How to back up a computer to an external hard drive on Windows

We store a significant amount of data on our computers, both for work and personal purposes. Ensuring that our important files are stored securely and can be retrieved at a moment’s notice is something that everyone should consider. Of course, there are several options when it comes to backing up your computer, such as a cloud-based solution or – the one we recommend – an external hard drive. Backing up to an external device is a key part of the 3-2-1 backup rule. 

Using an external hard drive for backups is beneficial for a number of reasons. Firstly, an external hard drive is a local form of storage that can be taken wherever you need it to go. This is especially important for those who travel on a regular basis or who often need to transfer data between devices. Also, backing up to an external hard drive doesn’t incur monthly service charges like many cloud-based services do. However, it is important to note that the combination of backing something up to a cloud-based service and an external hard drive is the best way of protecting your data from any potential loss.

Once you have made the decision to purchase an external hard drive, the next stage of the process is to decide whether an SSD or a HDD is the best option. The former is a more recent technological development that stores data in flash memory, whereas HDDs store data in magnetic disks. SSDs are a faster and more efficient option for data storage than traditional hard drives. 

In this guide, we will walk you through the process of how to perform a partial and a complete backup of your computer to an external hard drive. If you want to ensure that all your data is retrievable, it is best to perform a complete backup of your computer. On the other hand, if there are only certain files or data that you wish to retrieve in the event of loss, a partial backup may be more suitable.

If you only want to be able to retrieve your most important data in the event of loss, follow these steps: 

1. Connect the external hard drive. 
2. Open File Explorer. 
3. Choose individual files to copy to the external hard drive. 
4. Drag and drop, or alternatively, copy and paste files to the external hard drive. 
5. To avoid data loss, eject the drive or wait a few seconds if this option is not available, before disconnecting the external hard drive. 

This process is less time-intensive than performing a complete backup of your computer, but sometimes a complete backup of your computer to an external hard drive is necessary. If so, we have you covered with the steps below.

Backing up all of your data is the only way to completely prepare for data loss. To perform a complete backup, follow these steps: 

1. Connect the external hard drive. 
2. Confirm that the capacity of the external hard drive is the same or greater than that of the internal hard drive that you are backing up. 
3. Next, select Settings, then Update & Security, then Backup. 
4. Click Add a drive and select the external hard drive you are using for this purpose. 
5. Decide on backup frequency by clicking More options. Remember to make sure that your external hard drive is connected. 
6. Choose how long you would like to retain backups using the Keep my backups button (the default option is ‘forever’). 
7. Click Back up now to start the process.