How to Backup Your Whole Computer to OneDrive [Quick and Easy]

When dealing with large amounts of data on a daily basis, you might worry about accidentally losing it all from your hard drive. Therefore, you might seek cloud storage services to back up your entire computer to something like OneDrive, storing important information online so you can recover it in case of loss or damage. Cloud storage offers a convenient, efficient, and cost-effective way to access critical data from any device via the internet.

This blog post from Tool will guide you on how to back up your entire computer to OneDrive hassle-free, along with its benefits and proper approach. Let's get started!

There are several benefits to backing up your computer to OneDrive: 1. **Cloud Accessibility:** By storing your backups on OneDrive, you can access your files from anywhere with an internet connection, on any device that supports OneDrive. 2. **Automatic Synchronization:** OneDrive automatically syncs your files, ensuring that your latest documents, photos, and other data are always up-to-date across all your devices. 3. **Secure Storage:** Your files are encrypted and stored in Microsoft's secure data centers, providing a level of protection against physical damage to your computer or theft. 4. **Version History:** OneDrive keeps previous versions of your files, so if you accidentally delete or modify something, you can easily restore an earlier copy. 5. **Collaboration:** You can share files and folders with others, making it easy to collaborate on documents and projects. 6. **Backup and Recovery:** In case of a system crash or hardware failure, you can quickly restore your files and get back to work without losing important data. 7. **Space Management:** With OneDrive's storage plans, you can choose the amount of cloud space that suits your needs, and some Microsoft 365 subscriptions come with generous storage allowances. 8. **Integration with Office Apps:** If you use Microsoft Office applications, OneDrive seamlessly integrates with them, allowing for real-time collaboration and automatic saving of your work. 9. **Mobile Access:** You can access and manage your backed-up files on the go using the OneDrive mobile app for iOS, Android, or Windows Phone. 10. **Disaster Recovery:** In the event of a natural disaster or widespread technical issue, having your files backed up on OneDrive ensures that your data remains safe and accessible.

Storing data in the cloud has many advantages, including that

• Automatic backup of content stored on your PC
• Protection against ransomware attacks on your device
• Ease of accessing backed-up files/folders from all your devices with OneDrive
• Ability to download backed-up files in case your device is lost or stolen with OneDrive
• Automatic saving of photos and videos when you connect a camera, phone, or other device to your computer
• Automatic saving of screenshots

You might also like: Add Folder to OneDrive Backup Without Moving

How to Back Up Your Entire Computer to OneDrive Backing up your entire computer to OneDrive provides peace of mind, knowing that all your files, photos, and data are stored in the cloud and accessible from any device. Here's how to use Windows 10's built-in features to back up your computer to OneDrive: 1. **Install and set up OneDrive:** - If you haven't installed OneDrive, visit the [OneDrive website](https://onedrive.live.com/about/en-us/download/) to download and install it. - After installation, open the OneDrive application. 2. **Sign in to OneDrive:** - Log in using your Microsoft account. If you don't have one, create a new Microsoft account first. 3. **Enable "Files On-Demand":** - In OneDrive settings, find the "Files On-Demand" option. This allows you to download files only when needed, saving local disk space. - With this feature activated, only frequently used files will automatically download to your computer, while others remain in the cloud. 4. **Choose folders to back up:** - In the main OneDrive interface, click the settings icon in the top right corner, then select "Options." - In the "General" tab, click "Change save locations" to set "My Documents," "My Pictures," and other personal folders to save to OneDrive. 5. **Use the "Backup" feature:** - In OneDrive settings, navigate to the "Backup" tab. - Here, you can set up specific folders like "Desktop," "Documents," and "Pictures" for backup. Click "Manage backup" to choose which folders to back up. - Confirm your selection and click "Start backup." 6. **Sync settings:** - Ensure that in "Settings" > "Update & Security" > "Backup," OneDrive is selected as your backup location. 7. **Wait for the backup to complete:** - Depending on the number of files on your computer, the backup process may take some time. You can continue using your computer during the backup, but maintain a stable internet connection. 8. **Regularly check your backups:** - Once set up, OneDrive will automatically keep your chosen folders synced. Regularly review OneDrive to ensure all important files are backed up. By following these steps, your entire computer (or at least the selected folders) will be backed up to OneDrive. Remember that free OneDrive storage is limited, so if you need more space, consider purchasing a OneDrive subscription.

Here, we will introduce you to two methods of manually backing up your entire computer to OneDrive and using third-party software for automatic backups. Before delving into the process, let's first examine the effectiveness, time required, and difficulty level of each approach.

You can choose from any of the following three options:

• 1. Sync computer data to OneDrive
• 2. Manually back up your computer to OneDrive
• 3. Automatically back up your computer to OneDrive?

Method 1: Sync Computer Data to OneDrive

When you need to edit and view the latest version of files on multiple devices, syncing files and folders with OneDrive helps you work efficiently on the go. You can edit a file on your home computer and sync it to OneDrive, and then when you open your computer at work or elsewhere, the updated file syncs from OneDrive to your local folder.

Before you back up your entire PC to OneDrive, see the step-by-step guide to syncing computer data to the OneDrive cloud.

Step 1: Set up OneDrive using the system tray icon for the app. Click the icon to access the service.

Note: If the OneDrive icon doesn't appear, you'll need to start OneDrive manually from the OneDrive executable:

1. Open File Explorer > View > Hidden items. 2. Then, navigate to the location C:/Users/[Your Username]/AppData/Local/Microsoft/OneDrive/. 3. Double-click on the OneDrive.exe file, and the icon will appear in the system tray.

Double click OneDrive to select it.

Step 2: Click the “Sign in” button, and enter the email address and password for your Microsoft account.

Step 3: Click Change to choose a different save location, or click Next to create a new folder automatically. If you have an existing folder, click the Use this folder button.

Select another destination or click Next.

Step 4: In File Explorer, choose the files and/or folders you want to add to the OneDrive location for syncing. Or, you can create a new folder in OneDrive to sync.

Step 5: Click Help & Settings > Settings > Account > Choose folders to see which files and folders are stored in your OneDrive folder.

Step 6: Click on “Sync all files and folders in OneDrive” or “Make all files available in Windows 11 22H2” to sync everything in your OneDrive folders. Alternatively, choose individual folders to sync.

Method 2: Back Up Your Computer to OneDrive Manually

You can manually back up files and folders to OneDrive using the OneDrive desktop app. You'll need to install the app and create a folder on your computer to make uploading files/folders easy. Alternatively, you can use the web version of OneDrive if you don't want to use the desktop app.

Please check the process for manually backing up your entire computer to OneDrive with the desktop app.

Step 1: Set up OneDrive, then double-click the OneDrive icon in the taskbar at the bottom right of your screen. Or, click the OneDrive icon and choose Open folder.

Step 2: Copy or drag the files or folders you want to back up into your OneDrive folder. The files will upload automatically.

Drag the files you want to back up to a folder in your system:

You can also back up your computer to OneDrive through the official website. Here's how:

Step 1: Visit the official OneDrive website and log in using your credentials. Then, enter the correct account information and navigate to the "My Files" page.

Step 2: Click “Upload” and choose the file or folder you want to upload. Or, drag a file from your computer and drop it into your OneDrive “Files” folder.

Select the files to upload

Method 3: Automatically Back Up Computer to OneDrive

While manual methods are secure and reliable, they only allow you to back up files to the cloud. However, with professional backup and recovery tools like Todo Backup, you can easily back up your entire computer to OneDrive, local disks, external hard drives, NAS, and networks, among other cloud services, without any hassle.

Todo Backup is a tool that allows you to back up your files, disks, partitions, and system with just one click, and restore them to their original locations swiftly whenever needed. It offers advanced backup options such as incremental and differential backups, scheduled backups, encrypted backups, and more.

You'll get 250GB of free cloud storage to access your backups anytime, anywhere, without limitations. Plus, with Todo Backup, you can schedule backups and encrypt your backups for double the privacy and security.

The following steps apply to backing up files to OneDrive, but they also work for disk and system backups.

Step 1: Tap Select Backup Content to begin the backup.

Step 2: There are four types of backup: files, disks, operating system, and email.

Step 3: On the left, you'll see a list of local and network files. Expand the folders to select the files you want to back up.

File Backup

Step 4: Choose where you want to save your backup on-screen.

In the Backup Options, click on Options to encrypt your backup with a password, set up a backup schedule, and choose whether to start a backup upon specific events in the Backup Strategy. There are many customizable features to explore, allowing you to tailor the backup process according to your specific needs.

Step five: The backup can be stored on a local disk, the tool's cloud service, or a network-attached storage (NAS) device.

Step six: Todo Backup allows users to back up their data to third-party cloud-storage services or to the company's own cloud storage.

If you want to back up your data to a third-party cloud drive, choose “Local Disk,” and then scroll down to add a cloud device and enter your account information.

You can also use the tool's own cloud storage service. Click “Tool Cloud,” create an account with your tool account, and log in to it.

Step 7. To initiate the backup, select Backup Now. When the backup process is successfully completed, it will appear as a card on the left panel. Right-click on it for more details about the backup job.

In sum

OneDrive lets you sync files between your PC and the cloud, so you can access them from anywhere. This tutorial will show you two ways to back up your entire computer to OneDrive, manually or automatically. Since OneDrive is mainly a syncing tool and not a backup tool, it's essential to sync important files and folders before backing up.

However, we recommend using the Todo Backup tool, which lets you automatically back up your entire computer to OneDrive without syncing, and protect your valuable data in seconds.

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Frequently asked questions about backing up your PC to OneDrive

Should I back up my PC to OneDrive?

Though you might use these folders often, they might not be included in your OneDrive. You can back up these folders to OneDrive to protect them and make them available on all your devices.

What's the difference between OneDrive sync and backup?

OneDrive Backup is an unidirectional process that copies your files from the source location to another location, in case the original files get deleted or corrupted.

Synchronization is a two-way process that keeps files the same across two or more locations. If the original file is deleted or corrupted, the file at the secondary location is also lost. Synchronization enables quick access to your files across all devices, while backup serves as a safety net for your data.

Will deleting something from OneDrive also delete it from my computer?

When you delete a file from OneDrive, because it syncs bidirectionally, the file might also be deleted from your computer. To avoid this, move the file out of the OneDrive folder to another folder on your system drive instead.

4. Can I back up to OneDrive without syncing?

Yes, with a professional free cloud backup service like Todo Backup, you can back up your entire computer to OneDrive without syncing.

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