How to Back Up Windows 10 to USB on Your Own [3 Ways]

Are you trying to back up Windows 10 to USB so that you can perform a system restore, data recovery or even factory reset Windows 10 to a previous healthy state? On this page, you'll get 3 methods to back up your computer to a USB drive.

3 Ways to Back Up Windows 10 to USB External Drive

Here, we collected and listed the reasons that can explain why do Windows users want to back up their computer to an external USB drive:

1. Back up OS and restore to a previous state from virus, hard drive failure, or human error.

2. Back up computer data to prevent file loss.

3. Create a system image to perform a factory reset anytime.

So how to back up Windows 10 or the entire computer to a USB drive? Here, we collected 3 ways to help you out. Pick the right method based on your need and follow to back up Windows 10 on your own now:

PAGE CONTENT:

Method 1. Backup Windows 10 to USB with Software - Protect OS & Data
Method 2. Backup Windows 10 System Image to USB - Protect OS
Method 3. Create a Windows 10 Recovery Drive to USB - Reset System

So how do I back up my Windows 10 computer to an external USB drive? Follow the desired guide and start backing up your Windows 10 now.

Method 1. Backup Windows 10 to USB with Qiling Software

It's a smart choice that you turn to reliable backup software to create a backup of your Windows 10 data. Here, we would recommend you try Qiling file backup software which is designed for System Backup and File backup on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10, Vista, and Windows XP.

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You can apply it to fully back up Windows 10, including the OS and data, to your external USB drive on your own:

#1. Backup Windows 10 to USB

Notice:

To backup Windows 10 system to an external hard drive or USB successfully, save important data to another safe location in advance. Also, your external device should be as equal to or even bigger than the OS drive.

Step 1. Connect an empty external hard drive or USB drive to your PC.

Step 2. Launch and run Qiling Backup on your Windows 10 PC and choose "System backup".

Step 3. Click browse icon to select your external hard drive or USB as the Destination for saving Windows 10 system image.

Step 4. Click Proceed to start backing up your Windows 10 system now.

#2. Backup Windows 10 Data to USB

Step 1. Connect the external hard drive or USB flash drive to your PC.

Step 2. Run Qiling Backup and click "File backup" on the main window.

Step 3. Select the files that you want to backup to external hard drive or USB. And then click browse icon to navigate the external hard drive or USB flash drive as the file backup destination.

Step 4. Click "Proceed" to execute the file to external hard drive/USB backup operation.

Note that Qilig Backup also contains a schedule backup feature so that you can automatically backup files to an external usb.

#3. Restore Windows 10 System from USB Backup

After a successful backup, you may also need to know how to restore Windows 10 backup from the USB drive. If you can boot into Windows, open Qiling Backup and jump to Step 2 below to restore the system image.

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If Windows won't boot, follow the details below:

Step 1. Connect USB with Windows 10 OS backup to PC and restart it.

When you see a Windows boot menu, select Qiling Disk Master.

Step 2. Select the image file you want to recover and click "Recovery".

Step 3. Select the destination location which you will recover the system and click "Next" to continue.

Step 4. Then click Proceed to restore Windows 10 backup.

Method 2. Backup Windows 10 System Image to USB

The other efficient way of backing up Windows 10 is to create a system image to USB. If you don't want to use software creating system image backup, you may try this method (source from Microsoft).

It's based on Windows built-in Backup and Restore tool. Let's see how to back up Windows 10 system to a USB drive:

Step 1. Connect the USB drive (bigger than the C drive) to your PC and format it to NTFS.

Step 2. Right-click on the Windows icon, select "Search" and type: Control Panel. Open it and click "Backup and Restore (Windows 7).

Step 3. Click "Create a system image".

Step 4. Under the On a hard disk section, select the external USB drive as destination, and click "Next" to continue.

Step 5. Check the System and System Reserved partitions, click "Next" to continue.

Step 6. Click "Start backup" to begin creating your current system image to the USB drive.

Wait for the process to complete, you've successfully created the system image of Windows 10 to your USB drive.

When you have an OS boot issue or system failure error, you can restore a system image backup of Windows 10 on your USB anytime.

Method 3. Create a Windows 10 Recovery Drive to USB

The last way that you can try is to create a Windows 10 recovery drive to USB. With it, you can restore Windows 10 by performing a factory reset on your computer anytime when the computer or OS goes wrong.

The Windows built-in tool also supports creating a Windows 10 recovery drive. But it will take much time. Let's see.

Step 1. Insert the USB drive into your computer. In Windows 10 Control Panel, click "Recovery".

Step 2. Click "Create a recovery drive".

Step 3. Check "Back up system files to the recovery drive" to use the drive to reinstall or restore a previous version of Windows. Click "Next".

Step 4. Wait until the wizard prepares to copy files to your flash drive.

Step 5. Select your USB flash drive as the recovery drive and click "Next".

Step 6. Confirm the warning message that "everything on the drive will be deleted. If you have any personal files on this drive, make sure you've backed up the files" and click "Create".

Step 7. When the message "The recovery drive is ready" appears, click "Finish".

The backup may take a few hours, wait patiently. After this, you can use the Windows 10 recovery drive to troubleshoot OS failure or PC boot issues on your computer. For more details, follow this link and check out: Download Windows 10 Recovery Tool for 32/64 Bit.

Pick a Right Way and Backup Your Windows 10 to USB Now

This page covers 3 different but effective Windows 10 backup to USB solutions to help you fully protect Windows 10 and data from any unexpected OS issues.

Among these, you can pick Qiling backup software - Qiling Backup to back up your entire computer, including Windows 10 and the data in an easy and handy way.

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If you only want to back up Windows 10 OS to USB, either Method 2 or Method 3 can help. Though a bit complex, but still worth a try. It's not too late, take action to go and backup your Windows 10 and data now.