How to Backup Outlook Emails to External Hard Drive (2 Ways)

Why Backup Outlook Emails to External Hard Drive?

More and more users now choose to backup Outlook emails to an external hard drive because it is a great way to keep a backup of your emails in case your computer crashes or you accidentally delete emails. These are some of the most common reasons for backing up emails to an external hard drive.

• Does not take up space on your computer's internal hard drive.
• Protect your email against data loss from software crashes or virus attacks.
• Emails stored on an external hard drive are convenient for offline viewing.
• External hard drives are relatively cheap and easy to use.

How to Backup Outlook Emails to External Hard Drive

After understanding the reason, you can continue to read the article to know two ways to backup Outlook emails to external hard drive. The first way is through the Import/Export Wizard, and another easier way is through the professional Outlook backup software AOMEI Backupper Professional to help you achieve your goal. Each method includes a detailed graphic tutorial.

Method 1. Use Import/Export Wizard

The Import/Export Wizard is an Outlook built-in feature that can be used to export and save Outlook emails as PST files. You can use this tool to export all Outlook items or only selected items.

To back up your Outlook emails using the Import/Export Wizard, follow these steps:

Step 1. Open Microsoft Outlook and go to File > Open & Export > Import/Export.

Step 2. Choose "Export to a file" in the Import and Export Wizard window, and then click "Next".

Step 3. Select "Outlook Data File (.pst)" and tap "Next".

Step 4. Select the emails that you want to back up and click "Next".

Step 5. Click "Browser" to select the connected external drive as the destination storage, then click "Finish".

Following the guide above, you will successfully back up your Outlook emails to the external hard drive. After the backup finishes, disconnect the external hard drive and keep it in a safe place.

Method 2. Use Free Backup Software (Easiest)

Instead of using Outlook's built-in tools to back up Outlook to an external hard drive, you can choose an easier method. That is to choose a professional Outlook backup software to automatically run Outlook backup to an external hard disk. For example, AOMEI Backupper Professional is a good choice for many users. It can help you back up Outlook, files, folders, partitions, etc. It supports users to backup Outlook emails in various formats, including .pst, .ost and profile. Here are some of its advantages.

Backup any data: It provides you with the Outlook backup function to backup any data you want to back up, except for emails, you can also backup attachments, calendars, contacts, etc. on Outlook to external hard drive.

Multiple target locations: Except for external hard drives, it also allows you to backup Outlook to multiple locations such as internal and external disks, USB drives, NAS devices, network locations, SD cards, cloud services, etc.

Schedule backup: You can create automated Outlook backups according to your needs. You can set daily, weekly, monthly, and event-triggered scheduled backup tasks.

You can download and install this professional backup software, and then start backing up Outlook according to the graphic tutorial below. If you are a Windows Server user, you can choose the AOMEI Backupper Server edition.

Step 1. Open Outlook, and be sure you log in with the account containing messages you want to backup.

Step 2. Launch AOMEI Backupper Professional and click Backup > Outlook Backup.

Step 3. Click Add Outlook data and select the account containing email messages you want to backup. Then click OK.

Step 4. Click the second box to select a local path, network or NAS location, or cloud drive to store your Outlook emails.

Step 5. Enable Daily, Weekly, Monthly or Event triggers to schedule backup and click Start Backup to backup Outlook emails automatically.

Note:

Backup Scheme:  You can enable automatic backup cleanup methods in Backup Scheme to solve the backup disk full issue. It can delete older backup images regularly.

Summary

This article introduces why more and more users choose to backup Outlook to external hard drive and two effective ways to achieve this goal. You can choose Outlook built-in function or professional Outlook backup software AOMEI Backupper Professional. The easier way is of course the latter, because this software can automatically backup Outlook emails regularly according to your settings.

In addition, you can also back up attachments, calendars, contacts on Outlook and anything you want to back up. In addition to backing up to an external hard drive, you can also back up Outlook to multiple locations and choose different backup methods according to your needs. You can download this software to explore more functions to fully protect your data security.