Backup Hard Drive on Windows 10/8/7 (Beginner's Guide)

Are you looking for a complete and easy-to-understand guide on how to back up your hard drive? Read on for a beginner's walkthrough on how to easily create a backup of your computer's hard drive data.

Why Do You Need Hard Drive Backup?

Hard drive backup refers to the process of completely duplicating all content on a hard disk to another HDD/SSD or an external drive. With a hard drive backup, you can effectively protect your computer data from the following disasters:

• Virus attack
• Accidental deletion
• Careless formatting
• Hard drive corruption
• Operating system crash or boot issues

Maybe you can recover your hard drive's data from various states of loss with a reliable disk-recovery utility or service. But that's always Plan B, not the best way to protect your files.

The safest way is to regularly back up the data on your hard drive with reliable hard drive cloning software or manual backup methods. So how do you create a backup of a hard drive? Now, you can effectively back up your hard disk data by following the guides below.

【Preliminary】Preparations Before Backing Up Your Hard Drive

Before you start backing up your hard drive, there are two questions you need to ask yourself:

1. Where do you want to save the hard disk backup?
2. How do you plan to use it to back up your hard disk data?

If you don't know, stay where you are, and look at the list below.

1. Prepare a new HDD/SSD or external drive

• Get a high-capacity HDD or SSD, or an external hard drive
• The new drive needs to be bigger than the used space on your target drive
• Prioritize an external hard drive > HDD > SSD

An external hard drive is better than an HDD for large capacity and safer backups at a lower price. An HDD is superior to an SSD because it costs less. Read more in our article: HDD vs SSD.

2. Connect your backup drive to your computer and initialize it.

Properly connect the new hard drive to your computer: - Right-click on the new drive in Disk Management and select "Initialize" > choose the disk partition style – MBR (Master Boot Record) or GPT (GUID Partition Table).

3. Choose the appropriate hard drive backup method

For Windows novices, we recommend resorting to backup software for Windows like Todo Backup, which we introduced in Tutorial 1.

Part 1: Back Up Hard Drive with Windows Backup Software

In fact, there are few people knowing how to back up data from hard drive safely and easily. This article recommends you some PC backup software, with which you can perfectly back up the entire hard drive, partition or operating system.

This utility helps you protect the data on your hard disk by:

- Back up and restore files and folders. - Back up and restore partitions or entire hard disks (including the operating system). - Automatically back up a hard disk on a schedule. - Perform differential or incremental backups. - Restore a system to a new computer. - Clone a hard disk or partition to another hard disk.

To easily back up your hard drive data using a backup utility with UTF-8 encoding, follow these general steps. Note that exact instructions may vary based on the software you pick. Here's a walkthrough using the widely used "tools Todo Backup": 1. **Download and Install the Tool**: Visit tools's website (https://www.tools.com/backup-software/) and download the Todo Backup software. Install it on your computer by following the on-screen prompts. 2. **Launch the Software**: After installation, open tools Todo Backup on your desktop. 3. **Choose Backup Type**: In the main window, select the type of backup you want. Options usually include "Disk Backup," "System Backup," or "File Backup." 4. **Select Source Files**: - For "Disk Backup," choose the entire hard drive or partition to back up. - For "System Backup," the software will automatically select the system disk. - For "File Backup," manually browse and pick the specific files or folders you want to back up. 5. **Choose Destination**: Decide where to save the backup. You can opt for an external hard drive, network location, or cloud storage. Make sure the chosen location supports UTF-8 encoding. 6. **Set UTF-8 Encoding**: Some backup programs let you specify file encoding during backup. In tools Todo Backup, UTF-8 is typically the default, but if the option is available, enable it. 7. **Configure Advanced Settings**: If necessary, adjust advanced options like compression level, encryption, or scheduling future backups. 8. **Start the Backup**: Hit "Backup Now" to begin the process. The software will create a copy of your selected data in the chosen format, respecting UTF-8 encoding. 9. **Monitor Progress**: Watch the progress bar and wait for the backup to finish. 10. **Verify the Backup**: After the backup completes, it's wise to verify its integrity by restoring a small part of the data to confirm UTF-8 compatibility. Keep your backup current and stored securely. Remember, this guide uses tools Todo Backup as an example; other tools may have different processes. Always consult the software's user manual or online documentation for detailed guidance.

1. Tap "Backup Now" to begin the backup.

Step 2: There are four backup categories, Files, Disks, OS, and Emails. Please click on “Files”.

Step 3. Local files and network files will be displayed on the left. Expand folders to select which files you want to back up.

**Step 4:** Follow the on-screen instructions to choose where you want to back up to.

Click the “Options” button to set a backup password in “Backup Options,” and schedule your backups in “Backup Schedule,” where you can also choose to initiate a backup on specific events. There are many other backup settings you can customize.

5. You can save the backup to your local disk, EDS online service, or Network Attached Storage (NAS).

Step 6: Todo Backup allows users to back up data to third-party cloud storage and their own private clouds.

To back up to a third-party cloud drive, choose Local Disk, scroll down, and add a Cloud Device, then sign in to your account.

You can also save the backup to the Yidu cloud storage service. After clicking Yidu Cloud, register and sign in to your Yidu account.

7. Click Back Up Now to start the backup. When it's finished, it'll appear in the left pane. To manage a backup job, right-click it.

2. Back up your hard drive data with the Windows backup tool

Another option is to use the built-in Windows backup tool, the Backup and Restore feature. It can be a bit complicated, but it's very useful for creating backups of both your hard drive data and your Windows installation in Windows 10/8/7.

Steps to back up hard drive data using Windows Backup and Restore feature

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

**Step 2:** Press `Win` + `X`, type `Control Panel` in the search box, and then click on `Backup and Restore (Windows 7)`.

Click on “Open Windows Backup and Restore” .

3. In the left pane, click Create a system image.

Click “Create a system image” to start backing up hard disk data.

**Step 4:** In the “Disk” section, click to select your new external or internal drive as the backup disk, then click “Next.”

Select a hard disk to save the backup:

Step 5: Select the hard drive you want to back up and click “Next”.

Step 6: Confirm your backup settings, then click Save Settings and Run Backup.

Wait for “Windows Backup and Restore” to finish the backup process. The wizard will create a full backup of your hard drive data, including the operating system. With a hard drive backup, you can restore your hard drive at any time.

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Additional Guide: Methods to Backup Hard Drive on a Mac

In the first and second guide, we showed you how to backup hard drive data on Windows 10/8/7 in detail. Some of you might be wondering how to create a hard drive backup on a Mac.

If you're having the same problem, try one of the three tutorials below:

1. Tutorial 1:

Use Time Machine to back up your Mac - Apple Support

1. Lesson 2 Exercise:

No Time Machine backup for your Mac

1. Lesson 3 Exercise:

Backup Mac to External Hard Drive

Start creating a backup of your hard drive now.

In this article, we have gathered two reliable and efficient hard drive backup methods for Windows 10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista users. Additionally, we have provided three tutorial links for Mac users to refer to on how to back up hard drive data on a Mac.

If you want to make a backup of Windows system disk easily, AOMEI Backupper will be your best choice.

Be the first to recover lost data from accidental deletion, formatting, virus attacks, or other issues. Act now and start backing up your Windows or Mac hard drive data.

With data backed up, recovery from a damaged hard drive is easy.