How to Backup SSD to External Hard Drive/HDD [Ultimate Guide]🔥

SSDs are increasingly being utilized to install the Windows operating system and applications due to their faster speed and higher performance. It is an excellent option for individuals who want to increase the speed of their devices. 

Traditional HDDs, on the other hand, are less expensive than SSDs of the same capacity. Many people prefer HDDs as data storage devices due to their enormous capacity and affordable cost.

Backing up SSD to an external hard drive protects the security of system data and saves money. This ultimate guide from EaseUS walks through three working ways to back up SSD to an external hard drive.

The Benefits of Saving SSD to External HDD for Backup

Keep SSD backups on an external hard drive has the following benefits:

📊Before we start

To create a backup of your SSD on an external hard drive, you can use both Windows built-in Backup and Restore and third-party software, like EaseUS Todo Backup. Apart from these, you can also clone your SSD to a hard drive as a backup, which allows you to replace the SSD when it goes wrong with zero downtime.

We compare three methods in terms of their pros, cons, and difficulty. Please refer to it before deciding which way to use.

Way 1. Create a Backup Image of SSD

The first and easiest way to back up SSD is through a professional disk backup tool. EaseUS Todo Backup is a reliable and trustworthy backup and restore program that can back up SSD to HDD easily. It is available on Windows 11/10/8/7 and has many advanced dusik backup options, including:

• Scheduled backup. If you set a scheduled backup plan, the software will perform the task automatically without manual operation.
• Multiple backup sources and targets. It can be used to back up disks, files, systems, games, emails, etc., and you can save the backup on a hard drive, cloud service, NAS, etc.
• Various backup types. EaseUS Todo Backup supports differential and incremental backup, which means you can just back up only changed files since the last backup. It saves both time and disk space.
• Compressed and encrypted backup. With these two features, you can use this tool confidently, without taking up much space, and without fear of data loss.

Now, follow the steps to back up SSD to HDD easily:

Step 1. Launch EaseUS Todo Backup and choose "Create Backup" on the home page, click "Select backup contents".

Step 2. Among the four available categories, click "OS" to start back up.

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

Step 4. Local Drive, Cloud, and NAS are available for you to save the backup file. You can also connect an external hard drive to preserve the system backup files.

Step 5. You can customize the settings in "Options" at the left bottom. After that, click "Backup Now", and the process will begin.

*After finishing the backup process, you can check the backup status, recover, open, or delete the backup by right-clicking the backup task on the left.

Way 2. Make a Copy Clone of SSD

Cloning SSD is another SSD backup strategy that many users prefer because the cloned hard drive can be used to replace the SSD when it has issues and won't affect the use of your computer. 

The only drawback is that using clones for backup will create an exact copy, which requires the same amount of storage space, so you need to prepare an HDD with a capacity equal to or larger than an SSD.

EaseUS Todo Backup also comes with a disk cloning function, allowing you to clone SSD to HDD with simple clicks. It bypasses the steps of disk initialization and will allocate the disk partition automatically and smartly.

Click here to get complete steps to clone SSD to an external hard drive with EaseUS Todo Backup:

❤️Kind tips: The process of cloning SSD to an external hard drive/HDDD with EaseUS Todo Backup is the same as cloning HDD to SSD. You just need to choose the SSD as the source disk, and the HDD as the target disk.

Way 3. Backup SSD Use Windows Backup and Restore

If you don't want to download software and have some knowledge about computers, you can utilize Windows built-in Backup and Restore (Windows 7). It is compatible with Windows 7, 10, and 11. 

However, keep in mind that this method of backing up the SSD to an external hard drive only works when the SSD is used as the system disk. So, you can create a system image on the external HDD.

Here are the steps to use Backup and Restore to create a system image.

Step 1. Connect the external hard drive to your computer and make sure it is recognized well.

Step 2. Open Backup and Restore with the path: Control Panel > System and Security > Backup and Restore(Windows 7).

Step 3. Click Create a system image from the left panel.

Step 4. On the window of Where do you want to save the backup, select On a hard disk option. Choose the external hard drive from the drop-down menu and click Next.

Step 5. Check your backup setting, and click Start Backup.

Final Verdict

Backing SSD on an external hard drive is an essential practice to ensure the safety of your important data. The portability and convenience of external hard drives make them an ideal option for SSD backup saving.

EaseUS Todo Backup is a great SSD backup tool that you should never miss. Whether you want to back up an SSD or clone an SSD to an external hard drive, it will satisfy your needs and ensure that your backups are well-protected.

Backup SSD to External Hard Drive FAQs

1. Can I use my old SSD as an external drive?

Yes, the old SSD can be used as an external hard drive with the following steps:

• Plug the SSD from your computer/laptop.
• Connect the SSD to the computer with an external enclosure or an adapter.
• Now, you can access all data stored on the SSD and use it as an external drive.

2. How do I backup my entire computer to an external hard drive?

To backup the entire PC to an external hard drive, you can create a system image, which will create a complete backup of everything on your computer, including the operating system, settings, configurations, system files, installed programs, and other files.

3. What is the best way to backup my entire computer?

There are numerous PC backup solutions available for creating backups of the computer. EaseUS Todo Backup is a great backup program that offers a variety of backup choices. It can conduct complete backups, incremental backups, differential backups, encrypted backups, 3-2-1 backups, and so on.

4. How to back up SSD Windows 10?

The way to back up SSD on a Windows 10 PC is the same as backing up a hard drive. You need to find a disk backup program, like EaseUS Todo Backup. It is a professional file/disk/system/App data backup tool that allows you to back up various types of SSDs, including NEMe SSD, M.2 SSD, SATA SSD, etc., with simple clicks.