While Windows 11 pushes OneDrive heavily, you can absolutely maintain a traditional, offline backup on a physical external drive. Doing so protects you from ransomware and synchronization errors that can plague cloud storage.
Creating a "snapshot" of your entire computer, including Windows, apps, and settings. Open the Start Menu , type Control Panel , and open it. windows 11 backup to external drive not onedrive
Under , click Backup and Restore (Windows 7) . On the left-hand pane, select Create a system image . While Windows 11 pushes OneDrive heavily, you can
| Backup type | How to restore | |-------------|----------------| | File History | Settings → Backup options → More options → Restore files from current backup | | System Image | Boot from Windows USB → Repair → Troubleshoot → System Image Recovery | | Manual copy | Drag folders back from external drive to C:\ | Open the Start Menu , type Control Panel , and open it
File History is the spiritual successor to "Previous Versions." It’s designed to automatically back up your documents, music, pictures, videos, and desktop folders every hour.