So, you’ve got yourself a Windows Home Server and you’ve setup all your home PCs to backup to your home server on a regular basis. But what about backing up the Server itself? There are a couple ways to go about. You could choose an online backup solution which protects in case of natural disasters, fire, theft, etc. You could also choose to backup to a external USB drive... which is the option we'll take a look at here.

Plug your USB drive into the Windows Home Server. Next, log into your Windows Home Server Console and click on the Server Storage button.

You should see your new USB external drive listed under Non Storage Hard Drives with a Stutus of "Not Added."

Right-click on the hard drive listing and select Add.

The Add a Hard Drive Wizard will pop up. Click Next when you're ready to proceed.

Select Use this hard drive to back up files that are stored on your home server and click Next.

Now you'll need to decide if you want to preserve any files on the hard drive, or format it. (formatting will delete any files you may currently have on the drive) Select whether you want to preserve any files or format the drive and then click Next.

Choose a name for your hard drive and click Next.

Note: The tip listed on this window is a pretty good one. I have multiple external hard drives floating around and labeling them is a big help.

If you chose to format the drive, you'll get a final warning about formatting the drive....

... if not, you'll get a note that your files will not be deleted. Click Finish.

Your drive will be formatted (if you chose to do so). When prompted, click Done.

You'll see your drive listed under Server Backup Hard Drives.

Configuring Backup

Once you've added a new external drive to your Windows Home Server and configured it, you will see it listed under Computers & Backup.

Right-click on the Server and click Backup Now.

Next you'll need to select the folders to backup. Select the backup hard drive from the dropdown for each folder you wish to backup. If you don't want to backup a particular folder, simply select "None."

Click Backup Now when you've finished.

You backup will proceed. It could take awhile if you've got a lot to backup. I backed up a lot of videos & movies, over 300 GBs, and it took a few hours.

When the backup is complete, click Close.

Each time you want to backup the Windows Home Server, just right click on Server under Computers & Backup and choose Backup Now. Unfortunately, you can't simply automate the backup natively in Windows Home Server.

< Prev		Next >