How Do I Manually Backup My Hard Drive?
I have 2 portable hard drives. I want to use one as the main and the second as a backup. But I have saved some data on the backup drive, and I want them to stay there safely. I need to mirror the main onto the backup at regular intervals. What is the best way to do this? My concern is when I am making changes to files on the main drive. If I copy them onto the backup drive, will it overwrite the existing files if the names are the same? And if I delete files on the main drive and copy them onto the backup drive, will it delete those on the backup?
Best Answered by
Larissa· Answered on Nov 17, 2023
To manually back up your hard drive is a process to save a complete copy of all the data on the hard drive to another HDD/SSD. It can be achieved in the following three ways:
- Copy and paste
- Use Windows Backup and Restore(Windows 7)
- Use a third-party backup software
If the number of files on the hard disk is small, then the first two methods will be easy and convenient because you don't need to install any software. Copy and paste is the most straightforward way to save an extra copy of your hard drive. Using Backup and Restore, you must follow the instructions to back up the hard drive with the "Create a system image" feature.
But it is best to use backup software if your hard drive contains a lot of data. Backup software, like EaseUS Todo Backup, takes advantage of copy & paste and Backup and Restore in many aspects: faster speed, backup without data loss, multiple backup sources and storage locations, hard drive cloning, 250GB of free cloud storage space, etc.
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Generally speaking, the backup process will erase all data saved on the target disk. If you want to keep the data saved on the target disk previously, you can create a new partition and then save the backup to the new volume. If it is a new drive, remember to initialize it before backup. When it is down, follow the steps below to back up your drive manually:
- Download EaseUS Todo Backup on your Windows PC, and launch it.
- Select backup content > Disk.
- Choose the hard drive you want to back up.
- Select the target hard drive you want to save the backups.
- Click "Backup Now" to start the process.
Related Article: Hard Disk Backup in Windows 10/8/7 [Beginners' Guide]
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