Best Way to Backup PC to Cloud in Windows 10 or 11 (FREE)
- Why Backup PC to Cloud?
- Which Cloud Drive Is Suitable for You?
- Best Free Software to Backup Computer to Cloud
- To automatically backup your PC to the cloud in Windows 10 or 11, go to Settings > Update & Security > Backup, and select "Add a drive" or "Add a network location" to choose where you want to save your backups. Then, select the cloud storage service you want to use, such as OneDrive, and follow the prompts to set up automatic backups.
- Conclusion
Why Backup PC to Cloud?
With numerous cloud drives available, such as Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box, and Amazon Cloud Drive, storing data online has become a convenient option for creating a PC cloud backup. This cloud backup offers several benefits, making it a popular choice among users.
- Reduce Cost: For personal use, a low disk space error on a Windows 7/8/10/11 hard disk can be resolved without purchasing an external storage device, making it an affordable solution for business use, especially when dealing with large data storage needs.
- Easy to Access: Cloud-stored files are easily accessible from anywhere, at any time, whereas data on a Windows computer is more challenging to access from another device unless shared on the same Local Area Network (LAN).
- Multiple Guarantees: An offsite backup solution ensures your data's safety, even if your computer is damaged, you can restore it from the cloud to a new location, preventing data loss.
- After setting a backup, it will automatically and continuously backup data to the cloud whenever you're connected to the Internet.
To create a PC cloud backup, selecting a suitable cloud drive is crucial for ensuring that your data is safely stored and accessible. This involves considering factors such as storage capacity, data security, and accessibility features to ensure that your chosen cloud drive meets your specific needs.
Which Cloud Drive Is Suitable for You?
We'll compare the most popular cloud drives, including their prices and storage capacities, in a series of charts.
For personal cloud storage, Google Drive for Desktop (Google One) is ideal if you want more free storage space, while Dropbox is a better option if you need large amounts of efficient storage space at an affordable cost.
|
Cloud Drive |
Personal Use |
|
|
Price |
Cloud Storage | |
|
Google Drive |
Free |
15 GB |
|
$19.99/Year |
100 GB | |
|
$29.99/Year |
200 GB | |
|
$99.99/Year |
2 TB | |
|
$1199.88/Year |
120 TB | |
|
$2399.88/Year |
240 TB | |
|
$3599.88/Year |
360 TB | |
|
Microsoft OneDrive |
Free |
5 GB |
|
$23.88/Year |
1.2 TB | |
|
Dropbox |
Free |
2 GB |
|
$119.88/Year |
24TB | |
|
$198.96/Year |
36 TB | |
|
Box |
free |
10 GB |
|
$120.00/Year |
100 GB | |
|
Amazon S3 Standard |
free |
5 GB |
| $0.023 per GB | First 50TB | |
For business cloud storage, these cloud drives offer more professional tools and services to manage business data, making a simple comparison of cloud storage space and price one-sided. It's essential to consider your specific demands when choosing between them.
|
Cloud Drive |
Business Use |
|
|
Price |
Cloud Storage | |
|
Google Drive |
$6.00/month |
30 GB, 1 user |
|
$12.00/month |
unlimited cloud storage/1 TB, 1 user (1 TB per user if fewer than 5 users) |
|
|
Microsoft OneDrive |
$5.00/month |
1 TB, 1 user |
|
$10.00/month |
Unlimited cloud storage,1 user | |
|
Dropbox |
$12.5/month |
5 TB, 1 user |
|
$20.00/month |
Unlimited cloud storage,1 user | |
|
Box |
$5.00/month |
100 GB, 1 user |
|
$15.00/month |
Unlimited cloud storage,1 user | |
|
Amazon S3 Intelligent - Tiering |
$0.0025 per 1,000 objects | Monitoring and automation, all storage, and data transfer for objects greater than 128 KB are included in the plan. |
| $0.023 per GB | Frequent Access Tier, First 50 TB / Month | |
To backup your PC to cloud drives, you'll need to choose a suitable cloud drive, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, and then pair it with a free cloud backup software for the best results.
Best Free Software to Backup Computer to Cloud
Almost cloud storage does not provide desktop apps to backup the entire hard disk, partition structures, and other critical Windows operating system data, only allowing file transfers.
To backup PC to cloud drive like Google Drive, you'll need the best free Windows cloud backup software, Qiling Disk Master Standard. This tool is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 8.1, 10, and 11 (all editions, 32-bit and 64-bit) and allows you to backup any items with just a few clicks. Its user-friendly interface makes it easy to use, and it's a great solution for backing up your data to the cloud.
Complete backup solutions: This software supports backing up files to Google Drive or other cloud drives, as well as backing up entire systems, disks, and partitions.
Schedule Backup: It allows you to automatically back up files to a cloud drive, with options to run the backup daily, weekly, or monthly, and customize the backup schedule by setting specific dates, times, and intervals.
Incremental Backup: To save backup time and space, you can enable scheduled backup to only backup changed files. This feature reduces the amount of data that needs to be backed up, making the process more efficient and saving storage space.
Diverse storage devices: This software supports backing up a PC to various cloud storage options, as well as external hard drives, USB drives, network drives, or NAS devices.
How to Backup PC to Cloud in Windows 10 or 11 Automatically
To backup your computer to the cloud, make sure you have enough free space on your cloud drive to save the disk image, which can be around 40GB or more, depending on your data size.
Before backing up your computer to cloud services like Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, download and install the free Windows cloud backup solution Qiling Disk Master, which can efficiently backup your data. For server users, Qiling Disk Master Server is also available.
To backup your PC to the cloud easily and safely, you can follow these steps. For example, to backup your computer to Google Drive, start by installing the Google Drive app on your PC.
1. Go to the Backup tab, select Disk Backup to backup the entire PC.
Note: If you want to backup Windows system files, try System Backup, which automatically selects all boot partitions and files, ensuring you don't miss any necessary files for booting.
2. Click on Disks to select the current system disk as the source disk.
3. Select Google Drive folder as the destination to save all files from your computer, or choose desktop folder for other cloud drives.
Notes:
✍Google Drive folder is typically located in C:\Users\UserName\Google Drive (replace UserName with your current username).
✍OneDrive desktop folder is probably located in C:\Users\UserName\OneDrive.
✍Dropbox folder is located in C:\Users\UserName\Dropbox by default.
✍Box Sync folder located in C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Box Sync in general.
✍Apart from clouds, you could select one of the following devices as destination: local disk, external hard drives, USB flash drive, CD/DVD, NAS, etc.
4. To schedule a disk backup, click the "Schedule Backup" option, which allows you to set the backup to run daily, weekly, or monthly. By default, incremental backup is enabled, meaning it will only backup the changes made since the last backup.
Tips:
✍Schedule Backup: If you upgrade to Qiling Disk Master Professional or other advanced editions, you can still use premium features like event triggers and USB plug-ins, in addition to basic settings.
✍Options: This tool allows you to customize the backup image, including compressing, splitting, encrypting, and adding comments. It also enables email or SMS notifications to alert you once the backup is complete.
✍Backup Scheme It helps manage hard disk storage space by scheduling a backup task that automatically deletes old backup images using selected cleanup methods, freeing up space and preventing ackup disk full errors. It also allows setting a safer backup method, differential backup.backup disk full errors. It also allows setting a safer backup method, differential backup.
5. To perform an automatic backup of your PC to Google Drive, simply press the "Proceed" button, which will initiate the backup process securely and efficiently.
The cost time of backing up a source disk depends on the data capacity of the source disk, so you can check your Google Drive folder and webpage for a backup image.
If you're willing to automatically back up data to the cloud, try using a file backup or sync feature. ile Sync is the most comprehensive way to keep data up-to-date.File Sync is the most comprehensive way to keep data up-to-date.
Conclusion
Backing up your PC to a cloud drive, such as Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive, is a straightforward process when using the right free software. Qiling Disk Master Standard is a free backup software that allows you to schedule backups of your entire disk, partition, or specific files to a cloud drive, making it a convenient and reliable way to protect your data.
The premium edition offers additional features, including event triggers, USB plug-in capabilities, differential backup, and automatic backup cleanup, providing more advanced and efficient backup options.
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