[99% Selected] How to Back Up Your Entire Windows 10 Hard Drive

Backing up your whole disk: What's the point?

Computer hard drives (both HDD and SSD) store your computer's operating system, applications, and data files (like documents and pictures). The other components in your computer work together to display the apps and important documents stored on the hard drive. There are many reasons why you might want to back up your entire hard drive. Maybe you're upgrading to a new computer and want to move everything over. Or, you may be worried about data loss and want an extra copy of everything, just in case.

Depending on how you use your hard drive, you should make different types of backups.

Related Reading: How to Backup Hard Drive to Another Hard Drive | How to Backup an External Hard Drive to Another External Hard Drive

How to Backup Your Whole Hard Drive in Windows 10 - Tools

Now that you know your disk type and what kind of backup you want to create, you'll need to choose which backup tool to use. On a Windows 10 computer, you have three options: File History, Backup and Restore (Windows 7), and OneDrive. Can you use any of these Windows 10 backup programs to back up your entire hard drive? Maybe. Let's see what they can do.

1️⃣ Built-in Windows Backup Program

• File History: "File History regularly backs up versions of your Documents, Music, Pictures, Videos, and Desktop folders, as well as any files on your PC that are available offline with OneDrive. Over time, you'll have a complete history of your files. If the original file is lost, damaged, or deleted, you can restore it." File History can easily be set to automatically back up your files to an external hard drive.

Source: Microsoft Support.

• Backup and Restore (Windows 7): This feature was first introduced in Windows 7 and continued as the backup tool for Windows 8/8.1/10/11. Therefore, in subsequent Windows versions, there's a note specifying that this utility originated from Windows 7. You can access Backup and Restore from the Control Panel to back up personal files from your Libraries and Desktop and create a system image. (Is Windows Backup any good?)

• **OneDrive Sync**: Developed by Microsoft, OneDrive is a cloud storage service where users can synchronize and upload their files. After setting up and logging into your OneDrive account, you can sync your computer files to OneDrive as a backup.

OneDrive User Guide You might also be interested in:

In short, File History backs up personal files in specific folders; Backup and Restore creates system images and backs up some personal files; and OneDrive syncs files to the cloud. So if you want to back up your system drive, use Backup and Restore. But if you want to back up both your system drive and a data drive, Windows' built-in tools won't cut it.

READ ALSO: Why Is My Windows 10 Backup Taking So Long?

2️⃣Comprehensive Hard Disk Backup Tool for Windows 10

When choosing full backup software, the key factor is flexibility. The tool must give users the power to customize what they want to back up. For example, Todo Backup is one such tool. Here are some of its features:

• Create a full backup of Windows 10: You can back up your files, system, disks, and partitions.
• Manage backup files: You can set to keep a specific number of backup files and delete old backup files to save space on your backup disk.
• Multiple backup options: You can create incremental or differential backups; also, schedule automatic backups to occur upon specific events.
• Flexible backup destinations: You can choose to save your backups to a local drive, cloud drive, network drive, or Tool Cloud (an AWS-based service).

As mentioned, you can backup hard drive for Windows 10 with only one software. Todo Backup is the best Windows 10 backup tool, suitable for anyone who wants to back up the entire disk on the computer. By the way, you can create a totally free backup with this software.

It offers more backup options without extra cost, making it one of the best free backup software for Windows users.

Related Reading: Where Does Windows 10 Backup Save To? | Restore System Image from External Hard Drive

How to Back Up Your Entire Disk: Set Up File History in Windows 10

Start with personal file protection. According to Windows' Backup and Restore tool, File History saves different versions of selected files and folders. To set it up for your files in Windows 10, follow these instructions.

However, you should note that you might come across issues like File History not recognizing the hard drive or File History not backing up all files while using this feature.

Before you begin, make sure to estimate how much space a Windows 10 backup takes up so you can ensure the destination has enough storage room for the backup data.

Step 1. Access File History through the Control Panel or Windows Settings. As shown in the image below, you can see how to get to it.

Step 2: If you have never set up a backup disk before, you will see a message that says “File History is off.” Click the Turn on button to enable it. The available locations can be an external hard drive or a network drive. If you want to change the backup location, click the Choose drive button.

In Advanced settings, you can change how often executable file history backups occur and for how long to keep backup versions.

By default, File History runs every hour, but the available intervals range from every 10 minutes to as much as once daily (24 hours). It's recommended that you create backups every six or 12 hours to ensure more frequent backups with less disk space used.

How often should files be backed up?

pregunta: ¿Cuánto tiempo tarda en hacer una copia de seguridad completa de un PC?

Backup the entire drive: Create a system image backup in Windows 10

As mentioned earlier, if you have only one hard drive on your computer, the system partition and data partition are on the same disk. The best way to back up the entire hard disk to another disk on Windows 10 is to create a system disk image. As explained in Part 1 - How to Back Up an Entire Hard Drive on Windows 10 - Tools, Todo Backup is the best free option for creating such a full backup and restore. Hit the button below to download it, then follow our guide to create a system image backup for your Windows 10 computer:

* It's best to back up your system to an external hard drive . Choose an external storage device to save the backup image.

Step 1: Launch Todo Backup, select “Create Backup” on the main interface, and then click “Select backup content”.

Step 2: Click on "OS" to start the backup from the four options available.

Step 3: The system partition will be selected automatically, and you only need to choose the location.

Step 4. You can save the backup file to your local drive, cloud, or NAS. You can also connect an external hard drive to save the system backup.

Step 5: You can customize the settings in the options on the bottom left. Then, click on "Backup Now" and the backup process will start.

* After the backup is done, you can right-click on the backup task on the left to check its status, restore, open, or delete the backup.

The Difference Between System Image and Full Backup

Want to know the difference between system image and full backup? Find your answer in the ultimate guide.

This is a YouTube video that walks you through using the built-in tools to back up your Windows 10 computer to an external hard drive.

⏱️ Timestamp:

1. 00:02 Back up your Windows 10 computer to an external hard drive
2. 01:42 Back up your files hourly
3. 03:04 Exclude certain folders

How to backup your Windows 10 computer to an external hard drive

 

?Related reading: Restore files from backup in Windows 10

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

How do I back up my entire hard drive?

There are many ways to back up the hard drive of a desktop or laptop. You can use the built-in backup tool in Windows, or you can use a third-party backup utility. For the built-in tool, it is recommended to create a system image with Backup and Restore (Windows 7). As for the third-party backup software, Todo Backup is recommended, with which you can perform a system backup, or back up the entire disk or partition.

Do I need to back up my entire hard drive?

While it's not strictly necessary to back up your entire hard drive, it's recommended. This way, if something goes wrong, you can restore your computer to its original state.

How often should I back up my hard drive?

You should back up your hard disk at least once a week, though you can get away with less frequent backups if you back up only certain files.

What happens if I don't back up my hard drive?

If you don't back up your hard drive, you risk losing all your data if something goes wrong. For instance, if your hard drive fails, you'll lose all your data unless you have a backup. That's why it's crucial to back up your hard drive regularly.