How to back up an external drive to OneDrive in every possible way

If you're wondering how to backup external hard drive to OneDrive, you'll be glad to find this article. Every computer user needs a reliable way to back up data on their computer, as the impact of data loss can be unbearable in daily life or business. Nowadays, cloud backup software like OneDrive and external hard drives are two common backup options, and most computer users would choose one as their backup solution.

Why back up an external drive to OneDrive?

These days, some computer users are less inclined to store their data on external hard drives or USBs. Instead, more and more people are turning to OneDrive for its safety and convenience when it comes to backups. According to the 3-2-1 Backup Rule, you should create multiple backups and store them in different locations. While external drives are reliable, if you're only using them as a single backup solution for your data, we recommend backing up your external hard drive to the cloud for the following reasons:

* Data on an external hard drive is also vulnerable to the same risks as a personal computer, such as viruses, hardware failure, accidental deletion, fire, flood, or theft. * It's more convenient to store your data in OneDrive, since you don't have to connect your external hard drive to your computer every time you want to back up new data. * Uploading the contents of your external hard drive to OneDrive can save space on the drive and make better use of your online storage.

How can I use a cloud backup software to back up an external hard drive to OneDrive with UTF-8 encoding?

After connecting the external hard drive to your computer, it will function as part of your local storage. As such, you can use a third-party backup software (like tools Todo Backup) to back up the external storage. This will copy all the contents of the hard drive to OneDrive.

Todo Backup Home is a comprehensive and user-friendly backup tool that runs smoothly on Windows systems, including Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP. It supports various backup types, such as system backup, file backup, and disk/partition backup. You can set up automatic backups, scheduled backups, as well as incremental and differential backups. It also enables you to back up OneDrive files to an external hard drive and clone a hard drive. Most importantly, it offers 250GB of free cloud storage space.

< Guide: How to Use Disk Backup Tool to Back Up External Drive to OneDrive >

In the following, you'll learn how to back up your data from an external hard drive to OneDrive.

First, choose what to back up.

Step 2: There are four backup types – Files, Disks, OS, and Mail. Click on “Disks”.

Step 3: It supports backing up the entire disk or a specific partition. Select what you need and then click “OK”.

4. Choose where you want to save your backup.

5. For disk/partition backup, you can choose to save the backup to a local drive or a NAS.

6. When the backup is done, you will see the task list on the left. Right-click on a task to perform more operations, like restoring the backup, creating an incremental backup, and more.

How to Sync an External Hard Drive with OneDrive

As mentioned earlier, once you connect an external hard drive to your computer, OneDrive treats it as part of the local storage. Hence, you can sync the hard drive to OneDrive using the OneDrive desktop app, just like any other folder. However, keep in mind that OneDrive only offers 5 GB of free cloud storage. Here's a step-by-step guide:

Step 1. Download and install the OneDrive desktop app.

Step two: Sign in to your OneDrive account, which will create a OneDrive folder on your computer.

Step 3: Plug in the external hard drive to your computer, and open File Explorer.

Then, you can use the OneDrive app to back up an external hard drive to OneDrive.

Step 4: Copy and paste the files and folders you want to sync from your external hard drive to OneDrive.

The Easiest Way to Backup External Hard Drive to OneDrive

Many users prefer to back up external hard drive to OneDrive to keep their data in a safer place. As data on any platform can be lost or corrupted, the cloud offers multiple measures to keep your data safe. You can back up external hard drive to OneDrive via either of the above methods. In short, the two methods are OneDrive desktop app and tools like Todo Backup.

We recommend using AOMEI Todo Backup to back up external hard drive to OneDrive. With this backup software, you can easily and quickly backup all data on the external hard drive. It also serves as a universal restore software to perform a universal restore on your computer.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What's the difference between OneDrive backup and sync?

A backup is a mechanism for saving a copy of a file elsewhere, so that data is not lost in case of deletion, damage, or corruption at the original location. Synchronization, on the other hand, is about keeping files the same across different locations.

Does OneDrive take up disk space?

**"On-Demand" files** let you access all your cloud files in OneDrive without having to download them and use storage space on your computer. When you turn on On-Demand files, all your files still appear in File Explorer as online-only files that don't take up space.

Why did OneDrive delete my files?

It can be frustrating when OneDrive randomly deletes files. This issue could be caused by outdated Windows drivers or corrupted system files. Additionally, it might result from an outdated or corrupted OneDrive client.

4. What's the difference, technologically speaking, between a backup drive and an external hard disk?

The basic idea behind backup files is to provide copies of your files in case your system crashes. It's a bit like library archiving. In contrast, an external storage drive lets you manually move data onto it.