3 Effective Methods to Backup Windows Server to OneDrive

Can I backup Windows Server to OneDrive?

“I have two Windows Server 2012 computer. For backup, I use the included Server Backup running daily to generate system images on to a local hard drive. At this point, I have around 400GB of data overall. However, I'm worried that if my office is ever broken into, I'd lose everything - my servers and my data.

So, I plan to use a cloud service to backup my server. My current Office 365 subscription gives me 1TB of OneDrive storage. Can I backup my Windows Server to OneDrive directly? If I can, how to do that? I appropriate any opinion you can provide or experience you can share with me on this!”

Reasons to backup Windows Server to OneDrive

As we all know, cloud storage is regarded as a good backup solution in recent years and more and more people turn to this kind of data backup and storage method. As the cloud service that comes with the Microsoft Windows system, OneDrive is one of the most popular clouds for Windows users. Mainly, there are three reasons to backup Windows Server 2012/2016 to OneDrive:

☛Higher security: Data in OneDrive is stored remotely, so, it can prevent your data from losing even if there is a local system crash, hardware failures, natural disasters, and so on.

☛Easier access: Generally, you can access files in cloud service easily on any device as long as there is an Internet connection.

☛Local storage-saving: When you backup Windows server to the local hard drive, the backup files will slowly grow over time. Then, you may face insufficient storage space issue and your computer will run slower and slower. Backing up files to OneDrive can save much local storage space.

How to backup Windows Server to OneDrive?

In the following part, you will find three methods to backup Server to OneDrive with detailed steps. Please check the three methods and choose one method to follow according to your own situation.

• Method 1. Backup Windows Server to OneDrive with desktop app

• Method 2. Backup Windows Server to OneDrive with official website

• Method 3. Backup Windows Server to OneDrive with a third-party tool

• How to protect your important files in OneDrive?

Method 1. Backup Windows Server to OneDrive with desktop app

OneDrive has released a desktop app for users to sync OneDrive and Windows Server 2012 (R2), Windows Server 2016, etc. After installing this app, OneDrive will create a sync folder on your local computer. This folder will be synced in both directions, meaning if you add any files to this location on your PC, they will be added to your OneDrive server automatically, and vice versa.

Step 1. Download the desktop application of OneDrive on server and install it.

✎Note: The OneDrive desktop sync application is available on Windows Server 2019, Windows Server 2016, Windows Server 2012 (R2), or Windows Server 2008 R2.

Step 2. Open OneDrive program on your computer and sign in your OneDrive account.

Step 3. On the “This is your OneDrive folder” screen, select “Next” to accept the default folder location for your OneDrive files. If you want to change the folder location, select “Change location”.

Step 4. You’ll now be prompted to select the folders that you want to sync across the local Windows Server and the cloud. Then, press the “Next” button to get to the final set up screen.

Step 5. With OneDrive set up, you can access your cloud storage folder at any time by clicking the "OneDrive" entry in the left pane of the File Explorer. This folder has a two-way sync feature, so you just need to drag and drop the files into this folder, OneDrive will automatically sync the files in Windows Server 2008/2012/2016/2019.

Method 2. Backup Windows Server to OneDrive with official website

OneDrive official website is also a way to backup Windows Server 2016/2012 to OneDrive. It allows you to upload files manually. To use it, please refer to the steps below:

Step 1. Go to the OneDrive website and log-in to the website.

Step 2. On the main page of OneDrive, click the "Upload" option to select the Windows Server files you want to upload to OneDrive.

Method 3. Backup Windows Server to OneDrive with a third-party tool

Besides OneDrive official tool, there also are many third-party tools like that can help you backup Windows Server 2012/2016 to OneDrive. There, we will take a free backup tool - AOMEI Backupper Server to show you how to achieve Windows backup to OneDrive.

Step 1. Install and log in to your OneDrive account. Keep its location in mind because you’ll need it later.

Step 2. Download AOMEI Backupper Server, install and launch it. Go "Backup" > "File Backup".

Step 3. Then, you can choose the local Windows Server files/folders you want to backup to OneDrive. Then, click on “Select a cloud drive” to choose OneDrive as destination. After that, click Start Sync to backup Windows Server to OneDrive.

How to protect your important files in OneDrive?

For your data security, you’d better backup your data in cloud storage once more. Then, even if you lose your important data in cloud storage, you still have a backup version in hand and can restore it at any time. To backup cloud storage data, you are recommended to use CBackup.

CBackup is a professional cloud backup tool that can help you backup files from OneDrive to Google Drive, Dropbox, FTP/SFTP, and so on with flexible backup settings. To backup OneDrive files to another cloud storage with CBackup, please refer to the steps below:

1. Create an account and sign in. Just go to the Sign up page of CBackup, then type your email, password, and name to sign up. After that, sign in to your account.

2. Click “+” under the “My Storage” tab, select your clouds (OneDrive and another cloud storage) and click “Add”. Then sign in your account and authorize CBackup to access and manage your files on the cloud.

3. To backup files between cloud storage, click on the “Backup Tasks” tab at the top of the page, then, click the “New Task” button. Name your backup task, click “Add Source” button to add OneDrive as the backup source, and click “Add Destination” to another cloud storage.

4. Click “Start Backup” in the lower right corner to backup OneDrive to another cloud storage easily.

✎Note: Under “Settings”, you can enjoy “File Filter” and enable “Email Notification”. You can also set automatic backup under “Schedule”.

CBackup also has a PC client tool that is designed for Windows PC. If you want to do cloud backup for Windows 11/10/8/7/XP, you can use CBackup to:

• backup your Windows files to OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox, CBackup Cloud (10 GB free) and the combined cloud.
• Combine multiple cloud storage for free to get more free cloud space, even unlimited cloud storage.

You can download it to have a try:

Conclusion

The feasible three methods to backup Windows Server to OneDrive have been introduced and you can choose one method to follow as you like. Though OneDrive is regarded as a safe place for your data, you’d better back up your OneDrive files to another cloud storage just in case. We recommend that you can back up OneDrive data to another stable cloud drive account with the help of CBackup.