Copy/Move the Windows.old Folder to an External Hard Drive

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Each time you reinstall or upgrade Windows 10, the operating system creates a Windows.old folder that contains a copy of your previous Windows installation, including user profiles, installed programs and settings, as well as personal files. If any issues arise during or after the installation, you can restore from the Windows.old folder to easily revert to the previous Windows version without having to reinstall the system and programs or lose data. Therefore, it's crucial to protect the Windows.old folder from unexpected data loss. The best approach to achieve this is to move or copy the Windows.old folder to an external hard drive. Below, we'll guide you through the process in simple steps.

Why You Should Backup or Transfer windows.Old to an External Drive

Even though the Windows Old folder is pretty important, it doesn't stick around on your computer all the time. There are certain situations where it might get wiped out. First off, Microsoft only keeps the Windows.Old folder on your PC for 30 days after your last Windows install. Nowadays, with recent updates, that's been cut down to 10 days since you installed major Windows 10 updates. Once that time's up, boom, Windows.Old gets automatically deleted. Secondly, since it's a complete backup of your system partition, it takes up a good chunk of hard drive space, which can cause low disk space problems. In those cases, you might choose to get rid of it during a Windows 10 disk cleanup or by using other tools to free up space by deleting system files.

When you lose the 'windows.old' folder under these circumstances, you won't be able to revert to your previous system without data loss. Hence, we recommend relocating or copying the 'windows.old' folder to another drive (ideally an external one). This is the most effective way to preserve and back up the 'windows.old' folder for an extended period.

Backup Windows.old to External Drive with File Backup Software

To safely and easily backup the "windows.old" folder, using Windows Backup Software is your optimal choice. This software efficiently backs up files/folders, systems, installed applications, partitions, and disks for Windows 10/8.1/8/7. With its advanced and flexible backup features, as well as an intuitive user interface, it guides you through copying or moving the "windows.old" folder to another drive, external hard disk, USB flash drive, SD card, or any other external storage device effortlessly.

To move or copy the "windows.old" folder to an external drive, follow these steps:

Step 1. When you first use Todo Backup to back up files, click Create backup on the home screen, and then click the big question mark to select backup contents.

Step 2. Since you're planning to back up files and folders on your computer, proceed with the "File" backup mode. Here, you can choose to back up pictures, videos, documents, and all other types of files.

Step 3. Follow the paths to find the files, folders or directories you want to back up, select them all and click "OK".

Step 4. Next, you need to choose a backup location to save and store the backup.

Step 5. Todo Backup enables users to save backup files to any device that suits your needs, such as a local hard drive, external USB drive, SD card, network drive, NAS drive, or even the brand's cloud drive. We personally recommend selecting the cloud drive over physical drives to store crucial backups due to its better accessibility, flexibility, and security.

To access the Tools Cloud, all you need is an email registration and login.

Step 6. If you're interested in an automatic and intelligent backup schedule for the next file backup task, proceed with the "Options" setting. Here, you can encrypt sensitive file backups, compress the backup image size, or customize a backup scheme to instruct the software on when to initiate the subsequent backup.

Customize an advanced and automated backup task here:

Step 7. Click "Backup Now" to initiate the file backup process. Your completed backup files will be displayed on the left side in a card format.