2 Ways to Perform OneDrive Full Backup

What is Full Backup?

A full backup is the process of making at least one additional copy of all the data files you wish to protect during a single backup operation. Typically, applications, operating systems and software cannot be copied during a full backup. A full backup requires copying a lot of data, which can take a lot of time, but it's also the best way to protect your data, allowing you to subdivide your data later.

Can I Backup My Entire Computer to OneDrive?

As personal data continues to grow, we need more storage space on our hard drives. But the cost of hard drive storage is also gradually increasing. As a result, more users want to back up their data to a cloud drive. This will satisfy the need for file storage and save the expense of purchasing a hard drive.

And while hard drives are not completely immune to data loss from physical damage and accidents, but the cloud is. To know the answer to this “Can I backup my entire computer to OneDrive” question and the specific solution, read on for more details.

How to Let Full PC Backup to One Drive

Next, this article will introduce 2 solutions for backing up your computer to OneDrive in order. The first one is to use OneDrive's desktop App, and the other is to use free third-party backup software. Each method includes a detailed graphic tutorial.

Method 1. Use OneDrive Desktop App

The first way to perform full PC backup to OneDrive is by using OneDrive desktop APP. All you need to do is sign in to OneDrive and follow the steps below to backup your PC to OneDrive.

Step 1. Double-click the OneDrive icon on the left side of your taskbar.

Step 2. In the OneDrive pop-up, click Help & Settings, and then in the pop-up menu, choose Settings.

Step 3. Click Backup from the tabs at the top of the OneDrive settings window.

Step 4. In the Important PC Folders section, click Manage backup.

Step 5. Then, OneDrive will display the Manage folder backup screen. Select the files you want to back up.  If you need, you can also backup documents, pictures, etc.

Step 6. Click Start backup.

Method 2. Use Free Backup Software

Although OneDrive can help you back up your entire computer's data to OneDrive, it cannot restore data from the cloud when your local data is lost. In order to better protect data security, it is recommended that you use the professional third-party software AOMEI Backupper Standard to help you back up the entire system to OneDrive. It has these advantages:

• Instant recovery: If your local data is accidentally lost, you can quickly restore it with a previously created system backup.
• Scheduled backup: In order to synchronize local file modifications and updates in time, you can set different backup frequencies to regularly back up the system to the OneDrive cloud disk.
• Incremental backup: When you run a scheduled backup, the system will automatically select the incremental backup method for you, which will only back up the updated content, thus improving backup efficiency and saving disk space.
• Multiple Cloud Drives: Besides OneDrive, this software also supports multiple common cloud drive storage devices, such as Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.
• Different Operating Systems: It supports different Windows PC systems, including Windows 11/10/8.1/8/7XP/Vista, etc.

You can download and install this freeware and follow the steps below to start backing up your entire system to OneDrive. If you are a Windows Server user, you can choose this version of AOMEI Backupper Server.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Backupper Standard, install and launch the software. You can click Backup > System Backup.

Step 2. You can modify the Task Name to distinguish it from other backup tasks. The software will select the system and boot partitions by default as the source. Please select a destination path for your system.

Notes:

• Schedule Backup: You can set the fixed intervals to run the system backup task automatically such as daily, weekly, monthly event trigger or USB plug in. The last two are available in the Pro version.
• Backup Schemes: You can select a backup scheme and it will help you save the target disk space by deleting the older backups. And this feature is supported by the professional version or higher versions.

Step 3. Confirm all your operations and click Start Backup to perform the system backup.

Summary

This article explains what a full backup is and two easy ways to perform a OneDrive full backup. Both the OneDrive desktop app and free third-party backup software can help you get there. But I prefer the latter option, as it not only performs a full system backup to OneDrive, but also enables timely recovery in the event of data loss. This is equivalent to double protection of data.

In addition, its Universal Restore feature can help you restore system backups to computers with different hardware if you need to. There are many more useful functions waiting for you to explore, you can download this free software for more details.