Backing up two computers

I have backed up my I Mac and now wish to back up my I Book as well.  The WD Smartware is having two problems.  First, updating the firmware.  I can’t complete step two as I get an error prompt that apple script can’t read it.  Second, the Smartware home page can read the I Book hard drive just fine but will enable only the the “home” and “settings” tabs.  How can I proceed to back up the I Book.  Troy

How is the drive formatted? Have you tried to blast away the partition and than reformat?