Losing important data is an annoying thing for most computer or laptop users. This is because they have not had time or did not copy the data to certain media so that the data does not have a backup at all. The term copying data on a laptop is known as a backup.
By doing a backup, it means that we have carried out the process of copying and archiving data which can then be reused as a substitute for data that has been lost, damaged or deleted earlier.
Actually, there are many ways you can back up data on a laptop. Windows has built-in tools that provide data backup functions, such as File History, Backup and Restore and System Image Backup and OneDrive.
How to Backup Laptop Data for Beginners
On this occasion, I will explain two ways of backing up data besides the method above, namely how to backup laptop data using Google Drive and using an external hard drive. To find out, let's look at the following description.
1. How to Backup Laptop Data to Google Drive
Google Drive is a service launched by Google as an online storage medium that helps users to secure important data. This service is considered safer to store data with features that only allow the owner of the data to access the data.
In addition, Google Drive offers a storage capacity of 15GB that can be used by users without incurring any costs. If you want a larger capacity, then you can do it for a fee.
To do so, you must have a pre-registered Google account. After that, follow the steps below to backup data using Google Drive.
- Please download and install the Google Backup and Sync application first on your laptop.
- Then, open the application and follow each wizard prompted. To get started, click GET STARTED.
- First, you have to go through the Sign In wizard, which is asked to login to an active Google account. Enter the email you have and click Next.
- Enter the password from the email. If so, click Sign In.
- Second, you will go through the My Laptop wizard where you choose which folders you want to automatically backup to Google Drive. To add a folder, you can choose CHOOSE FOLDER.
- You can also set the bandwidth usage used for uploading or downloading in the Network Settings option. If you have completed the My Laptop wizard, click Next.
- Finally, you will go through the Google Drive wizard. In that section, you can choose which folders will be synced to Google Drive. Here, I will choose to sync all folders to Google Drive. Click START to start data backup.
2. How to Backup Laptop Data to an External Hard Drive
The second way that you can do to back up laptop data is to use an external hard drive. Here you need the default tools provided by Windows, namely Backup and Restore.
The time it takes to run the backup process depends on the size of the data. With this feature, we don't need to use other applications or need an internet connection just to backup data.
In addition, this tool also allows you to schedule backup settings according to your wishes and can choose external storage media. For more details, below are the steps for backing up laptop data to an external hard drive using the Backup feature in Windows 10, namely Backing up using File History.
- Before starting, make sure you have connected an external hard drive to the PC. Then, press or touch the Start button and select Settings.
- Then the Settings wizard will appear. Click the Update and Security button. Select Update and Security.
- Click the Backup menu tab. On the right side, you are presented with several options.
- Select the Back up using File History section and there is an “Add a drive” button. Click the button to view the connected devices. Press Add a drive.
- Next, click on the name of the device. Select the name of the hard drive
- You will be redirected back to the Backup menu tab. There you will see the automatic backup function has been activated. Then, click the “More options” button to continue.
- In the BACKUP OPTIONS window, you can see a list of folders to be backed up to the device. If you want to add another folder, press the Add a folder button.
- When finished, click the Back up now button to start backing up data on the laptop.
Later, this File History will backup all types of files contained in your Windows library. Starting from documents, audio, video, files, images and folders on the desktop. In addition, you can also include offline file backups synced with OneDrive.
Well, those are 2 ways you can do to backup laptop data. Hopefully the explanation above is easy to understand and can help those of you who want to backup data. Thank you for visiting and good luck with the tutorial on how to backup laptop data above.