How To Backup Files on Computer/Laptop? Here Is The Guide
Do you know how to back up files on your computer in Windows 10/8/7? And what is the best way to backup files on a computer or laptop? On this page, we'll provide a complete guide to show you how to select the best method to backup computer files on your own.
Where to Back Up Files - Choose the Backup Destination
The first thing is to select the destination - where you want to backup files from your computer. The reason is that the ways of backing up files to different locations vary.
So, now, you need to select the backup destination:
PAGE CONTENT:
- 1. Back Up Files to A Local Computer Drive
- 2. Back Up Files to External Hard Drive
- 3. Back Up Files to Cloud Drive
#1. How to Back Up Files to A Local Computer Drive - 2 Ways
Here, we collected 2 ways to help you back up computer files on the local drive. Check out the Pros and Cons of these two methods and follow the tutorial guide to back up your files now:
| File Backup Software | File History Backup |
|---|---|
Pros:
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Pros:
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Cons:
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Cons:
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Which way is better? It's the file backup software. Follow the guide here to back up files on your computer now.
Method 1. Back Up Files on Computer with File Backup Software
Qiling file backup software - Qiling Backup offers you a complete backup solution for file backup.
What Can Qiling Backup Do For You?
- Support schedule backup - set an automatic backup plan.
- Support incremental backup, differential backup, etc.
- Support backup files to a local drive, external hard drive, and even cloud drive.
Let's see how to back up your computer files now:
Step 1. Open Qiling Disk Master and select "File backup" as the backup mode in the "Backup and recovery" page.
You may have a large amount of vital data to be protected as time goes on, such as documents, pictures, music, and videos, etc. It is always a good habit to have a backup on a regular basis. File Backup is one of the best choices for you to get over unexpected data loss.
Step 2. Select the files that you want to back up.
You can also enter "Plan name" and "Description" for specifying your file backup.
Step 3. Select a destination to save your backup of the selected files.
You'd better create the backup file in some other storage media or in some other drive. If not, there may be a risk of the backup file getting corrupted or destroyed.
Advanced backup settings are useful when you want to create a flexible and automatic backup plan.
The schedule is to create an automatic backup plan.
The Image-reserve strategy is to reserve the limited image as per image retention rule.
Backup options are to edit the advanced parameters.
Step 4. Click "Proceed" to execute your operation.
Method 2. Back Up Files on Computer with File History
Step 1. Click Windows start icon > "Settings" > "Update & Security".
Step 2. Click "Backup" > "Add a drive".
Step 3. Select an empty drive on your computer to save the file backups.
Step 4. Click "More Options" > Under the Back up these folders to check what will be backed up on your computer.
You can also click "Add a folder" to select files on your computer to be backed up.
Step 5. Click "Back up now" to start backing up files.
#2. How to Back Up Files to External Hard Drive
Here, we collected 3 ways to back up files to your drive:
| File Backup Software | File History | Manual Copy & Paste |
|---|---|---|
Pros:
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Pros:
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Pros:
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Cons:
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Cons:
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Cons:
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Which is the best way? For beginners who look for a secure and efficient way to back up files to an external hard drive, Qiling Backup is recommended.
Follow the desired method to start backing up files now:
Method 1. Back Up Files to External Hard Drive with Backup Software
Qiling Backup supports you to create an automatic file backup plan that you can backup files when the external hard drive is connected to a PC.
Preparations:
- Connect your external hard drive to your computer.
- Download Qiling Backup
Step 1. Launch Qiling backup software and choose the File backup option on the "Backup and recovery" page.
Step 2. Select the files or folders you want to backup. Then click "Destination" to select the external hard drive as the backup storage location.
You can also enter "Plan name" and "Description" for specifying your file backup.
Click "Filer" if you want to specify certain types of files to backup. Here, multiple types of files including Documents Files, E-mail, Financial Files, Music Files, Picture Files, and Video Files, etc can be selected.
Step 3. Select a destination to save your backup of the selected files.
Step 4. Click the "Schedule" option to open the Backup Scheme window, here you can create a scheduled backup plan to backup files later, daily, weekly, monthly or upon event.
The schedule is to create an automatic backup plan. It is not a prerequisite for backup.
Step 4. Click "Proceed" to back up folders or files to the external hard drive.
Method 2. Back Up Files to External Hard Drive via File History
Note that, to use File History to back up files to your external hard drive on a computer, you must keep the external hard drive connected to the PC all the time.
Step 1. Click Windows start icon > "Settings" > "Update & Security".
Step 2. Click "Backup" > "Add a drive".
Step 3. Select your external hard drive marked as "Removable disk" and click "OK".
Step 4. Click "Advanced Settings", set the frequency to back up files to the external hard drive. Click "Run now".
Method 3. Manually Copy and Past Files to Back Up to External Disk
Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer.
Step 2. Double-click This PC, open the external hard drive, and create a folder named "Backup".
Step 3. Open folders or hard drive volumes to copy files, folders that you need to back up and paste them all into the external disk.
Wait patiently and the process could take longer if you have too many files to backup.
#3. How to Back Up Files to Cloud Drive
As cloud storage allows users to share and make use of backups at any time, many people prefer to save their file backups into Cloud. And here we collected two ways that can back up files to Cloud dive.
| File Backup Software | Cloud Drive |
|---|---|
Pros:
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Pros:
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Cons:
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Cons:
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Which is better? For a complete solution to back up computer to cloud, file backup software - Qiling Backup is more recommended.
Method 1. Back Up Computer Files to Cloud using Backup Software
Step 1. Launch Qiling cloud backup software and choose the File backup option in the "Backup and recovery" page.
Step 2. Choose the target files you want to backup by either "User Defined" mode or "File Type" mode.
"User Defined" allows you to choose files according to their file directory, while "File Type" is much simpler if you only backup files with specific file formats of pictures, documents, videos, and so on.
Step 3. In order to backup files to the Cloud storage, click the "Browse" button in the "Destination" area. The new mini window pops out.
Step 4. Click "Proceed" to start backing up files to your Cloud drive at once.
Method 2. Upload and Back Up Computer Files to Cloud
Using OneDrive:
Step 1. Click OneDrive icon on your PC, select "Help & Settings" > "Settings".
Step 2. At the Backup tab and click "Manage backup".
Step 3. On the Manage folder backup window, select folders to backup to OneDrive. And click "Start backup".
Using Google Drive:
Step 1. Open Google Drive > Log in with your account > Click "Storage" to check the available space.
If your storage is not sufficient, click "Get more storage" to upgrade your plan.
Step 2. Download and install the Backup and Sync app.
Visit https://www.google.com/drive/download/ > Click "Download" > Click "Agree and Download" on the popup window.
Step 3. Choose files and folders to backup from the computer to Google Drive. Click "Next" to continue.
- Launch Backup and Sync > Sign in with your account.
- At the My Computer section, Desktop, Documents, Pictures folders are selected by default.
- You can also click "CHOOSE FOLDER" to select more folders and click "Select Folder" to add to the backup list.
- If you need to backup photos and videos from the computer to Google Drive, check "High quality".
Step 4. Uncheck "Sync My Drive to this computer" > click "Start" to back up selected folders from computer to Google Drive.
Using Dropbox:
Step 1. Download and install the Dropbox desktop app.
Step 2. Launch Dropbox, click "Backups" > "Set up".
Step 3. Click "Add folders" to select folders and files to backup and click "Save" to confirm.
The Desktop, Documents, Downloads folders are selected by default.
Step 4. Click "Set up" to start back up files from the computer to Dropbox.
What Is The Best Way to Back Up Files? File Backup Software + External Disk
On this page, we provided different solutions for you to back up files on a computer. You can back up files on your computer drive, or save the backup files to an external hard drive, or even a cloud drive.
So what is the best way of backing up files? Here is Editor's Choice:
- Select File Backup Software as the backup tool.
- Choose an external hard drive as the backup destination.
By doing so, you can back up all computer files to an external hard drive at once without taking much storage space on the disk.
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