What Size External Hard Drive Do I Need to Backup My Laptop | Quick Guide

The Solution to Determine the Size of the External Hard Drive Needed for Laptop Backup

The size of the external hard drive you need depends on the data you want to back up.

You might be questioning the appropriate size of an external hard drive needed to back up your laptop when your disk storage capacity falls short. Starting from Windows 7, the built-in Backup and Restore tool does not simply copy all files from your hard drive to the backup device. With this Windows system feature, you have the option to select which specific file folders to include in the backup process. Moreover, you can also opt to choose your media library for backup. By default, Windows 7 and later versions' Backup & Restore applications exclude application files and temporary files.

The backup size can range from a few gigabytes to several terabytes, depending on the number of files you're backing up. Here are some essential steps to determine the capacity needed for your PC backup: 1. Press the Windows logo key + e to open File Explorer. 2. Click on the This PC icon on the window's left side to view the necessary storage space for your external hard drive. On the right side under Devices and drives, you'll see a summary of your hard drive(s), including their capacity and available space. To calculate the minimum capacity required for your external hard drive to accommodate a full backup of your entire computer, subtract the free space from the total capacity.

The smallest size of an external hard drive refers to its storage capacity. Currently, external hard drives typically start at 500 gigabytes (GB) and can range up to several terabytes (TB). The smallest size available in the market might vary as technology advances, but as of now, a common entry-level option is a 1 terabyte external hard drive.

You will need at least 16 GB of free space for your backup, regardless of whether you use a USB flash drive or another disk. While this is the minimum requirement for Windows backups, bear in mind that the recovery drive's storage is limited and does not back up personal files or third-party software.

The Largest Size of an External Hard Drive

The backup hard disk should be at least as large as the combined size of all the hard drives in your computer if you intend to keep a single system backup. For instance, a 500GB external hard drive would suffice if your computer's hard drive is also 500GB.

The backup disk can be slightly smaller because it's unlikely that all your hard drives will be full. If the external hard drive is larger than the computer's drives, it won't use the extra space.

Here are two types of external hard drives available: HDD (Hard Disk Drive) and SSD (Solid State Drive). You can select the one that best suits your needs.

Compared to HDD, SSD boasts faster read speeds and greater capacity but comes at a higher cost. For a more detailed understanding of the differences between the two, you can refer to the guide on HDD vs. SSD. Moreover, if you're interested in learning how to migrate to a solid-state drive without reinstalling Windows, click on the link provided (how to clone hdd to ssd), and you'll find a detailed guide there.

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Backup Laptops with an Improved Method to Save Space on Your Laptop

Using an appropriate method to back up your laptop can effectively save storage space. Here's a recommended approach for your reference. Utilizing a reliable application to manage disk space can be immensely helpful. One such tool is Todo Backup, a high-performance and user-friendly Windows backup software that not only conserves disk space but also enhances backup speed. Below are some of its features and benefits:

• Functions:
• 1. Best approach for backup compression. Backup compression helps optimize storage space. This method involves compressing data by eliminating repetitions and redundancies, thereby reducing file size. In essence, it minimizes the file size through efficient encoding of its content.
• 2. Merge and Split file functionality. The Todo Backup tool offers the ability to split a large file into smaller segments, allowing you to save disk space by backing up only necessary files instead of the whole file. Conversely, you can combine multiple required files into one larger file to save backup time.
• 3. Extensive backup options support. You have three choices for backup destinations: an external hard drive, specifying a network share path manually, or a cloud service. For image retention strategy, you can set the number of days' worth of photos to keep. You can also choose to backup your data daily, weekly, or monthly. Upgrading to the premium version unlocks advanced features such as Smart Backup, global restore, or even free disk cloning or partition cloning. It enables you to perform a full backup, as well as incremental backup versus differential backup.
• Pros:
• User-friendly interface
• Established brand in data backup and recovery
• Different versions available (Free, Home, Mac)

< strong > Here is how to back up your data using Todo Backup tools. < /strong >

Step 1. Launch Todo Backup on your computer, and click Create Backup on the home screen. Then, hit the big question mark to select backup contents.

Step 2. To back up your Windows operating system, click "OS" to start the backup task.

Step 3. Your Windows operating system information and all system-related files and partitions will be automatically selected, so you don't need to make any manual selections at this stage. Next, you need to choose a location to save the system image backup by clicking on the highlighted area.

Step 4. The backup location can be another local drive on your computer, an external hard drive, network, cloud, or NAS. Generally, we recommend using an external physical drive or cloud to store the system backup files.

Step 5. If interested, you can access customization settings such as enabling an automatic backup schedule for daily, weekly, monthly, or event-based backups, and creating differential and incremental backups by clicking on the Options button. Once ready, click "Backup Now". This will initiate the Windows system backup process. When completed, the finished backup task will be displayed on the left side in a card format.

Final Thought

Upon reviewing this passage, we can understand what size external hard drive is required to back up our laptop. Additionally, it helps in selecting the appropriate type of external hard drive suited to your needs. Needless to say, utilizing different methods to conserve storage space to enhance laptop performance is crucial. I highly recommend using a free backup software named AOMEI Backupper, which boasts numerous advantages. It is a well-established brand for data backup and recovery, ensuring professionalism. Furthermore, it is user-friendly. Most significantly, it caters to various versions (Free, Home, Mac) and offers a hassle-free refund policy.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do I back up a folder to an external hard drive?

Connect the external hard drive to your computer, then click and drag the selected files or folders to the external drive to back them up. The external drive and the PC will now each have a copy. While copying files and folders to an external hard drive is straightforward, it's also easy to forget to perform this task.

2. How to back up my PC using File History?

To back up to a network site or external drive, utilize the File History feature in Windows 10. To access a backup, proceed as follows: 1. Click on Start 2. Navigate to Settings 3. Go to Update & Security 4. Choose Backup After connecting a drive, select it as the external drive or network location for your backups.

3. How many documents can 1TB store?

Assuming an average of four pages per document, a one-terabyte container could hold 18,750,000 documents, given that one terabyte typically accommodates 75 million pages.