My Book Essentials - WD Smartware - Backup Issues

[Rocko_Diver]

Hi, I hope somebody can help. I have had a MY Book Essentials for over 6 months and can say that I have not been totally satisfied with its function although I have persevered. My problem at the moment is that I am not sure that it is backing up correctly. Today, I have loaded some new music to I tunes and thought that I would see if it backed up by using explorer to view the images on the drive. The new files are not their.

Currently the Smartware is saying 'optimizing files' but has been for hours!. Back also says only partially completed, however, the Start button is greyed out. You can press the stop, which released the start function but it never runs the full cycle.

Does anybody have similar issues and what's the solution. Should I uninstall and reinstall and if so how, should I erase the data and start again and if so what's the safest method.

Thanks

David

[heid4055]

David, I gave the same advice to many on this forum. Smartware is bloatware and takes up a lot of resources. I WOULD NOT DEPEND on this software to back up your critical info. WD makes lovely memory devices but NOT backup software. They are simply doing too much here.

I recommend Acronis and/or Paragon backup software. Been using these two for years and have no problems at all!!!

Acronis is free for a month and Paragon is free software..

Let me know.

[Rocko_Diver]

I will have a look at the free version. I have today used windows to make a back up.

If I choose to use Paragon, should i uninstall WD software? Whats the best way of getting rid of the backups it has made so I can free up some space on the drive. Currently I have WD backups on, some windows backups so have used 39% todate. If I put paragon ones on aswell, can see it getting full or is that not a problem.

Thanks for the advice already provided.

David

[Rocko_Diver]

 

I have downloaded the Paragon software, but not sure if I understand it. With smartware, it updates the files as you go (supposidly) but I cannot see how Paragon does this. Do you have to wait until scheduled back up and forced backups.

I have reloaded the WD software and when I go to backup the above screen is shown (this is the same as before I reinstalled software) and it does not change and I suspect that its not backing up. Can I remove the existing WD backups and force a complete set again. I dont want to erase the drive as I have windows backups on it.

ANybody help please !!!!!

[heid4055]

After you install the paragon backup click on backup towards the left side of the screen. You can back up whole drives or individual files. Then after all is done on the top toolbar it has a green check mark to APPLY the changes you did and it will immediately run.

Does this make sense now?

[Joe_S]

I'm not sure the free version of Paragon does incremental backups. They are all trying to get you to buy the full version.

Joe

[heid4055]

Hey Joe how about the differential backup under wizards-->advanced--> differential backup.

i think that will work as well right? Not bad for a free version!

[Joe_S]

Thanks I didn't realize it was there. The free stuff is usually stripped down a lot.

Joe