Hard Disk Backup in Windows 10/8/7 [Beginners' Guide]

Are you looking for a complete and easy guide to create a hard disk backup on your computer? Stay here and follow through with this beginners' guide, you'll learn how to back up your computer hard disk data easily on your own.

Why Is Hard Disk Backup Necessary

Hard disk backup is a process to create a complete copy of everything in a hard drive to another HDD/SSD or an external hard drive. With a hard disk backup, you can fully protect your computer data from the following disasters:

Virus attack
Accidental deletion
Careless formatting
Hard drive corrupted
OS crash or boot issue

Maybe you can recover hard disk data from various data loss situations with reliable data recovery software or data recovery service. However, this is always a plan B, not the best way to protect your files.

The best way is to regularly back up data from a hard drive with reliable hard disk backup software or a manual backup method. So how to create a hard disk backup? Now, you can follow the below guide to effectively back up hard drive data on your own.

Preparations: Things to Do Before Hard Disk Backup

Here, you need to first ask yourself two questions before moving to back up a hard disk:

1. Where do you want to save the hard disk data backup?

2. In what way will you use it to back up the hard disk data?

If you don't know, stay here. And check the preparation list below, you'll know the answer:

#1. Prepare a new HDD/SSD or an external hard drive

Purchase a big HDD/SSD or an external hard drive
The new disk must be bigger than the used space of your target drive
Recommend external hard drive > HDD > SSD

An external hard drive is better than HDD as it offers a more secure backup circumstance with high capacity at a low price. And the HDD is better than SSD as HDD is cheaper than SSD. See also: HDD vs SSD.

#2. Connect and initialize the backup drive to your PC

Connect the new disk to your computer correctly
Initialize the new disk:

Right-click the new disk in Disk Management > "Initialize" > Select disk partition style - MBR or GPT.

#3. Pick a suitable hard disk backup method

1. Windows Backup Software	2. Windows Built-in Backup Utility
Multiple backup modes - OS backup, file backup, hard disk backup 4-step backup Easy	Free Multiple steps to back up Complex

For a Windows beginner, we suggest you turn to Windows backup software like Qiling Disk Master we recommended in Guide 1 for help.

Guide 1: Hard Disk Backup with Windows Backup Software

As a matter of fact, only a very small group of people know how to find a reliable backup tool to backup data from the hard drive safely and easily. Here we recommend you to try Qiling PC backup software, a utility that works perfectly well to back up the whole hard disk, partition, or operating system.

Free Download

The program can help you do the following operations to protect your hard drive data:

Automatically backup hard drive with a schedule.
Back up and recover specified files and folders.
Back up and recover partition or disk, including the OS.
Execute differential or incremental backup.
Restore system to a new computer.
Clone hard disk or partition to another one.

How to Back Up Hard Disk Data with Qiling Backup Software

Step 1. Open Qiling Disk Master and select "File backup" as the backup mode.

You may have a large amount of vital data to be protected as time goes on, such as documents, pictures, music, and videos, etc. It is always a good habit to have a backup on a regular basis. File Backup is one of the best choices for you to get over unexpected data loss.

Step 2. Select the files that you want to back up.

You can also enter "Plan name" and "Description" for specifying your file backup.

Step 3. Select a destination to save your backup of the selected files.

You'd better create the backup file in some other storage media or in some other drive. If not, there may be a risk of the backup file getting corrupted or destroyed.

Advanced backup settings are useful when you want to create a flexible and automatic backup plan.

The schedule is to create an automatic backup plan.

The Image-reserve strategy is to reserve the limited image as per image retention rule.

Backup options are to edit the advanced parameters.

Step 4. Click "Proceed" to execute your operation.

Guide 2: Back Up Hard Disk Data with Windows Backup Utility

The other way that you can try is to use Windows built-in backup utility - Windows Backup and Restore feature. It's a bit complex but useful when it comes to creating a backup of hard drive data and Windows system in Windows 10/8/7.

Steps to Back Up Hard Disk Data using Windows Backup and Restore

Step 1. Connect the external or internal hard drive to your PC.

Step 2. Press Windows + X keys, click "Search" and type control panel. Click "Backup and Restore (Windows 7)" in Control Panel.

Step 3. On the left pane, click "Create a system image".

Step 4. Click to select the new external or internal hard drive as the backup disk under the On a hard disk section and click "Next".

Step 5. Select the hard drive that you need to backup and click "Next".

Step 6. Confirm your backup and click "Save settings and run backup".

Wait for Windows Backup and Restore to complete the backup process. This wizard will proceed to create a full backup of your hard disk data, even including the operating system. With the hard disk backups, you can recover your hard drive anytime.

You May Also Interested In:

Windows 10 Backup and Restore

Restore Image from External Drive

Extra Guide: How to Back Up Hard Disk on Mac

In Guide 1 and Guide 2, we showed two detailed tutorials to help you back up hard disk data in Windows 10/8/7. Some of you may wonder to know how to create a hard disk backup on Mac.

If you are with the same question, try any one of the following 3 tutorials:

1. Back Up Mac with Time Machine - Apple Solution

2. Back Up Mac without Time Machine

3. Back Up Mac to External Hard Drive

Start To Create Your Hard Disk Backup Now

On this page, we collected two reliable and efficient ways to help all Windows users creating hard disk backup in Windows10/8/7 and Windows XP/Vista. For Mac users, we also listed three tutorial links for you to refer to back up hard disk data on Mac.

To create a Windows hard disk data backup with ease, Qiling backup software is good for you to try.

Free Download

You can be the first person to rescue lost data from accidentally deleting, formatting, virus attack, or other situations. Take action and start creating a backup of your Windows or Mac hard disk data now.

After making a backup, data recovery from the corrupted hard drive will become as simple as A-B-C.