Data management and the ability to access them with ease when needed is a crucial aspect that many people look for. It becomes even more important for businesses.
OneDrive is among those platforms that allow you to upload and manage your files. Although you can store your files on the cloud platform that Microsoft gives you, you might need to store some files on your external hard drive.
This becomes handy if you want to upload new data and do not have space but also want to preserve old data. Another situation could be to add an extra layer of protection by storing it on your external hard drive.
Or maybe you need to store small files on OneDrive and larger ones on your external hard drive. Whatever the reason is, you can easily transfer the data. Let’s learn how to backup OneDrive to external hard drive.
Quick Ways to Transfer Your OneDrive Data to Your Hard Drive
1] Via Web App
To download the data from your OneDrive, you can visit their website and log in with your credentials. You will have access to all files and folders. From there, you can choose which data to download and then transfer to the external hard drive you have attached.
Below are the steps to move data from Google Drive to the external hard drive.
- Open a web browser that you use.
- Visit Sign in - Microsoft OneDrive to open OneDrive’s webpage.
- Sign in by providing your login credentials.
- Select the files and folders that you wish to transfer. Right-click and choose the ‘Download’ option. You can also set the path of your external hard drive to download the files directly there.
2] Via OneDrive Sync Client
OneDrive Sync Client is a means of synchronizing your files by your PC and cloud. It simplifies the process greatly. For instance, if you wish to download multiple files, you won’t have to worry about the process since they will be available on your computer when you log in.
If your PC is installed with Windows 10/11, then OneDrvie Sync Client would already be installed. However, if it is not, or you are using Windows 7/8, then you can install it. The procedure is as follows.
- Open a web browser that you use.
- Visit Microsoft’s website.
- Click ‘Download’.
- Install it and launch the program.
- Provide your login credentials to sign in.
- To finish the installation, follow the instructions.
To transfer data from OneDrive to your external hard drive
- Navigate to C:\Users\User-Name.
- There you will see the OneDrive folder. Single-click the folder.
- From the pane at the top, select ‘Copy To’.
- Provide the path to your external hard drive so you can copy the content directly there.
If you face any issues while copying the data, you can try unlinking your PC first. This will stop synchronizing the files between your computer and OneDrive. To unlink your PC, follow these steps.
- Click the OneDrive cloud icon.
- Go to ‘Settings’ or ‘System Preferences’.
- Go to the ‘Account’ tab.
- Click the ‘Unlink this PC’ option.
Conclusion
OneDrive is a great platform to share files on all of your devices and with other people, too. You can access the data anywhere and can share them with your team members.
Moreover, there can be many reasons why you would need to backup your OneDrive to your external hard drive. If that is the case, you can follow the methods explained above to get started.
