Never Lose Your Windows 11 Data Again: Discover the Ultimate Guide to Backing Up to an External Drive in 2022!
Data loss can be a nightmare for everyone, especially those who rely on their computers for work, school, or personal use. With the release of Windows 11, many users are upgrading their operating systems and may not realize the importance of backing up their data. If you want to keep your precious files safe, then backing up to an external drive is an essential step. This guide will help you learn how to back up your Windows 11 data to an external drive in 2022 and save yourself from losing important data.
What is an External Drive?
An external drive is a storage device that can be connected to a computer using a USB or other data transfer cable. These drives come in different sizes, from small thumb drives to large hard drives, and can store various types of data. Many people use external drives to store backups of their critical files, such as photos, documents, and videos.
Why is Backing Up to an External Drive Important?
Backing up your data is essential to prevent data loss due to system failures, viruses, or accidental deletion. External drives are an excellent option for backups because they can be easily disconnected and stored elsewhere. It’s also a good practice to keep one backup copy of your data in a different location in case of theft, fire or natural disasters.
How to Back up Data to an External Drive on Windows 11
- Connect your external drive to a USB port on your computer.
- Launch File History from the Start menu or Control Panel.
- Select “Add a Drive” and choose your external drive from the list of available drives.
- Choose how often you want to back up your files, and how long you want to keep them.
- You can also choose which folders you want to back up by clicking on “More options.”
- Click on “Turn on” to start the backup process.
- Wait for the backup to complete, and then disconnect your external drive.
Other Backup Options
Backup and Restore (Windows 7) is another backup option available on Windows 11. This option allows you to create a system image of your entire computer, which can be used to restore your system in case of a critical failure. The downside is that the system image can be only restored to the same computer. Also, system images take up a lot of space, so you’ll need to have a large external drive to store them.
Conclusion
Backing up your Windows 11 data to an external drive is an easy way to protect your important files from data loss. The process is straightforward, and there are different backup options available to suit your needs. By following the steps in this guide, you can ensure that you’ll never lose your data again.
You can use the same tool to backup your Windows 11 data to an external drive. Thus, if you are looking for ways to create a full backup of your Windows 11 on an external drive, you have landed on the right webpage.
How to Backup Windows 11 to an External Drive (2022)
This article will show you how to create a full backup of Windows 11 to an external drive. You can follow the same method to backup your Windows 11 to an internal drive (Primary drive). So, let’s get started.
1) Create System Image Backup via Backup and Restore
In this method, we will be using the Backup and Restore feature to backup Windows 11 to an External drive. Follow some of the simple steps we have shared below.
First, click on the Windows 11 search and type in Control Panel. Next, open the Control Panel app from the list.
On the Control panel, click on the System and Security tab.
Next, on the System and Security page, scroll down and click on the Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
On the next screen, click on the Create a system image link.
Next, on the Where you want to save the backup page, select the ‘On a hard disk’ option and click on the drop-down menu. On the drop-down menu, select your external drive.
Important: The external drive should have enough storage and use the NTFS file system. 6. Select your external drive on the drop-down and click on the Next button. 7. Now select the drives you want to include in the backup. Once done, click on the Next button.
On the confirmation window, click on the Start backup button.
Now, wait for a few minutes until the tool creates the system image backup. Once created, open your external drive; you will find a new folder, ‘WindowsImageBackup’. This is the folder where the backup image is stored.
That’s it! This will create a system image backup on your Windows 11 via the Backup and Restore utility.
2) Backup Windows 11 To External Drive via File History
Unlike the Backup & Restore, which creates and saves a full system image, the File history will only backup a few essential folders such as documents, music, pictures, videos, and desktop folders. Here’s how to backup Windows 11 folders to an External drive via File History.
Click on the Windows 11 Search and type in Control Panel. Next, open the Control Panel app from the list.
On the Control Panel, click on the File History.
On the left sidebar, select the Select Drive link.
Select your external drive where you want to backup Windows 11 files & folders on the next screen. Once done, click on the Ok button.
Now go back to the previous page and click on the Turn on option.
That’s it! The File History tool will save copies of your files for the first time on your external drive. Open the External drive and select the File History folder to access the backup files. You will find your libraries, desktop, contacts, and favorites folders there. So, that’s all about how to backup Windows 11 to an external drive without using any third-party tool. If you are looking for more ways to backup & restore Windows 11, you need to start using the third-party backup & restore tools for Windows.
