My Book Essential 2TB and SmartWare Versus Other Backup Solutions

WD Software WD Software
1

Hi, I have read a lot of horror stories about problems with SmartWare and the firmware on MyBook drives that prevent them from being used as “normal” external drives. There are a lot of especially bad reviews on Amazon. Users have complained about problems with the My Book creating virtual CD drives, and firmware update problems.

I am running Windows 7 x64 SP1 on a new Toshiba laptop, and bought the My Book specifically for file backup. My original intent was to use Windows Backup or Acronis Backup. I have considered trying SmartWare, but after all the negative feedback I have read online I am now afraid I may have bought the wrong product.

Is anyone satisfied with SmartWare as a backup solution?

I it possible to reformat the My Book and recover all the disk space?

Will the My Book firmware cause any problems if I reformat the drive and don’t use SmartWare?

I write Windows device drivers for a living, have worked in software for 30 years, and consider myself a power user. However, the laptop and My Book are for my daughter to take to college, so I want to set up an ■■■■■ proof backup procedure.

Thank you,

David

2

You can use others Backup applications with this drive, WD Smartware will not interfere with the regular use of the device. I have several My Book and few of them are not running WD Smartware (even though I have used it for backing up data).

I have even formatted the drives, eliminating Smartware and then use the drives for storage only. Up to date, I have not encounter any issue whatsoever.