Can You Backup iPad to External Hard Drive via iTunes?

There are still options that enable you to change the iTunes backup location so that you can backup iPad to external drive using iTunes. Besides,you could have another way to save your iPad backup to external hard drive on Windows computer.

The simplest method of moving iTunes backup to external hard drive is copying the backup files of your iPad in C drive and then paste them into your external HDD, but there is a problem that when you move the folder back and are ready to restore iPad in iTunes, it might not appear in iTunes.

You know Apple is famous for protecting user privacy. If you cut or edit the backup files, it might be regarded as violating privacy so that they can’t be used anymore.

Your iPad backup is stored in C:\Users\[PC name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\ MobileSync. The folder AppData is hidden. If you use Windows 10, enter %appdata% in the search bar on desktop to open it.

How to Backup iPad to External Hard Drive Windows 10 via iTunes

Since there is no option to change the default iTunes backup location, how can you safely save your iPad backup to external hard drive? You should know that iTunes is but a Windows program. It works on Windows so it follows the rule of Windows so you could build a virtual link between computer and external HDD. Follow the steps below to change default iTunes backup location, and backup iPad to external hard drive using iTunes.

Step1. Change default iTunes backup location
1. Plug your external hard drive into computer. Delete the folder Backup or you just save the files to another partition for future use. Create an empty folder called MobileSync in external hard drive.

2. Open Command Prompt, enter mklink /J “C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup” “E:\MobileSync”, and then press Enter. You should enter the right user name and driver letter.

If you also want to know how to move your backup to external drive on Mac, refer to this guide: How to Backup iPhone to External Drive on Mac

Step 2. Backup iPad with iTunes on Windows
1. Connect iPad to computer with lightning cable > Click the Device icon in the upper right  corner.

2. Click Summary from the sidebar > Click Back Up Now to make a backup. It might take 15 minutes or longer.

Part 2. An Easier Way to Backup iPad to External Hard Drive Windows

As you can see, it is pretty complicated to change the default iTunes backup location, you could try the easy way to backup your iPad with professional iOS backup software.

AOMEI FoneBackup is created for backing up iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch on Windows 11/10/8/7. You could easily change the storage path of your backup files on the interface.

It helps you to save your photos, videos, music, contacts, and messages, or everything on your iPad. iTunes doesn’t tell what iTunes backup includes, but AOMEI FoneBackup would always let you preview and select data before you perform a backup. It supports all kinds of external hard drive like Seagate, Western Digital, Toshiba, Hitachi, etc. also all the iPad including the latest iPad/iPad Pro/iPad Air.

Steps to backup iPad to external hard drive with AOMEI FoneBackup
Step 1. Download AOMEI FoneBackup to computer for free. Connect iPhone to computer with USB cable. Keep iPhone screen on and tap Trust on it. Plug your external hard drive into computer.

Step 2. On the home screen of AOMEI FoneBackup, select Phone Backup. Go to Selective Backup and click Get Started.

Step 3. Click the icons of the apps to save the related data.

Step 4. Preview the items on your iPad and select the needed data. Click OK then.

Step 5. Click the Backup Storage Path to select the external hard drive as the destination. Click Start Backup to begin the backup process.

When the backup is complete, you can go to My Backups to find the backup task. Here you can view the backup files, restore backup to device, delete the backups, etc.

If you want to edit your photos on computer, you can click on Phone Transfer > iPhone to PC to transfer photos from iPad to external hard drive.

Conclusion

You could definitely backup iPad to external hard drive on Windows computer, no matter you choose to use AOMEI FoneBackup or iTunes but AOMEI FoneBackup is obviously much easier to use than iTunes. Share this guide and it would help more people.