How do I start a new backup on a drive I've been using as a backup?

WD Software WD Software
1

I would like to reuse one of my “My Passport” dirves for a fresh backup.  It is currently full from backing up another drive.  I don’t need that backup.  I just want to start fresh.  How do I delete it all and start over?

Thanks,

2

In the root of the drive you should find a folder WDSmartware.stor. If you look in that, you should find one folder for each machine that you have backed up, and within each of those folders additional sub-folders for each drive on that particular machine that has been backed up.

All you need to do is go in and delete either the device folder or the drive(s) folder(s) depending on whether you want to remove the whole backup from that particular machine, or a given drive or drives from that machine.

Or if you want to delete the lot, just delete the WDSmartware.stor folder, which will remove all backups made to the drive by Smartware (I’m presuming here that you’ve done all the backups by Smartware - if not then let us know what you did use).

3

Yes, I’ve been using the WD Smartware software.  Yes, I see the folder that you refer too.  So if I want to start over, I can delete the folder, go into WD Smartware and tell it where from and to and I’m good to go?

Awesome!

Thanks,

Dave

4

Yes, just get rid of the existing folder and away goes all the backups that are in it. Make sure you close down Smartware first so it’s not trying to write anything in there whilst you’re doing so.

If you then restart Smartware it should see that the folder doesn’t exist and make you a new one, then you’re up and running with a brand new start.

5

Thanks Darren,

I’ll give it a shot!

Dave