Besides, many home users have multiple PCs and need to back up them.
This post fromMiniToolintroduces how to back up multiple computers on an external hard drive/online.
Each computer may be used in different areas.
However, its important to back up the data on all machines, regardless of their actual use.
Otherwise, once data loss occurs, you will attempt difficult data recovery.
Can you back up multiple computers on an external hard drive?
How to back up multiple computers on an external hard drive?
The answer is Yes!
All of them are great options for backing up large computers.
One is backup speed.
Backing up files, especially large files, to the cloud takes a lot of time.
Another is the storage price.
An external hard drive is one of the best backup storage options.
Due to its portability, it is easy to carry.
But doing so is expensive and its difficult to manage the backups.
There are some disadvantages to backing up multiple computers on an external hard drive.
The defects are as follows:
1.
External hard drives cannot be connected to multiple machines at the same time.
Unable to set up automatic backup
Besides, you cannotset up automatic backups.
However, you cannot ensure this critical factor.
How to Back up Multiple Computers to an External Hard Drive?
How to back up multiple computers on an external hard drive?
before you get going to do the backup task, just do the following preparations:
1.
Ensure sufficient storage space
You should check the storage space of your external hard drive.
Otherwise, the backup task will fail if theres not enough space.
For example, you could create a folder calledBackup.
you might then store the backups in their own folders.
Therefore, when choosing a backup tool, you oughta ensure the tool has such a function.
How to Back up Multiple Windows Computers?
Connect the external hard drive to one of your computers.
If its a new drive, youll need toformat the hard drivebefore using it.
Find the external drive in File Explorer and create multiple folders for each computer.
it’s possible for you to name the folders with the computer name or a number.
Right-smack the external hard drive to chooseProperties.
Then, go to theSharingtab and clickAdvanced Sharing….
Check theShare this folderbox and clickPermissionsto check theFull Control,Change, andReadboxes.
At last, clickApply>OK.
This tool supportsfile backups, disk backups, partition backups, andsystem backups.
Now, lets see how to back up multiple computers on an external hard drive in Windows 10.
Download and install MiniTool ShadowMaker on all your computers separately.
MiniTool ShadowMaker TrialClick to Download100%Clean & Safe
2.
Launch MiniTool ShadowMaker and clickKeep Trialto continue.
In the left pane, clickBackup.
Then, you see system partitions are selected by default as the backup source.
If you only want to create a system image, you move on to the next step.
If you want to back up some files on your setup, go toSOURCE>Folders and Files.
Then, check them.
Now, click theDESTINATIONpart to choose the backup location.
For this PC, there are 2 choices for you choose the external hard drive under theComputertab or theSharedtab.
Now, you’re free to clickBack Up NoworBack Up Laterto start to task immediately or later.
Then, repeat the steps on other PCs.
TypeControl Panelin theSearchbox to open it.
2.Go toSystem and Security>Backup and Restore (Windows 7).
ClickSet up back-upand clickSave on a web connection…. Then, clickNext.
Then, slide in your username and password and clickOKto confirm this operation.
MiniTool ShdowMaker vs Backup and Restore (Windows 7), which is better?
However, Backup and Restore (Windows 7) only supports incremental backup.
Thus, its more recommended to choose MiniTool ShadowMaker as the backup tool.
How to Back up Multiple Macs?
For Macbooks, you might use the Time Machine app to back up your multiple Macbooks.
In this part, we will introduce how to back up multiple Macs on an external hard drive.
Connect the hard drive to one of your Macs.
Click theAppleicon on the top-left corner of the Mac screen.
Click theTime Machineicon and turn it on.
Choose theBackup Diskoption and choose the connected hard drive as the backup disk.
Click theUse Diskbutton to launch the backup.
Wait for the process to get finished.
And repeat the steps on other Macbooks.
How to Back up Multiple Computers Online?
Here we take OneDrive as an example.
Click theChange locationoption to specify a backup storage.
Check theSync all files and folders in OneDriveoption.
Then you will find an Onedrive folder on File Explorer.
Drag and drop the files you want to back up to this folder.
Repeat the operations on other PCs.
To prevent data loss, you had better create a backup for each one.
A practical way to back up multiple computers is to use a single external hard drive.
