Quick Guide

• Can I save my Google Drive to an external hard drive?

• Why backup Google Drive to (external) hard drive?

• How to backup Google Drive files to (external) hard drive

• Common way: Save Google Drive files to (external) hard drive manually

• Newest way: Sync Google Drive folder to (external) hard drive directly

• Bonus tips to Google Drive that you may need

Can I save my Google Drive to an external hard drive?

“I want to move everything from my Google Drive to an external hard drive. I have 66 GB of data stored on this Google Drive that I want to move to an external hard drive. I can't see a way to backup Google Drive to external hard drive. Any advice would be appreciated!”

Why backup Google Drive to (external) hard drive?

Nowadays, cloud storage like Google Drive is more popular than external hard drives or USB drives. Compared with other physical storage solutions, a cloud drive is more secure because it keeps your data remotely. In addition, most cloud storage offers useful apps to help users access their files from different devices with ease.

However, although cloud backup wins the battle of external hard drive vs. cloud drive. some users still need to backup Google Drive to local or external hard drive sometimes. The reason is very simple. Backing up Google Drive to an external hard drive, hard drive or USB flash drive can add a layer of protection to your data to prevent file damage or virus infection.

For example, you may delete files by accident, or someone who shared access to Google Drive with you deleted initial data. Or maybe, your business became a victim of some malicious actions, which resulted in major data loss. Or maybe, you’re just in case.

If you are seeking the answers to the question: how to move files from Google Drive to flash drive, external disk, hard drive, or USB, you can read on. There are efficient ways that you can follow in the next part.

How to backup Google Drive to external hard drive

In the following contents, you will learn how to backup Google Drive to external hard drive/hard drive/USB drive in two ways. Both of the ways are very simple, but if there are so many files you plan to download from Google Drive to external hard drive, you’d better turn to the Neweast way directly to save time and effort.

Common way: Save Google Drive files to (external) hard drive manually

Follow the steps of the three manual ways to learn how to transfer Google Photos and Google Drive to an external drive.

• Situation 1. You use the Google Drive app to upload and store data

• Situation 2. When you have the Google Drive disk on your computer

• Situation 3. When you need to backup the entire Google Drive to drives

Situation 1. You use the Google Drive app to upload and store data

As we all know, Google Drive allows you to upload and access files through its web app. If you are using the web app, you can read on and learn how to backup Google Drive to USB drive or external hard drive:

Step 1. Go to the Google Drive website and sign in to your account.

Step 2. Find the files or folder in Google Drive you want to put on the hard drive, external hard drive, or USB drive. Right-click the files or folder and choose Download. (If you want multiple files, hold down CTRL, and click all the files you want to put on the flash drive).

★Tips:

If you have set a default location to save downloaded files from the web, you can find the file you download there. And you can go to Settings to change the default location.

If not, you may be asked to decide where to store the downloaded file. When prompted, choose to save the file in the external hard drive or the USB flash drive and click Save.

Step 3. If there are many files that have been downloaded, you can create a temporary folder and put all the needed files in. Then, you can move this folder to your target drive in Windows Explorer.

Situation 2. When you have the Google Drive disk on your computer

Generally, when you download the Drive for desktop on your computer, you will have a disk in Windows Explorer called Google Drive on your computer that can help you sync files between the local PC and the cloud. So, you can also see all your Google Drive files here and directly move files from the Google Drive disk to the target drive.

Step 1. Download and install Google Drive for desktop on your computer, it will create a Google Drive disk on your computer.

Step 2. Connect your external hard drive with your computer and move files from the Google Drive disk to it.

Situation 3. When you need to backup the entire Google Drive to drives

Google Takeout can help your download the entire “My Drive” at once, using Google Takeout to back up all data at once with the following steps is a good option. But this way requires a high-speed network. So, if your internet is healthy, you can use this method.

Step 1. Log in to Google Takeout. Under Create a new archive, click on the box against the option Drive and click on Next Step.

Step 2. In the next window, you can customize your archive format by selecting the Delivery Method and the File Type and click on Create Archive.

Step 3. A progress bar will display the status of your download. Once the archive is finished, the download link will be sent via email and you can download it as a zip archive.

Step 4. Once you download the archived file, you can move it to the hard drive, external hard drive, or USB drive that you want to store these files.

Newest way: Sync Google Drive disk to external hard drive directly

According to the contents above, you must know how to move files from Google Drive to external hard drive manually. Actually, the easiest way to backup Google Drive to USB, hard drive, or external hard drive is to use a third-party backup tool like AOMEI Backupper Standard, which is a professional and free backup and sync tool for Windows PC.

With it, you can directly and automatically sync /backup the Google Drive disk on your computer to external hard drive, USB flash drive, NAS drive, and so on. You can even backup external hard drive to another hard drive with it.

Here is how to transfer photos from Google Drive to external hard drive:

Step 1. Connect your external hard drive with your computer and make sure it can be detected.

Step 2. Download and install the Google Drive desktop app on your computer, it will create a Google Drive disk on your computer.

Step 3. Download, install, and run AOMEI Backupper Standard, and select Basic Sync under the Sync tab.

Step 4. Rename Task Name if needed and click Add Folder to choose the Google Drive files you want to sync under the Google Drive disk (folder).

Step 5. Choose the external hard drive, hard drive, or USB drive as the Google Drive files location. Click the Start Sync button to back up Google Drive to hard drive,  external hard drive, or USB drive.

Bonus tips to Google Drive that you may need

Google Drive, the world's most user-driven cloud drive, still has unstable issues, and you can read these two free tips to make sure your Google Drive and your PC data are more secure.

Tip 1. A more stable way to upload files to Google Drive 

Although Google Drive is a popular backup solution for your local data, it also has some drawbacks. First of all, its security system is not strong enough, hackers can delete your important data or install viruses on the server. Another disadvantage is its slow upload and download speed.

So, if you are dissatisfied with these flaws of Google Drive, you can turn to CBackup, which is a powerful cloud backup service for Windows PCs. With it, you can backup your PC files to Google Drive and its CBackup Cloud (5GB free) securely and quickly. And whenever you need your files, you can easily restore backup from Google Drive and other clouds to PC. 

Meanwhile, the storage plans and features that CBackup offers are more reasonable and useful than Google Drive. It offers huge backup space at a cheap price and useful backup settings like scheduled backup, file filter, and email notification.

Let’s see how to do PC cloud backup (backup hard drive or external hard drive files to Google Drive) with CBackup:

Step 1. Connect your external hard drive to the computer and download CBackup. Run the software. Then, sign up for a CBackup account and sign in.

Step 2. Please go to Storage and select Google Drive, and click Authorize Now. Then authorize your account in the security system provided by CBackup, which will professionally ensure data security.

Step 3. Click on the Backup tab and click the Backup PC to Public Cloud option to create a new backup task.

Step 5. Select the files on your external hard drive in the Source section. Choose Google Drive in the Destination section, and press the Start Backup button to backup files to Google Drive.

Tip 2. Backup Google Drive to another cloud storage directly

Although hard drives, external hard drives, or USB drives are good storage options for Google Drive backups, these physical storage are also facing the risk of hardware failure, theft, natural disasters, and so on actually. Therefore, backing up Google Drive to another cloud storage directly is a better choice if your Google Drive has high disk usage.

To achieve this, you can also rely on CBackup. CBackup offers the cloud to cloud backup feature for free. With it, you can add as many accounts of cloud storage as you have and create backup tasks to backup files between cloud storage automatically and easily. 

Let’s see how to backup Google Drive to other cloud storage (OneDrive for example) with CBackup.

Step 1. Please add Google Drive and OneDrive under Storage according to the above steps.

Step 2. Click Backup Public Cloud to Public Cloud under the Backup tab.

Step 3. Select Google Drive in the Source section, and choose OneDrive as the destination, and then press the Start Backup button to backup Google Drive to OneDrive easily.

Final words

The contents above have told you how to backup Google Drive to external hard drive, hard drive, or USB flash drive manually or automatically. If you encounter any problems when using Google Drive, you can use CBackup as the Google Drive alternative. 

If you don't want to abandon Google Drive, CBackup can also bring much convenience to you. For example, you can backup Google Drive to another cloud storage directly for data protection. Besides CBackup Cloud, it also allows you to backup PC files to third-party cloud storage including Google Drive, OneDrive, and Dropbox. 

And if you have multiple Google Drive accounts, CBackup can help you merge Google Drive accounts to get more storage space. Last but not least, CBackup also supports cloud-to-cloud backup/sync. So, you can move your data from Google Drive to another cloud storage directly with CBackup.