Carbonite Support > Backing Up Files on an Externa...

Backing Up Files on an External Hard Drive

Summary:

You can back up files on a compatible external hard drive with Carbonite.

This article applies to:

Carbonite Plans Products Platforms
Plus, Prime, Core, Power, and Ultimate (Not sure?) Safe and Safe Pro (Not sure?) Windows– View the Mac article

Solution:

  1. Make sure that you have a Carbonite Safe Plus plan or higher.
  2. Connect the external hard drive directly to the computer by USB (IE not through a HUB or Device that acts like a HUB).
  3. Open File Explorer and navigate to This PC.
  4. Right-click the external hard drive and select Properties. From here, confirm that the external hard drive File System is listed as “NTFS” or “FAT32”.
  5. Right-click the external hard drive and select Carbonite; Back this up.
    Windows File Explorer: Right-click Back this up
    1. On Windows 11, click Show more options to reveal the Carbonite menu item:

      Windows File Explorer: Right-click Back this up
  6. Click OK on the pop-up message.
    Carbonite Window: The drive or folder you've selected for backup may contain some files and folders that won't be backed up automatically (e.g., system, program, temporary, and / or video files). You can add any individual file to your backup by right-clicking on it and selecting Back this up.
  7. If needed, select excluded file types for backup.

Carbonite will back up the files on the drive as long as it remains plugged into the computer once every 30 days. If the drive is removed, Carbonite will remove the external hard drive from the backup after 30 days.

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