Windows 10: OneDrive or External HDD for backup?

I'm trying to keep subscription costs and/or hardware costs down, so I would like to find a backup strategy that doesn't involve both, or at least doesn't cost too much.

I would like to do daily / weekly incremental backups, and image my drive once a month or so. From what I've read, OneDrive doesn't do incremental backups (only differential). Macrium Reflect does incremental backups (but on the paid version only).

With Office 365 Personal, MS offers 1 TB of free OneDrive storage, which is about all I'd need for personal files. If I eventually get into video editing, I'd have to break down and get a HDD enclosure and spinning disks. But right now my data storage needs are very modest. As for restoration, if I had, say 300 GB of data to restore, however, that would take a long time to download from the cloud. So maybe get the HDD enclosure and disks now? I dunno.

I guess I don't know enough about the advantages / disadvantages of cloud and/or local HDD backups to decide.

:)

 

OS Backup with nothing but external HDDs

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out. I am Harun an Independent Advisor and Microsoft User. I will gladly help you out.

Yes it is possible even if its an external hdd that has to os installed it will still be able to back it up. Please follow these steps:

- Type Control Panel in the search bar and then hit Enter,

- Select File History,

- In the bottom Left Corner Select System Image Backup,

- Now you can Select Create a System Image in the Upper Left Corner,

- If the External hdd is connected Windows will spot it and let you select it in the Create System Image Window,

- Follow the options and you will have your backup of the full os.

Please feel free to ask for more Information and let me know if this helps.

Sincerely

Independent Advisor

Harun

 

OS Backup with nothing but external HDDs

I have a Windows 10 machine where the OS is installed on an external HDD. Does Microsoft have a tool available to do external to external backups for the OS?

 

external HDD

Hi,

Usually, this problem occur due to software incompatibility or corrupted USB drivers. For us to better assist you, we would like to clarify the following:

• Have you made any recent changes on your computer prior to the issue?
• Which driver did you uninstall? Have you reinstall the driver? If yes, how did you reinstall the driver?
• Have you check if the external HDD is visible in Device Manager?

If the issue still persists after uninstalling some games, we suggest that you run the troubleshooter for hardware and devices. If you're using the latest Windows 10 version, follow these steps on how to run the Hardware and Devices troubleshooter:

• Click the Start button and select the Settings
  icon.
• Choose Update & Security from the list.
• Click Troubleshoot in the left pane of the window.
• Under Find and fix other problems, select Hardware and Devices and click
  Run the troubleshooter.

We're looking forward to your reply.