The “Backup and Restore” tool as available in Windows can be used to Backup Files located on the computer to an external storage drive and Restore them back to your device (when required).
In addition to Backing up & Restoring Files, the Backup and Restore tool can also be used to create a System Image Backup of the computer to an external USB Drive or a network location.
System Image Backup takes a complete Snapshot of the operating system, settings, apps, programs and files located on the computer, which makes it useful for Restoring the computer, if something goes wrong with it.
Use “Backup and Restore” in Windows 11/10
Before going ahead with the steps to Backup Files using Backup & Restore tool, make sure that the USB Drive or External storage drive attached to the computer has sufficient storage capacity.
Another requirement is to make sure that the attached USB Drive or External storage device is formatted to NTFS Format, which is the required or strongly recommended Format.
The reason for NTFS being the recommended format is due to FAT32 having a maximum file size limitation of 4 GB, which makes it incapable of handling large image backups.
1. Backup Files to External Drive Using Backup & Restore
You can follow the steps below to Backup Files located on the computer to an external storage drive attached to the computer.
1. Connect USB Drive or External Storage Device to USB Port of the computer.
2. Type Control Panel in the Search bar > click on Control Panel Desktop App in the search results.
3. On the Control Panel screen, switch to Large Icons view and click on Backup & Restore (Windows 7).
4. On the next screen, click on Setup Backup option, located under “Backup” section.
5. On Set up backup screen, select your attached Backup Drive and click on Next.
Note: You can also Backup Files to OneDrive, Google Drive or Drop Box by clicking on Save on Network… button.
6. On the next screen, select Let Windows Choose or “Let me Choose” option and click on the Next button.
Note: If the Backup Drive has limited storage space, select Let Me Choose option and manually select the Files and Folders to be included in the Backup.
7. Wait for Windows to start the Backup process.
8. On the next screen, make sure that you are happy with the Backup Settings and click on Save settings and run backup button to make the first Backup of files to an external storage device.
Note: You can Change the Backup time or Disable Scheduled Backups by clicking on Change Schedule and unchecking Run backup on a schedule option on the next screen.
After disabling “Run backup on schedule” option, click on Save settings and run backup button to Backup the selected files to an External storage drive attached to the computer.
2. Restore Files From Backup Using Backup & Restore
If you end up deleting files or losing files due to a problem, you can follow the steps below to Restore Back the lost Files on your computer.
1. Open the Control Panel on your computer.
2. On the Control Panel screen, click on Backup & Restore (Windows 7).
3. On Backup and Restore screen, click on Restore My Files button located under “Restore” section.
4. On the next screen, click on Browse for Folders button to select the Folders from the Backup that you want to Restore.
5. After selecting Folders, click on Next to start the process of restoring Folders from the Backup to your computer.