Backing up files and folders is a safe and highly appreciated practice. The AutoBackup feature is particularly helpful when you forget to manually back up files or in cases of data corruption or damage.
This comprehensive article explains all the built-in utilities that can assist you in backing up all files to an external hard drive on both Windows and Mac.
One can use several ways to back up files to an external hard drive. Few are:
If you plan to get an external hard drive for backup, get one of the hard drives offering an automatic backup feature.
Many external hard drives have preloaded built-in backup software or include third-party solutions to enable automatic and scheduled data backup.
You will be notified every time after the backup or logs about the backup status.
After the backup, you can restore the files from the backup location whenever you need them.
NOTE: Ensure your backup data is encrypted or secured with a password to guarantee safety.
If you have a hard drive without any automatic backup feature, don’t worry; built-in utilities can help you automatically back up files to an external hard drive on both Windows and Mac.
Windows offers two utilities that can automatically back up to an external hard drive. The best part is that they are free, and you don't need to download any additional tools or setup to back up files to an external hard drive.
To restore a backup from the file history, you just need to right-click on the file and select Restore previous versions, then choose and restore a backup version.
macOS has a built-in utility called “TIme machine” to enable automatic backup to an external hard drive. Here’s how it works:
Apple suggests using the Time Machine backup disk (external hard drive) exclusively for Time Machine backups and not storing any other files or additional data. To set the Time Machine:
You can claim the existing backups created on different computers if needed. Once the setup is complete, the Mac uses your External hard drive for backups.
Initial backup might take a while, but after using the device continuously, it takes a backup of files that have changed from the previous backup.
To Customize automatic backup:
To Restore:
ALSO:
If you have forgotten to take a backup of your files or experienced a sudden shutdown or corruption issue in the hard drive, you can still recover the data from the external hard drive.
All you need to do is stop using the hard drive to avoid overwriting data and use data recovery software like Remo Recover to retrieve the backup files.
Though setting up automatic backup to an external hard drive takes time, it's worth it. It's always better to be safe than sorry, which also applies to digital data.
We hope this article was helpful to you in getting detailed insights on “how to automatically backup files to an external hard drive?” on both Windows and Mac.
You can use USB, SSDs, and Cloud storage services for automatic backups.
The cons of using an external hard drive as a backup are:
1. Risk of theft.
2. Physical damage.
3. Corruption or other malfunctions.
To automatically sync files to an external hard drive: