How to Back Up Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive in 2024 [Windows & Mac]

Introduction

As an essential storage device, a hard drive, commonly referred to as a hard disk drive, plays a vital role in today's digital society. However, what should you do when your hard drive is completely full? If you don't have an external backup, the solution is undoubtedly to backup a hard drive to another hard drive to free up space. Alternatively, you might want to protect your data from accidental deletion. Regardless of the reason, backing up your hard drive to another hard drive is an excellent choice.

But do you know how to back up a hard drive to another hard drive? Indeed, there are numerous tools, and I'll introduce them to you next.

How to Back Up Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive? Backing up your hard drive is an essential step in ensuring the safety of your data. Here's a step-by-step guide on how to back up a hard drive to another hard drive: 1. **Gather Equipment:** - The original hard drive you want to back up. - An external hard drive or a secondary internal hard drive for the backup. - A computer with enough ports to connect both drives. 2. **Connect the Drives:** - Connect the original hard drive to your computer, usually through a USB cable or by installing it internally if it's an internal drive. - Connect the backup hard drive to your computer as well, using a similar method. 3. **Choose a Backup Method:** There are several methods to back up your data, including cloning and imaging. Here, we'll cover the cloning process, which creates an exact copy of your original drive. 4. **Use Backup Software:** - You can use built-in backup tools like Windows' "Backup and Restore" (for Windows 10/8) or "Disk Utility" (for macOS), or third-party software like Clonezilla, Acronis True Image, or Macrium Reflect. - For example, in Windows: - Open "Control Panel" > "System and Security" > "Backup and Restore." - Click "Backup your files" and follow the wizard to select the original hard drive and the destination (backup) hard drive. 5. **Start the Cloning Process:** - In the backup software, choose the option to clone or create a disk image. - Select the source (original) hard drive and the target (backup) hard drive. - Review the settings and start the cloning process. 6. **Wait for the Backup to Complete:** - Depending on the size of your hard drive and the speed of your connection, this process may take some time. - Do not interrupt the process or turn off your computer until the cloning is finished. 7. **Verify the Backup:** - Once the cloning is complete, check the backup hard drive to ensure that all files and folders are present and accessible. - This step is crucial to confirm that the backup was successful. 8. **Regularly Update Your Backup:** - To keep your backup current, schedule regular updates or perform manual backups as needed. Remember, backing up your data is only useful if the backup is up-to-date and tested. Always maintain multiple copies of important data and store them in different locations for added security.

How do I back up an entire hard drive to another hard drive? You can try one of these three methods:

• Backup and Restore in Windows
• Time Machine in Mac
• Todo Backup for Both Windows & Mac

But what is the easiest way to back up a hard drive to another hard disk? You may need tools like Todo Backup.

Todo Backup is a worry-free backup and restoration software equipped with robust features. It allows you to back up your data to the Cloud and perform an automatic backup to an external hard drive. Particularly if you're not proficient in computer technology, this tool can be of great assistance. Learn more by exploring the content below.

What can Todo Backup tools do?

Todo Backup simplifies the backup process, making it user-friendly even for those who are not computer-savvy. It ensures that backup services are accessible whenever you need them, regardless of your location or time. It efficiently safeguards your files, folders, partitions, and even allows you to create a system backup, preserving all your data securely and intact.

• It supports automatic backup and offers three backup modes: full backup, incremental backup, and differential backup.
• Todo Backup enables you to easily backup and transfer your system while ensuring the safety of your data.
• You can back up your files and multiple drives with this tool.
• It provides advanced options to customize settings according to your requirements.
• It can install a Windows system on a new PC without an existing operating system.

Plus, it's user-friendly, secure, and time-efficient. After reading the next section, where I'll walk you through how to back up a hard drive to another one on both Windows and Mac, you'll have a clearer understanding of this reliable backup software.

Backup an External Hard Drive to Another External Hard Drive in Windows 10

Are you looking to learn how to back up an external hard drive to another external hard drive in Windows 10? We've got a comprehensive guide for you to easily transfer your data from one drive to another. Keep reading!

Backup Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive in Windows

How to backup a hard drive to another hard disk in Windows? It's effortless to perform a backup with tools like Todo Backup. Let's see how straightforward it is.

Method 1: Backup Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive using Tools

Now, it's time to show you how to back up a hard drive to another hard drive with the tool Todo Backup.

Step 1. Begin by selecting the backup content.

Step 2. There are four backup categories: File, Disk, OS, and Mail. Click on Disk.

Step 3. You can choose to back up the entire disk or a specific partition. Select what you need and click OK.

Step 4. Choose the location where you want to save the backup.

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

Step 6. Once the backup process is finished, your task will be listed on the left. Right-click on any of the tasks, and you can manage your backups further like recovering them, creating an incremental backup, and more.

That's the entire backup process. It's easy to back up with Todo Backup. You're also free to use Windows' built-in tools to back up some files, but to back up an entire hard drive at once, we still recommend Todo Backup, as Windows doesn't support disk or partition backups. Next, I'll show you how to back up using File History.

Method 2: Using File History for Backup

File History is an integrated Windows backup application. Backing up with File History is less complicated than you might think. Allow me to guide you through the process step by step. First, access the Settings from the Start menu and proceed as follows:

Step 1. Choose Update and Security > Backup > Backup Using File History.

Step 2. Select a backup destination for your backup files. You can click "More Options" to proceed with additional settings.

Step 3. If you've chosen a backup location, turn on the "Automatically backup my files" option. This will initiate Windows' process of backing up your files to the hard drive.

Windows computers typically perform backups hourly by default, but you can adjust this setting to suit your requirements. I've presented two backup methods, but you might be interested in how backups work on a Mac. The following section will provide more information on that topic.

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Backup Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive on Mac

So, how do you back up your hard drive to another disk on a Mac? Well, there are two options:

• Use tools like Todo Backup for Mac.
• Time Machine.

Now, I'll show you two methods to help you back up HDD to another HDD.

Method 1: Backup Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive using Todo Backup Tool

Here, just follow these steps, and you can achieve backing up with Todo Backup tools.

Step 1. Launch and run Todo Backup for Mac. Click the first Backup tab or simply click the + button in the bottom-left corner to create a backup project - name the backup project and click OK.

Step 2. Configure the backup destination where you want to store your Mac files, the automatic backup frequency, and click OK.

Step 3. Include files and folders in the backup project.
Click File+ to select specific files and folders to add to the backup, then press the blue start button to back up your Mac to another drive or external device.

With these steps, you can backup the hard drive to another, but if you want to use Time Machine to backup, continue reading.

Method 2: Backing Up Hard Drive Files with Time Machine

Time Machine does have some limitations. It can't back up your iOS devices, iCloud content, email messages or accounts, network settings, or certain system files and applications. Alright, now let's explore how to use Time Machine.

Step 1. Click System Preferences from the Apple menu and choose Time Machine.

Step 2. Click "Select Disk" and choose the connected backup drive as the disk.

Step 3. Check the "Back Up Automatically" box, and Time Machine will then automatically create backup files on your backup drive. You can also choose to display Time Machine in the menu bar.

You can learn that from above, whether it's Time Machine or File History, they both have certain limitations. So, if you're looking for an easy and comprehensive backup solution for Windows 11 or Mac, consider downloading the tool Todo Backup and giving it a try.

Manually Back Up Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive

You can utilize Windows or Mac hard drive backup software and their inherent utilities to facilitate backing up a hard drive to another. Alternatively, you can employ the manual copy-and-paste approach to assist you in copying data from one hard drive to another. Here's how to back up a hard drive to another using this method:

Step 1. Connect the hard drives to your computer.

Step 2. Open File Explorer and locate the two hard drives.

Step 3. Select the files you intend to back up from the source disk and choose Copy, or press and hold the Ctrl + C keys after clicking on the file.

Step 4. Navigate to the destination drive to commence copying the data. You can either press the Ctrl + V keys or right-click and choose Paste.

Step 5. Repeat the process until you have backed up all the data from the source drive to the target one.

Conclusion

That's all about how to backup hard drive to another hard drive. There are numerous backup tools available in the market. Some are built-in utilities, while others are third-party backup software. Choosing a suitable and user-friendly method to back up a hard drive to another is crucial. If you're frustrated with complicated backup processes, why not give AOMEI Backupper a try by downloading it?

Frequently Asked Questions About Backing Up a Hard Drive to Another - You Might Also Want to Know

I enumerate three questions here, hoping they will assist in shaping your subsequent inquiries.

How do I back up my C drive to an external hard drive?

You can use File History to back up to an external drive. Follow these steps: 1. Click on Start > Settings > Update & Security > Backup. 2. Click on "Add a drive" option. 3. Select the external drive or network location where you want to store your backups. 4. Once you've chosen the location, you can initiate your backup plan. File History will then begin backing up your files to the specified external drive or network location.

How to back up a Dell laptop to an external hard drive?

Turn on your device > Click Start > Settings > Update and Security > Backup > Add a Drive. Then select an external drive or network storage for your backups.

Can I copy an external hard drive to another external hard drive? Yes, you can certainly copy the contents of one external hard drive to another external hard drive. Here's a simple step-by-step guide on how to do it: 1. **Connect both hard drives**: Connect both the source (the one you want to copy from) and destination (the new hard drive you want to copy to) external hard drives to your computer using USB cables. Make sure your computer recognizes both drives. 2. **Backup any important data**: Before starting the process, ensure that you have backed up any crucial data on the source hard drive in case anything goes wrong during the transfer. 3. **Choose a copying method**: You can use different methods to copy files, but the most common ones are using built-in operating system tools or third-party software. - **Windows**: - Using File Explorer: Navigate to the source drive, select all the files and folders, right-click, and choose "Copy." Then go to the destination drive and right-click, selecting "Paste." - Using Robocopy: Open Command Prompt as an administrator and type `robocopy C:\Path\to\Source D:\Path\to\Destination /E /DCOPY:T` (replace with actual paths). - **MacOS**: - Using Finder: Open Finder, drag and drop the files and folders from the source drive to the destination drive. - Using Disk Utility: Choose "Clone" to create a disk image of the source drive and then restore it to the destination drive. 4. **Wait for the transfer to complete**: Depending on the size of the data, this process may take some time. Be patient and don't disconnect either hard drive during the transfer. 5. **Verify the copied data**: Once the transfer is complete, check the destination hard drive to make sure all files and folders have been copied correctly and are functioning as expected. Remember that if the source hard drive has different file systems (e.g., NTFS on Windows or HFS+ on macOS), you might need additional software to read or write to the respective file systems.

Yes, you can. Right-click a file from one of the hard drives and select "Copy."

Right-click on an empty space on the hard drive where you want to transfer the file and select "Paste".