How to backup photos to external drive

Summary

This guide helps you troubleshoot and resolve: How to backup photos to external drive. Follow the steps below to fix the issue.

Common Causes

Why Back Up Your Photos

Photos are often irreplaceable. Hard drives fail, devices get lost or stolen, ransomware can encrypt your files, and accidental deletion happens more often than you'd think. A regular backup to an external drive is one of the simplest and most reliable ways to protect your photo collection.

What You Need

• External hard drive or USB flash drive with enough storage capacity for your photo library
• A computer running Windows 10 or Windows 11 (see How to update Windows if you're unsure which version you're running)

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Connect Your External Drive

1. Plug the USB cable into your computer.
2. Wait for Windows to recognise the drive and assign it a letter.
3. Note the drive letter (for example, E: or F:) — you'll need it later.

Step 2: Find Your Photos

Most photos on a Windows PC live in one of these common locations:

• This PC > Pictures — the default Windows library, usually at C:\Users\<YourUsername>\Pictures
• OneDrive Pictures — typically at C:\Users\<YourUsername>\OneDrive\Pictures. If your photos aren't syncing, see OneDrive not syncing.
• Google Photos — accessed via the Google Photos desktop app or at photos.google.com. Note: Google Photos is a separate service from Google Drive and does not appear in your Google Drive folder.
• Phone imports — if you've copied photos from a phone, check your Pictures folder or the DCIM subfolder.

Replace <YourUsername> in any path above with your actual Windows username.

Step 3: Copy Your Photos

Choose whichever method you prefer — both work equally well.

Option A — Manual Copy

1. Press Win + E to open File Explorer.
2. Navigate to your photos folder.
3. Press Ctrl + A to select all photos.
4. Press Ctrl + C to copy.
5. Navigate to your external drive.
6. Press Ctrl + V to paste.
7. Wait for the copy to complete — don't close any windows or unplug the drive while files are transferring.

Option B — Drag and Drop

1. Open both the source folder and the external drive in separate File Explorer windows.
2. Select your photos.
3. Drag them across to the external drive window.
4. Wait for the transfer to finish completely.

Step 4: Verify the Backup

1. Open the external drive in File Explorer.
2. Confirm your photos are present and the folder structure looks correct.
3. Open a handful of photos to make sure they aren't corrupted.
4. Compare the total file size of the copied folder against the original — they should be very close. If the copy is significantly smaller, the transfer may have been interrupted.

Important Tips

• Follow the 3-2-1 rule. Keep at least three copies of your photos, on two different types of media, with one stored offsite (for example, an external drive plus a cloud service).
• Encrypt sensitive photos. If your drive contains personal or sensitive images, consider encrypting it. See How to encrypt USB drive.
• Organise by year or event. Create folders such as 2024-Christmas or 2025-Europe-Trip on the external drive to keep things tidy.
• Don't rely on a single drive. External drives fail — usually without warning. A second copy in the cloud (such as OneDrive) is strongly recommended.

File System Limitations to Be Aware Of

Most external drives sold today come formatted as exFAT or NTFS, which handle large files without issue. However, older drives may still be formatted as FAT32, which has a 4 GB single-file size limit. If you're backing up videos alongside photos and hit a "file too large for destination" error, this is almost certainly the cause. Reformatting the drive to exFAT will resolve it — but back up the drive's contents first, as reformatting erases all data.

macOS Users

The steps above are written for Windows. On macOS, the process is similar: connect the drive, open Finder, navigate to your photos in the Pictures folder, and drag them across. The macOS Photos library is stored at ~/Pictures/Photos Library.photoslibrary and should be copied as a single bundle rather than its individual files.

How Often to Back Up

• After important events — holidays, weddings, family milestones.
• Monthly for everyday photo collections.
• Consider automating it. Windows has a built-in tool called File History that can back up your files automatically. For a hands-off approach, see our guide to Setting up automatic backups.

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Drive not recognised

• Try a different USB port — preferably one directly on the PC rather than a hub.
• Try a different USB cable if you're using a portable drive.
• Check Disk Management (press Win + X then select Disk Management) to see if the drive appears there even if it doesn't show in File Explorer.

"File too large for destination" error

Your drive is almost certainly formatted as FAT32. Back up its contents, reformat to exFAT, and try again.

Copy is stuck or extremely slow

• USB 2.0 drives are much slower than USB 3.0 — check which port you're using.
• Very large numbers of small files copy more slowly than fewer large files.
• Don't use the computer for other heavy tasks during the transfer.

Permission errors when copying

Make sure you have read access to the source folder. Files owned by another user account may require you to take ownership first, or to copy them while logged in as that user.

Still Having Issues?