How to Sync Two External Hard Drives in Windows 11/10

Download PC Repair Tool to rapidly find & fix Windows errors automatically

If yous want to sync 2 external hard drives on Windows 11/x calculator, then this post will be helpful to you. Whether you want an actress backup from 1 external difficult drive to another or you have some other reason for doing that, it tin can be done easily using the free tools covered in this postal service. While one tool lets you perform one-way sync, some other tool covered in this post comes with different synchronization settings.

How to Sync Two External Hard Drives in Windows eleven/x

In this article, we take covered a command-line tool and free software to sync two external difficult drivers. These are:

XCOPY
FreeFileSync.

Let'southward check how to use these tools for syncing two external hard drives.

1] Sync Ii External Hard Drives using XCOPY control-line

XCOPY is a built-in command-line tool for Windows 11/x that lets y'all sync data from ane external hard drive to another. Information technology supports i-mode sync. To use this tool, first, you need to open up Control Prompt window and execute a command with the necessary parameters for syncing two external hard drives. Here are those parameters and their explanations:

/e: This parameter lets you re-create directories as well as sub-directories from the source difficult drive to the destination hard drive including the empty ones
/d: This parameter copies merely changed or newly added data or files from the source external hard bulldoze to the destination. That means, merely those files are added to the destination that is nowadays in the source hard drive but not in the destination hard drive
/c: This parameter is used to proceed the copying process even if some error occurs. For instance, if the error occurs because of some read-only files or permission protected files, the copying process won't stop
/y: If a prompt occurs to confirm you want to overwrite a file that is already nowadays in the destination, then this parameter will suppress that prompt so that the copying process will remain to continue.

So, let'south say y'all have a source external hard drive named H, and you desire to sync information technology with a destination difficult drive named I, then your control would exist:

Xcopy h: i: /e /d /c /y

The sync procedure will take time depending on the size of your data nowadays in the source hard drive. Let the whole procedure be completed and your data will be synced from source to destination hard drive successfully.

You don't take to start the unabridged sync procedure again and again for the aforementioned external hard drives. The next time you will perform the sync process for both the hard drives, simply the changed or newly added files present in the source hard bulldoze volition exist copied to the destination hard bulldoze.

Related: How to Clone a Difficult Drive on Windows?

ii] Sync Two External Hard Drives using FreeFileSync

FreeFileSync is an open-source tool and one of the best complimentary file and folder synchronization software. The skilful matter is information technology can also be used to sync two external hard drives. Another best office almost this tool is that you can utilize it to perform two-way sync, create mirror backup of source information to the destination, or copy only new and updated files from the source to the destination. To use this tool for syncing two external difficult drives, download and install this tool. After that, follow these steps:

Open the interface of this tool
Click on the Browse button available in the top-eye part of its interface. A Select Folder box volition pop up
Now, instead of selecting a folder, simply select the source external hard drive
Click on the Browse button available on the top right side of its interface. Again, a Select Folder box volition pop upward
Now select the destination hard drive
Click on the Synchronization Settings button (green color icon) available on the top part of its interface
In the Synchronization Settings window, go to the Synchronization tab
Select a synchronization variant (Two-way, Update, or Mirror). Y'all can besides create a custom synchronization variant and select information technology
Click on the OK push button present in the Synchronization Settings window. At present y'all volition come up back to the chief interface of this tool
Hit the Synchronize push available on the peak-right part of its interface. After this, it will beginning comparison the content of files
When the procedure is completed, a Start synchronization box will popular-up
In that box, printing the Start button.

Finally, based on the type of synchronization variant, it will begin the synchronization process. Once the process is completed, your both external drives volition be synced successfully.

Can you lot use 2 external hard drives on a PC?

Yes, you can connect two external difficult drives to a PC. In fact, yous can connect more than than two external hard drives or USB drives to a computer. It depends on the number of complimentary ports available on your computer or laptop that are used to connect external hard drives or USB drives.

How do I mirror two hard drives?

Mirroring two hard drives is a two-manner sync process. That means, both the drives will have the same information. Whenever you will delete, modify, and add information to either of the hard drives, information technology is synced in both the drives when you begin and complete the mirroring process. There exist some skillful free tools that you can use to mirror 2 hard drives.

Promise this helps.

Read adjacent: How to create Mirrored Book in Windows.