What are three ways to backup Windows?

February 2, 2026

What are three different ways to backup my Windows computer?

What are three ways to backup Windows?

You need Three backups for a Windows machine:

• Backup the Windows software itself.
• Backup your files to a portable USB disk.
• Backup your files to an online file backup service.

The scariest message you can see is:

Here is how to prepare for this:

Make a Recovery Drive

• Run recoverydrive.exe, it is part of Windows, no download needed.
• Insert a 64GB USB flash drive when requested, about 2 minutes later. Follow instructions.
• Wait an hour until it is finished.

The result is a bootable USB that can access your hard drive (unlike Windows Installation Drive) and can either repair, or reinstall Windows, sometimes also saving your personal files, depending on your situation.

This fixes file corruption and helps with drive failure.

Backup your files to a portable USB drive.

• Use a new large 2TB to 5TB portable USB drive, and format it.
• Right-click and select Turn on BitLocker. Create a good passphrase, save it to your password manager.
• (Also select save to your Microsoft account in the questions that Windows asks when setting it up).
• Unplug and replug and enter your passphrase. This is a check.
• Backup your files to this. It's encrypted so you don't care much if it is lost or stolen.

Bonus: do this again with a second drive. Put a label giving the dates/months you should be backing up your stuff on each drive. Keep this second drive in a separate place.

The USB drive helps with drive failure, file corruption, malware and ransomware.

Backup your files to an online backup service.

• Microsoft OneDrive is limited in space and you have to pay to store more. You have to set "Always keep on this device" for OneDrive hosted files to be quick to access otherwise your backups to USB will take forever. And you'll be confused about files stored locally vs on OneDrive. But storing zips of your local files on OneDrive is a good option.
• Backblaze is independent of Microsoft and Google so may be a more secure choice. Backups handle only file changes so this is quick after the first backup completes. Paid service. Lots of competition for this.
• Roll your own online service with Kopia: does all the usual backup things to your choice of cloud storage. You can even use a spare PC to host it. Requires technical knowledge and configuration effort. Free software.
• There are many more services than Backblaze: web search for more.

Online backups help with malware, hard drive failure or Windows failures and ransomware.

That is all.