Backup External Hard Drive to OneDrive – Top 3 Methods for Backup
Want to backup external hard drive to OneDrive for keeping your data safe? Well, you have come to the right page for this. Here, you will find every detail you need to know while moving the data for safekeeping.
Since cloud is an online data storage platform, Google and Office 365 are the most popular cloud storage providers. Benefit of storing the data on cloud? You can access it from anywhere at any time from any device with just an internet connection.
That’s about cloud, but why would users want to copy external hard drive to OneDrive? It is mainly because of the threats and the risks of corruption or data loss that are imposed on our files and folders. Thus, it is most important to keep this data safe from any of these risks.
Moving your data on OneDrive will provide you total security and protection as per your requirement. How? Cloud platforms provide high-level data security measures such as authentication, 2-step verifications, OTP generation, etc.
Now, let’s take a quick look at the methods that are provided for this process.
Quick Methods to Backup External Hard Drive to OneDrive
Manually, you can perform two methods for moving your data to OneDrive. First one is by using the website-based OneDrive account by uploading the files directly to the cloud. The second one makes use of the OneDrive desktop application by synchronizing the data.
Other than these two methods, there is a smart way to perform this operation without any troubles which also allows to migrate selective data only. This method is a tech-experts recommended solution which doesn’t only move the data but also offer great benefits of using it.
Let’s find out how!
Technique 1 – Copy External Hard Drive to OneDrive Using Web-Based OneDrive Method
It is an easy and quick learning method but there are certain limitations such as this method is not suitable for migrating data in bulk, folder structure is not maintained, etc. Find the steps of this method below:
- First of all, connect the hard drive to your computer.
- Go to the web-based OneDrive and sign in to your account.
- There, you will find an Upload option, click on it.
- Click on the Files or Folder option to upload the required.
- Browse for the data you want to be migrated and hit Open to backup external hard drive to OneDrive.
The chosen file(s) or folder(s) will be exported to your account and you can access it anytime you want to. Apart from this, we also have the option to use the desktop-based application as well. Check that out!
Technique 2 – How to Create Backup of Data Via Desktop-Based OneDrive App?
Here, when you connect your external hard drive to your computer, it is treated as the data from local storage only by OneDrive. This way, you can easily sync OneDrive with your hard drive and follow the given steps to copy external hard drive to OneDrive:
1. Once you have connected your external hard drive to your PC, ensure that it’s detectable.
2. After that, download and set up the OneDrive application on your desktop if you haven’t already.
3. Now, when you launch the app, you will find the OneDrive folder in the Windows Explorer.
4. Drag the files you want to be moved from your external hard drive and drop them to OneDrive folder directly.
5. The files will be synced with the cloud platform automatically and access the files whenever the need be.
Technique 3 – Backup External Hard Drive to OneDrive Using Trouble-Free Solution
As you must have seen, both the methods explained above are quick and easy but might create a problem when used for exporting data in bulk. If you have multiple files or folders that you want to move, manual methods are not as suitable as they take loads of time to perform this task.
Sometimes, the data integrity and folder hierarchy are also no kept the same during the procedure making it cumbersome for users to find the right file at the right time. To avoid such troubles, you can use the File System Migration to Office 365 that can copy external hard drive to OneDrive in short time-span and keeping the data integrity maintained.
There are only a few steps that you need to follow that are described here:
1. Download the software and enter the login credentials for OneDrive account.
2. Click on the Settings option and get the Activation License for your domain.
3. Choose the Files/Folder from My Computer that you need to export.
4. Apply the filters for selectively move data; File Type, Date-Filter, File Size.
5. Select the destination path and hit Start to backup the chosen data.
But, What Are the Merits of Using this Software?
The following are the advantages offered by the tool to backup External Hard Drive to OneDrive:
- The software allows to export any type of data file
- Copies entire data from the local storage at once
- Folder structure and data integrity are maintained
- Option to include or exclude specific file types
- Date-Range filter for selective data migration
- Allows to include file size to move certain size of file
- Delta Migration option for new data migration only
- Capable of moving the hidden files from PC as well
- Works on Windows OS 7, 8, 8.1, 2008, 2012, 10 (32/64bit)
Concluding Notes
Thera are many users who want to backup external hard drive to OneDrive for keeping their data on a safer place. Since data of any type on any platform is prone to loss or corruption, cloud offers various measure to keep the data safe from all these risks.
Other than this, choosing the right method to perform the task is also important which is why we have described the expert recommended solution. Manually, it is possible but may become troublesome while exporting data in bulk. Hence, the software is the only best way for taking a backup.