Anyone who uses a home computer regularly ends up storing a large amount of very important information that they don’t want to lose. The best way to protect this information is by setting up an automatic backup system for Windows.
There are several approaches you can use to back up your Windows system. You can use a tool like SyncToy to schedule backups of the most important folders on your system. Or you can choose from a list of free system cloning apps to make a complete backup of your entire Windows system.
In this article, you will learn how to use one of these tools – EaseUS – to set up an automatic backup system for Windows with a smart backup schedule that won’t interfere with your computer.
- When installing EaseUS for the first time, you will be prompted to select an installation folder where all backup files will be stored.
- Browse to the backup folder on the external hard drive where you will store your backups. Create a new folder for backups if necessary.
Setting Up EaseUS Automatic Backup System
- When installing EaseUS for the first time, you will be prompted to choose a setup folder where all backup files will be stored.
- Browse to a backup folder on an external hard drive where you will keep your backups. Create a new backup folder if you need to.
- When finished, click OK and then Next. The installer will complete the installation of EaseUS
Setting up a good automatic backup system for Windows has two parts. The first is to configure your backup options, and the second is to schedule your backups when it will have the least impact.
To set up a Windows system backup, click the System Backup button on the home screen. Another window will open where you can choose what you want to keep.
If you have multiple operating systems installed, you will see them here. You can choose Windows and just continue, but it’s best to optimize your backup to save space and shorten backup times.
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- Select the backup options to optimize the backup process.
- Select Space from the left navigation menu. If you have purchased the paid version of EaseUS, you can change the compression setting to high to save space. If you are using the free version, you need to leave it set to Normal.
Optimizing System Backups
- Select Backup Options to improve your backup.
- Select Space from the left navigation menu. If you purchased the paid version of EaseUS, you can change the setting Press to High to save space. If you are using the free version, you will need to keep these settings at Normal .
- Choose Performance from the navigation menu and move the Priority slider to High.
This will ensure that all system resources are allocated for the backup. While this can be a problem, if you have tried to use your computer, you are going to schedule a backup for a time when all system resources are available for it.
- Select Advanced from the navigation menu and make sure sector backup is not enabled.
A sector-by-sector backup copies all sectors, including those that do not store any important information. If you do not select this option, it will save space and improve the efficiency of automatic backups.
- Click Save to finish.
Schedule a daily backup
To ensure that you have the latest updates for all system changes that happen every day, you will want the backups to happen every day.
- On the system backup screen, select Schedule: Off. link.
- In the “Backup Scheme” window, change the schedule type to “Daily”. Then make sure to set the time to 12:00 or any other time of day when you are unlikely to be using your computer.
- Set the backup method to Incremental. This will reduce the amount of time it takes for daily backups, since only the changed folders and files will be backed up every day.
- Make sure the computer is Wake up to run this backup, and disable the Run skipped backup at system startup option if the computer is off.
This ensures that even if the computer goes to sleep, it wakes up to run backups as needed.
If you disable the skip backup option, the backup will not use all system resources as soon as you return to your computer the next day.
When you’re done, on the System Backup window, select Save to finish. You will now see a list of your scheduled backups in the main window.
If you schedule a backup outside of business hours, it can run when it will not affect your computer in any way.
Create an automatic cloud-based backup system
If you really only care about a bunch of important files or folders on your system, then syncing the folder on your PC for cloud backup is the best way. One of the best tools for this is Google Drive Sync
After installing Google Drive on your computer, you will see a new drive called Google Drive appear in Windows Explorer.
Anything you put on this Google Drive will automatically sync to your Google Drive account.
To keep your backup order, create a new folder in your Google Drive directory called Computer Sharing. Now you can copy all important files and folders on your computer to this shared computer directory.
Anything you move there will appear in your Google Drive account.
When you create new folders on the new Google Drive shared drive, you can open them directly on the Internet by right-clicking the folder on your computer and choosing Google Drive and Browse the Web.
This will open your browser and take you straight to the drive, so you don’t have to search the Internet for the drive.
Once you’ve established this synced link between Google Drive and your computer, start copying all your important files and folders to your new shared drive. Move them all to the Computer Share folder you created.
Protect backups from viruses
Backups are great, but automatic backups of infected files are not. That’s why, when you’re done setting up your backup system, you should also take the time to set up your daily virus scan.
At the very least, configure Windows Defender to scan automatically. However, it’s even better to install a complete antivirus program. There are many free antivirus programs out there. In your antivirus software, don’t forget to set up a daily virus scan.
Set the scan time when you are at your computer. The reason for this is that when antivirus software detects a virus, you need to act quickly to protect your backups.
In the case of backup software, immediately disable scheduled backups by choosing a one-time backup or manual option.
In the case of a cloud solution like Google Drive, just right-click the sync icon in the Windows taskbar and disable the sync process.
This will give you time to eliminate a virus or malware infection without affecting your backups.
By scheduling antivirus scans either when you boot your computer system or during business hours, and scheduling backups only after you’re done during the day, you reduce the risk of infection ever affecting your automatic backups.
After you finish cleaning your system from infection, simply re-enable the backup schedule or cloud sync connection.
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