How to Backup Laptop to External Hard Drive
No technology is fully free from malfunctioning. This is true of every hardware including computers and laptops. Laptop users are susceptible to data loss as on a computer, but the process of backup is a little tricky on a laptop. Since laptops have a fixed memory, you can't add a new hard disk to a laptop-like on a PC to backup your data. Backing up laptop data to an external drive is the best way to prevent data loss. In this article, we will tell you how to backup the laptop to an external drive using two simple and straightforward methods.
- Part 1. Introduction about Laptop Backup
- Part 2. How to Backup Laptop to External Hard Drive in Windows
Part 1. Introduction about Laptop Backup
1. Reasons for Laptop Backup
Laptop backup is one of the most important tasks that you should perform if you don't want to lose your data stored on it. Since laptops are portable devices, they are more susceptible to data loss than a PC. Below, you will learn some of the most common reasons for data loss on a laptop.
- Accidental deletion - Some people also mistakenly delete files while deleting some other files or format their hard disk, causing data loss. This is one of the most common reasons for data loss.
- Disk corruption - Hard disk is hardware and is likely to fail at some point in time. If you don't want to lose your data, it is important to back up the laptop regularly.
- Virus attacks - Virus attacks can do a lot more damage to your data stored on the laptop. They can delete files, corrupt files, and file system and wreak havoc on your hard disk.
- Mishandling - You can drop the laptop accidentally or spill water on it, which can damage the hard drive, rendering it unusable.
If you don't want to lose your precious data stored on the laptop, it is very important to back up the laptop to an external drive. If you regularly back up the laptop to the external hard drive, then you will be able to restore the data in case of a mishap. In this post, we will tell you how to backup a laptop to an external hard drive to prevent data loss due to any of the above reasons.
2. What Kind of Data to Backup
A laptop may have many kinds of data on it that you may want to back up. These can include:
- Personal files - These include photos or videos of your family and friends. There are personal files that everyone keeps on their computer and it can be very disheartening to lose them.
- Business documents - Aside from these, you can also have important business documents on the laptop that you don't want to lose.
- System files - System files includes an operating system, settings, boot partition, and application files. These are important for the functioning of the computer and corruption or deletion of these files can render your system inoperational.
- Games and other applications - Some people also use their laptop to play games. Though these have less precedence for backup than other files.
Part 2. How to Backup Laptop to External Hard Drive in Windows
Windows from Microsoft is the world's largest operating system. It is appreciated worldwide for its user-friendly interface, but it also has some very useful inbuilt backup tools to backup laptop data to an external hard drive. You can also install third-party backup tools to create a backup of your laptop files. In the following section, we will tell you how to backup the laptop to external hard drive using the Windows File History tool and AOMEI Backupper Professional.
1. Backup Laptop Files with File History in Windows
File History is a new backup tool in Windows, first introduced in Windows 8. You can use it to restore the historical version of files, as well as creating a backup of laptop files to the external hard drive. Below we will show you how to backup laptop files to external hard drive using File History on Windows 10.
Step 1. Access File History
First, connect an external hard drive to your laptop and go to the Start Menu > Settings app. In the Settings app, go to Update & Security and then click on "Backup" to access the File History tool.
Note: In Windows 8, you can access the File history tool from Control Panel > System and Security > File History.
Step 2. Select a specific drive
Now, click "Add a drive" and select the external hard drive which File History will use for backup.
Step 3. Make automatic backup
Turn on the "Automatically backup file my files" toggle to automatically backup laptop files when you connect the external drive to the computer.
Step 4. Set up backup
Click on "More options" and you can configure how the File History will take a backup, like backup frequency, files to backup, and duration of backups.
Step 5. Select files to backup
Now, click the "Add a folder" button under "Back up these folders" to specify other folders that will be backed up beside user libraries, desktop, and downloads folder.
Step 6. Exclude folders
To exclude some folders from backing up, add them under "Exclude these folders" section.
2. Backup Laptop Data with AOMEI Backupper Professional
Backing up laptop files to external hard drive using File History is simple, but it also has various limitations. You can only backup specified folders to the external drive. Backing up the whole drive at once is not possible. Moreover, it isn't available for the earlier version of Windows Windows 8. So, if you are looking for the best way to back up the laptop to an external drive, try AOMEI Backupper Pro. It is a professional data backup tool that allows you to back up your laptop and computer data to external storage media like hard drives and USB drives.
Now that you know what AOMEI Backupper Pro is, now it's time to learn how to backup the laptop to the external hard drive. You can follow the steps given below to know how to backup the laptop to an external hard drive using AOMEI Backupper Professional.
Step 1. Download and launch the laptop backup software
First, download the AOMEI Backupper Professional and launch the setup to install it on your laptop. After installation, launch the laptop backup tool and select the "Backup" tab from the application interface.
Step 2. Select source disk
Now, select the Disk Backup option and select the laptop's internal hard disk as the source disk. You can also give a name to the backup task with the option given at the disk backup screen.
Step 3. Choose the external hard drive
Then, select the external hard disk as the destination drive. Click on "Backup Options" to configure backup, for example, encrypt and compress, schedule backups, and more.
Step 4. Start the laptop backup process
Finally, click on the Start Backup button and the laptop hard drive will be backed up to an external hard drive. Click on Finish to complete the backup and exit the AOMEI Backupper Professional.
3. Best Way to Backup Laptop to External Hard Drive
Windows's File History tool is good to backup laptop files to an external hard drive, but it doesn't compare to the functionality of the AOMEI Backupper Pro. File History lacks in several areas when compared to AOMEI Backupper Professional, for example, it doesn't allow backing up the whole hard drive or backing up system file and partitions. File History can only backup a specified folder which you need to manually select, while AOMEI Backupper Pro can backup the whole hard drive in a single go.
Creating a backup of your laptop using File History takes up quite a time, while AOMEI Backupper Pro accomplishes it very fast. You can also use it to backup system partitions, and clone hard drives to the external hard drive. The biggest factor that makes AOMEI Backupper Pro better than the File History tool is that it supports a range of Windows OS including Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, and XP. File History is only available on Windows 8, 8.1 and 10. S. Considering all these factors, we have found AOMEI Backupper Pro to be the best way to backup laptops to external hard drives.
With the laptop backup software, you can protect your backup from unauthorized access with password encryption. With this amazing data backup tool, you can also backup data to the NAS device or network shared folder. AOMEI Backupper Pro also allows you to easily copy the operating system to a USB drive. So, these AOMEI Backupper Pro is a very useful tool for backing up your laptop. Its functionality is too great to neglect if you are looking for a convenient third-party backup tool.
- Allows you to take automatic, full, incremental, and differential backups of system, disk, partition, and files.
- Supports system restore, disk restore, dissimilar hardware restore, partition restore, and selective file restore.
- Supports disk clone, partition/volume clone, flexible clone, system clone, and command line clone.
- Supports Windows 10, Windows 8.1/8, Windows 7, Vista, and XP (all editions, 32/64-bit)
Tips to Backup Laptop to External Hard Drive
- Before starting the backup process, make sure that the external drive has enough storage space so that it could store the backup file. Traditionally it is recommended that the backup drive be twice as much as your internal hard disk.
- Do not disconnect the external drive while the backup process is ongoing. It will not only interrupt the backup process but can also damage the data stored on the drive.
- System-level backups can only be used on the same device on which they were made. This is because the system files are configured as per the target laptop. You can't restore the system backups on a different machine.
In this article, we have shown you some information about laptop backup, 2 basic ways to perform it to an external hard drive, and some tips about it. It can be concluded that laptop backup to external hard drives is quite necessary and helpful to protect our important and irreplaceable data. And the best way to do it is by taking advantage of AOMEI Backupper Professional.
AOMEI Backupper Professional is a Windows data backup utility that allows you to protect your data from system crashes, accidental deletion, and other causes of data loss. It is compatible with Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, XP, and Vista. With the backup software, you can create a backup of the whole hard drive to an external hard drive very easily. Aside from personal data backup, you can backup system files and settings, volumes, and partitions as well as applications. AOMEI Backupper Pro offers a range of features for data backup and recovery like disk cloning, imaging, system migration, backup scheduling, etc. It supports all types of backup i.e. full, incremental, and differential backup.
Data Backup Services
- Computer Backup
- Hard Drive Backup
- Mac Backup
- Cloud Backup
Amy Dennis
staff Editor