Elderly and 1st time buying external drive to save things on computer. How do I know when everything has been saved? Do I leave this plugged into computer all the time? Thank you
How are you storing your files? Are you using a backup program such as WD Backup? Or are you manually coping files over to it using Windows Explorer or Finder in Mac?
I don’t understand your question? I thought by buying the WD, I just plug it in and it would automatically put all the files on it for backup. Am I suppose to do something else?
If you plan on backing up your files to the drive, you’ll need to first set up and schedule a backup job with a backup program, either with Windows backup & restore (or File History), MacOS X’s Time Machine or WD Backup, which should be included on the drive but first needs to be installed on your computer before you can use it. By default, just plugging in the USB cable for your WD drive just makes it act like a USB flash drive, and nothing is being backed up until you schedule a backup job with the program of your choice.
With the mentioned programs, you can schedule backups automatically while your computer is on. Other backup programs (commercial ones) can be used, especially if you require more flexibility or features, but they may use their own proprietary formats. If you plan on leaving your WD drive connected all the time, it should power on automatically when the backup is scheduled to run, and power down when the backup finishes and after several minutes of non-use.
Here are some articles on how to setup and configure backups…
Time Machine (MacOS X)
Backup & Restore (Windows 7, 10)
File History (Windows 8.1, 10)
WD Backup
I can not thank you enough for all the information you have provided me. I am going to read the articles you mention to try and understand it a little more. Thank you for taking the time to help me.
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