There are many risk factors for which we can lose our essential Excel files. So it’s vital to keep backups. Excel offers some exclusive ways to create a backup. From this article, you will learn 4 smart ways to backup Excel files to a flash drive.
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4 Ways to Backup Excel Files to a Flash Drive
This is the sample dataset that I’ll use to create a backup. It represents some Salesperson’s Sales.
1. Manually Backup Excel Files to a Flash Drive
First, we’ll learn the most common manual way to backup Excel files- just Save a Copy to a specific drive.
Steps:
- Click on File beside the Home tab.
- Then select Save As from the appeared options.
- After that click Browse.
- Later, select your desired folder from the specific flash drive and press Save.
Now see that a backup copy is created in that folder of the specific drive.
Read More: How to Find Backup Files in Excel (5 Easy Methods)
2. Automatically Backup Excel Files to a Flash Drive
Excel has a helpful feature that can backup a file by saving it automatically in the desired folder of a flash drive. So somehow if we lose a file then we can easily recover from it. We can set the saving time interval too.
Steps:
- Click File beside the Home tab.
- Then click Options from the appeared menu.
A dialog box named Excel Options will open up.
- Click on Save.
- Later, mark Save AutoRecover information every and set the time. I set 10 minutes.
- Then write the folder location in the AutoRecover file location box.
- Finally, just press OK.
Now if you work on an Excel file or edit a workbook then Excel will automatically Save it after every 10 minutes in that location.
See, I didn’t save manually but Excel has created a backup automatically in that location after 10 minutes.
Read More: How to Auto Backup Excel File (2 Easy Methods)
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3. Apply Always Create Backup Option to Backup Excel Files
There is another option in Excel by which Excel creates a backup when every time you save a file. That means what you save in your main file, will be saved automatically in the backup file too. That option is called- Always Create Backup.
Steps:
- Follow the first three steps from the first method to open the Save As dialog box.
- Then select General Options from the Tools drop-down list.
- Later, mark Always create backup.
- At this moment, just press Save.
Have a look now, a backup of the file is created in the exact location on the drive. The backup file name will be the same as the original name including the text- ‘Backup’ in front of the original name. And keep in mind that you can’t change the location in this method.
Read More: How to Undo Changes in Excel after Save and Close (2 Easy Methods)
4. Embed Excel VBA to Backup Files to a Flash Drive
Excel VBA is also a way to backup a file on a specific flash drive. We’ll mention the drive location in the codes and Excel will save automatically in that location.
Steps:
- Press Alt + F11 to open the VBA window.
- Then click as follows: Insert >> Module to create a new module.
- Next, type the following codes in the module-
Sub Backup_Files()
ActiveWorkbook.SaveCopyAs "D:\ExcelDemy\" + ActiveWorkbook.Name
ActiveWorkbook.Save
End Sub
- Now just press the Run icon.
Code Breakdown
- First, I created a Sub procedure Backup_Files.
- Then used SaveCopyAs to save a copy of the active workbook.
- Later, used Name to set the same name from the active workbook.
- Finally, Save will save the file with that name in the mentioned location.
- After appearing in the Macros dialog box, select the specified Macro Name.
- Finally, just press Run.
Here you see, a backup copy is saved in the flash drive that is mentioned in the codes.
Read More: [Fixed:] Unsaved Excel File Not in Recovery
Conclusion
I hope the procedures described above will be good enough to backup Excel files to a flash drive. Feel free to ask any question in the comment section and please give me feedback.