How to Backup Laptop to OneDrive? (3 Ways)

Wanna learn how to backup laptop to OneDrive? This tutorial will show you 3 methods, and introduce a tool called CBackup to help you get more OneDrive storage space for free.

Jonna

by Jonna Lasted Updated October 8, 2024

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Can I backup my laptop to OneDrive?

OneDrive is a cloud storage service provided by Microsoft, which supports backup, sync, and sharing of specific folders and files. OneDrive is suitable for a variety of devices, so it is usually helpful for people who are used to carrying laptops on business trips. They may consider backing up the laptop to OneDrive for any access at any time.

Backup Laptop To OneDrive

Is OneDrive good for backup?

So is OneDrive suitable for data backup? In fact, OneDrive is not a backup service in the traditional sense. As a free cloud storage service, it aims to immediately copy changes for documents to the cloud to obtain availability from any device. The advantage of using it as a data backup option is that it can avoid possible disasters on physical storage, such as computer crashes, virus intrusion, device loss, etc.

OneDrive provides 5GB of cloud storage space for each newly registered account. Although this space may not be enough for storing laptop data, you can get more storage space through a subscription. And OneDrive applies to almost all devices. After users back up their laptops or personal computers to OneDrive, they can be accessed anytime and anywhere on different devices.

"How to backup my laptop to OneDrive?" Now that you may be thinking about it, read on to find out the best solution.

How to backup my laptop to OneDrive?

Generally speaking, you can upload files through the OneDrive desktop app, the official web app, and the OneDrive folder on your laptop. Some third-party programs can also automatically back up your laptop to OneDrive. Here are some tips and specific steps to use these methods, let's learn how to backup laptop to OneDrive:

Way 1. Set up OneDrive automatic backup

The desktop app provided by OneDrive supports automatic backup of computer data to the cloud. You can follow the steps below.

Step 1. Download the OneDrive desktop app and install it. If you are using Windows 10, it has been installed on your laptop as a built-in program, and you can start it directly.

Step 2. Open the OneDrive app and sign in with your OneDrive/Microsoft account to start OneDrive Setup.

Set Up

Step 3. On the first screen, you can click Next to accept the default folder location for your OneDrive files, or click Change location to change the folder location.

Folder Location

Step 4. Next, you can follow the prompts to select the folders you want to sync on your PC and the cloud and click Next.

Choose Sync Folder

Step 5. After completing the auto backup settings, you can also access your cloud storage data at any time through the OneDrive folder or on dropbox.com. This folder has a two-way sync function. You only need to drag and drop files to this folder, and OneDrive will automatically sync the files, it will auto backup laptop data to OneDrive.

OneDrive Folder Windows

Tips: There are some limitations while backing up a laptop to OneDrive according to the OneDrive official website, you can't sync files to OneDrive larger than 250GB in size individual files, or the zip file larger than 20GB. You can learn more to upload large files to OneDrive.

Way 2. Backup laptop with OneDrive web app

You can also log in to the OneDrive website to manually upload the files that need to be backed up, and these files will be stored in the OneDrive cloud.

Step 1. Navigate to the OneDrive web app from your browser and sign in with your account.

Step 2. Click the Upload button located at the top of the interface. You can upload any laptop files or folders that need to be backed up.

OneDrive Upload

Tips: There is the same file limitation for OneDrive file sync, you can't sync files to OneDrive larger than 250GB in size individual files, or the zip file larger than 20GB. If it's quite large, you can try the following solution.

Way 3. Backup computer to OneDrive with CBackup

Some third-party tools provide services for automatically backing up PCs to OneDrive. Even compared to the OneDrive desktop application, their backup methods are more professional. For example, the free backup application - CBackup, supports backing up Windows computers to the cloud, and has an excellent data restore function. 

There is no file size limit while backing up or syncing files to OneDrive, or any transfer speed limit.
Back up or sync everything from your laptop, like the operating system, installed programs, settings, and your personal files to mainstream clouds, like OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and more.
Multiple settings for you to configure, which allows you to backup laptop data to OneDrive on a regular basis, daily, weekly, and even monthly with Scheduler, and you can enable file filter and email notifications.
Use incremental backup to backup the changed parts since the last backup to speed up the backup time and save more cloud space.
Note: before backing up laptop to OneDrive, please ensure you have enough OneDrive cloud storage space to hold all the data from the computer. Or you have to upgrade your OneDrive plan or merge two or more clouds to increase OneDrive storage space for free.

The detailed steps listed below to backup computer to OneDrive with CBackup:

Step 1. Download and install the CBackup desktop app on your computer, then create an account to log in.

Download CBackup Win 11/10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download

Step 2. Click Storage > select OneDrive to add, and you should sign in to your OneDrive account.

Select OneDrive

Step 3. Click the Backup button and the Backup PC to Public Cloud button subsequently.

Create Task

Step 4. Select the PC files that you need to backup to OneDrive, and choose the added OneDrive cloud account.

Add Source

Step 5. Finally, click the Start Backup button to start backing up laptop to OneDrive easily.

Start Backup Files to OneDrive

★Tips: There are some useful features that you may need in Settings (on the bottom left)
You could configure schedule weekly OneDrive backup with Scheduler, or you could backup files to OneDrive daily, monthly, or at a specific time.
It's very useful to enable email notification when the backup is finished with success or failure.
You could backup the files as you like with the File Filter feature, including or excluding the files you like or don't want to backup.

Besides, you could use CBackup to perform cloud to cloud backup, which helps you to protect your cloud data to another, and prevent it from loss, or you could sync one cloud to another to transfer everything from one cloud to another easily. Meanwhile, CBackup offers you the free 5GB cloud storage space to store files.

What if OneDrive backup space is insufficient?

OneDrive, as a file hosting service, performs well in many ways, but only provides 5GB of storage space for free. For users who don't want to spend their budget on data backup, limited space is a big obstacle to backing up laptops. Here we recommend a cloud backup service called CBackup, which can not only provide a larger cloud to help you back up your data but also help you combine free space in multiple cloud drives for backup for free.

CBackup Main Page

1. Get unlimited OneDrive backup space for free

CBackup is also a professional multi-cloud manager. It can help you add multiple cloud drive accounts (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.) in one interface, including different accounts with one service, and merge the free space in the accounts for backup to make the most of all your cloud storage. If you have enough cloud storage accounts, you can even achieve unlimited online cloud backup in this way.

Ensure you have added enough cloud accounts that you want to merge, then follow the steps to combine to get more cloud space, even free unlimited cloud storage:

  • On the CBackup web app:

Tap My Storage > + > + Add Combined Cloud, then follow the steps to combine.

  • On the CBackup desktop app:

Tap Storage > + Add Combined Cloud, then tick the cloud drives you want to combine, and hit Next > Combine.

Then you will get a combined cloud under My Storage/Storage.

Combine Cloud Storage

Note: CBackup attaches great importance to data security, after you authorize cloud drive accounts, you have access to the services you add to CBackup, CBackup doesn’t save your login information, and you can unauthorize at any time.

2. Backup laptop to CBackup Cloud

Or you can switch to another cloud backup service like CBackup Cloud instead of OneDrive, which provides a more professional backup method and a more reasonable backup space. The CBackup desktop app has been welcomed by many users with higher cost performance.

CBackup is a reliable Windows PC cloud backup and data restoration service. It has a large backup space (1TB, 5TB, or more) and the most cost-effective space subscription plan. Start trying it now.

Start Backup Files to CBackup Cloud

Final words

You can follow the 3 methods provided in this article to backup laptop to OneDrive, just follow the detailed steps. In addition, if your OneDrive storage space is not enough to back up your computer data, you can use CBackup, a professional online backup service to combine the free space of multiple cloud storage service accounts to backup PC data, or use the CBackup client, which has 5GB of free space and offers 1TB cloud storage space at a reasonable price.

Jonna
Jonna · Editor
Jonna becomes a professional in the areas of cloud backup and restoration, data protection, etc. after years of learning and researching. She maintains a keen eye for the latest technology trends, ensuring that the information provided is always in step with industry developments.

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