Can I Backup WD Elements Hard Drive?
Western Digital is one of the most popular hard drive manufacturers, and produces hard drives (includes HDDs and SSDs) for laptop and desktop PCs to save data. These hard drives or external hard drives contain My Passport, My Book, WD TV, My Cloud, Elements, ShareSpace, etc. In order to backup your Western Digital Elements external hard drive, we will walk you through the solutions to help you out.
There is No Any WD Backup Software for Elements
As far as I know, the Western Digital offers different series of hard drive with different WD drive utilities to backup hard drive.
For My Cloud drives, the WD SmartWare backup software is available.
For My Book or My Passport drives, the WD Backup, WD SmartWare backup software or the third party backup tool that you can use.
Comparison | WD SmartWare | WD Backup |
Supported OS | Windows Vista/7/8/10 | Windows Vista/7/8.1/10 |
Supported Storage | HDD/SSD | Dropbox/HDD/SSD |
Data Backup | √ | √ |
System Backup | - | - |
Disk Backup | - | - |
Schedule Backup | √ | √ |
Incremental Backup | √ | √ |
Continuous Backup | √ | - |
WD SmartWare vs WD Backup
For WD TV drives, you could backup data to a NAS included in that drive.
For WD Elements hard drives (WD Elements Portable/Desktop/SE), there is no any Western Digital backup software comes with hard drive.
Therefore, if you are planning to backup a WD Elements drive, you might turn to other backup software for help.
WD Elements Backup Software Comparison
There are several backup solutions that you might pick to backup WD Elements drives. Windows built-in backup software like File History (Windows 8.1, 10), Windows Backup and Restore (Windows 7, 8.1, 10), and the free WD backup software - AOMEI Backupper Standard will do you a big favor. But, there are some differences according to the following Windows backup software comparison form:
Features | Windows Backup and Restore | File History | AOMEI Backupper Standard |
Cost | Free | Free | Free |
Supported OS | Windows Vista/7/8.1/10 | Windows 8/8.1/10 | Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10 |
System Backup | √ | √ | √ |
Disk Backup | √ | √ | √ |
File Backup | - | √ | √ |
Schedule Backup | √ | √ | √ |
Sector-by-sector Backup | - | - | √ |
File/Folder Sync | - | - | √ |
Backup Destination | Local or External Hard Drive | Local or External Hard Drive | Local or External Hard Drive, Network/NAS, Cloud |
Disk/Partition Clone | - | - | √ |
Windows Backup Software Comparison
-: unsupported
√: supported
Best Free Western Digital Elements Backup Software
According to this chart, AOMEI Backupper Standard is more powerful and comprehensive to backup and restore data in Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, and most importantly, it’s free.
It allows you to perform file, disk, partition, system backup, and restore them to identify location;
It’s capable of restoring individual files if required while the Backup and Restore could not do that.
Create WD Elements automatic backup or sync task in Daily, Weekly, or Monthly mode to keep your data safe.
Full backup, incremental and differential backup supportted as well.
This free WD Elements backup software support all brands of HDDs and SSDs, like WD, Toshiba, Samsung, HP, ADATA, Maxtor, Kingston, HITACHI, Seagate, etc.
Thus, to backup WD Elements drives, we will show you how the AOMEI Backupper Standard works in Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10.
Easy Guide to Backup WD Elements Hard Drives Automatically
First of all, please download the best free WD Elements backup software – AOMEI Backupper Standard, prepare an external hard drive to save all the data from WD Elements hard drive and connect it to your computer.
Then use the backup software for WD Elements to backup WD Elements hard drives automatically, the detailed steps listed below:
1. On the main console, choose Backup -> Disk Backup.
2. Click + Add Disk to Choose the WD Elements HDD as the source disk. Modify the Task Name if need be.
3. Select the external hard disk to save all the data from WD Elements hard drives.
4. Tap Schedule, and choose a mode: Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Event triggers, USB plug in in General tab, and choose Incremental Backup in Advanced tab, and hit OK.
5. Click Start Backup to backup WD Elements hard disk automatically in Windows 10/8/7.
★Tips:
✍You can backup multiple hard drives simultaneously.
✍Options: you could encrypt (paid), comment, compress, split backup image, enable email or SMS notification, use VSS, pre-command and post-command for you to set up run specified program or script before or after the backup task, etc. Pre-command and post-command are premium features.
✍Scheme: It’s available in AOMEI Backupper Professional or higher, provided for you to delete old backup image files automatically to free up space while the backups exceed the number you specified.
✍Schedule: Set a schedule backup to perform WD Elements automatic backup, which allows to automatically backup via daily, weekly, monthly, event triggers, USB plug in. Please upgrade to AOMEI Backupper Professional or other advanced editions to enjoy the last two features.
All the above steps could be used to backup data to WD Elements hard drive as well. After a while, you will generate a full WD Elements backup image for the first time, then incremental backup will be performed at the next specified time. Please keep the external hard drive carefully. You might use the backup image file to restore your hard drive and all the data in the future.
After a while, the WD Elements drive will be backed up safely. You have to keep the external hard drive carefully. In some day, you might use the backup image file to restore your hard drive and all the data.
In some cases, you will want to backup external hard drive to another external hard drive, or backup SD card, USB flash drive, CF card, SSD to other location, this freeware will help a lot.
Conclusion
As the best free WD Elements backup software for Windows PCs, AOMEI Backupper Standard provides you many other powerful features to protect your operating system, like partition backup, sector-by-sector backup, create WinPE bootable media, file sync, etc.
AOMEI Backupper Professional offers you command line backup tool, real-time sync, two-way sync, mirror sync, restore to dissimilar hardware computer, etc to protect your data easily.
For who is running Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019 (including R2), SBS 2003/2008/2011, please try Server or Technician Plus edition to enjoy more.
If you would like to create, manage, monitor the backups for all clients within the same LAN in your company, please try AOMEI Centralized Backupper.