How to Automatic Backup Windows 10 to External Hard Drive
This article explains how to auto backup your computer to external hard drive in Windows 10. The importance of backup needs no elaboration, and an automatic schedule can certainly save you a lot of trouble.
How to set up automatic backup to external hard drive in Windows 10?
We back up our computers to protect valuable data. Following the 3-2-1 backup strategy, relying solely on a local disk isn’t enough. To ensure double protection, you can back up Windows 10 to an external hard drive while backing up files to OneDrive, Google Drive, or a NAS for an offsite copy.
External hard drives and USB flash drives are convenient and portable backup options. However, failing to back up regularly may leave you stuck with outdated data if a loss or corruption occurs. For greater efficiency, automated backups are far better than performing manual backups repeatedly. In this guide, I’ll show you how to set up automatic backups for Windows 10 using an external hard drive.
The best solution to set up automatic backup to external hard drive
If you want to regularly back up your entire operating system or hard drive to an external hard drive, you may want to try the powerful software AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Its professional features are as follows:
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It supports all data types including files, partitions, systems, and disks.
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It contains complete schedule options like daily/weekly/monthly and allows you to auto-execute backups when PC startup, shutdown, or even USB plug-in.
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As for a limited storage device, you can choose a higher compression level, perform incremental/differential backup, or enable automatic backup cleanup to save space.
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Besides, this software also enables you to backup your computer to NAS or cloud.
Download the free trial and follow the guide below to backup your Windows data to an external drive automatically.
Windows 10 auto backup to the external drive (step-by-step)
With AOMEI Backupper, the steps to backup a computer to a USB flash drive, external hard drive, or other storage are roughly the same. You just need to specify the source data and backup destination accordingly. Here's a tutorial:
Step 1. Install and launch AOMEI Backupper Professional, connect the external hard drive to your computer, then go to the Backup tab and choose the option you need. Here take Disk Backup as an example to back up the entire disk.
- Notes:✎...
- File Backup can help you auto-backup files to an external drive in Windows 10, while System Backup is designed to create a full system image.
Step 2. Select the disk that contains OS as the source disk.
Step 3. Select the external hard drive as the destination disk.
Step 4. Optionally, you can create a schedule/scheme to customize the backup, and configure more useful options.
◇ Click Backup Schedule to enable auto backup, and configure backup frequency as daily, weekly, monthly, etc.
◇ Click Options to set up backup compression, password encryption as well as other stuffs if you wish.
◇ If the capacity of your external drive is limited, you can set up a scheme to save space. Click Backup Scheme to choosea backup method, incremental and differential backup will copy only changed files based on the last full backup. You can also Enable Automatic Backup Cleanup to auto-delete old backups.
Step 5. Click Start Backup after all configurations.
- You need to format the external hard drive before you can use it if it is brand new.
- You may want to know how to restore the system image from an external hard drive.
- You can create a recovery environment in advance to help you restore the Windows 10 system image to a new hard drive when the system crashes.
Backup Windows 10 to an external hard drive automatically via the built-in tool
Windows 10 inherits the backup options of its predecessor - Backup and Restore (Windows 7) and File History. They differ slightly in the purpose of use: Backup and Restore are often used to back up libraries, partitions, or create a full system image, while File History is designed to auto-backup user folders to external hard drives.
Steps to set automatic backups with Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
1. Connect the external drive to Windows 10 and make sure it is detected. Head to Settings > Update & Security > Backup > Go to Backup and Restore (Windows 7). Click on Set up backup on the right side.
2. In Where to Backup window, choose your external hard drive. Click Next.
3. Let Windows choose what to backup or decide by you. It is suggested to click Let me choose and check the System drive option.
4. Check the files or folders you want to backup and click Next.
5. At the Review backup settings window, you’ll see the Schedule option. You can keep the default settings or Change the schedule. Then click Save settings and run backup.
It may not seem difficult to automatic backup files to an external drive in Windows 10, but if you have done it, you may find various errors in the backup process. For target devices with limited space, Windows Backup, and Restore also lacks a feature to automatically delete old backups. So, you'd better use the powerful backup software- AOMEI Backupper to make your auto-backup process seamless.
Conclusion
Two ways to automatically backup Windows 10 to an external hard drive are illustrated in this article. AOMEI Backupper completes this auto-backup task with easier steps and provides you with more helpful options. If you look through this software, you’ll find more powerful features that can solve your daily practical issues.
For example, it's also one of the best free SSD cloning software, which allows you to replace HDD with SSD directly using the Disk Clone feature. What's more, the Create Bootable Media feature allows you to boot your computer into WinPE even when it has failed.