My Book Essential - Back Up One Folder Only?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
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I have been searching the web and this forum for hours and cannot work out how to back up only one folder onto this drive.  The only options I get are to backup all music, all text, all videos etc (I can tick or untick each option), however I want to back up an entire work folder only and this includes rar files, html, php etc which don’t seem to be included in the usual ‘back-up everything’ option on the software.  

Can anyone advise how to do this before I end up returning this drive to the shop?

It’s a 3tb drive, firmware say’s uptodate

WD Smartware

Version 1.4.5.2

product name: My Book essential

Firmware revision: 1.022

Any help appreciated

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Change from Category mode to File mode. This is a button at the lower left on the Backup tab of SmartWare.

EDIT: While you are looking at the SmartWare configuration, check out the Settings tab. One choice there defaults to keeping 5 successive copies of items being backed up. Depending on the volume of data you are backing up, and the frequency of backups, this can fill up your MyBook rather quickly.

Backup tab.PNG
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Hi,

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have ran all the updates requested by the software and downloaded all the stuff here:  http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/wdsmartware.asp?pid=1140&os=WIN, but it still does not show any option to backup files instead of categories. Can you tell me if I am missing something obvious?

Thanks

SCR-WD No Category.jpg
SCR-WD No Category.jpg350×177 25.6 KB

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Hi,

This is really puzzling. I am not currently using Smartware, but I downloaded the version from the link you posted and installed it. In the course of the preliminary configuration screens, after the install completed, I was offered the choice between File and Category backup. I let it go through as Category. I then called up the program from Quick View, and went to the Backup tab. Once again, I have the buttons at the lower left.

smartware01.PNG
smartware01.PNG340×262 9.29 KB

I assume that you have .NET 4 installed (I know, you mentioned the downloads), because the SmartWare installer should have complained if you did not have it. I suppose it is possible that you are experiencing some glitch in .NET, but I can’t determine that, of course. I have, in the past, used a Microsoft utility called the “.NET FRAMEWORK CLEANUP TOOL”. Its readme states-

This .NET Framework cleanup tool is designed to automatically perform a set of steps to remove selected versions 
of the .NET Framework from a computer. It will remove files, directories, registry keys and values and Windows 
Installer product registration information for the .NET Framework. The tool is intended primarily to return your 
system to a known (relatively clean) state in case you are encountering .NET Framework installation, 
uninstallation, repair or patching errors so that you can try to install again.

There are a couple of very important caveats that you should review before using this tool to remove any version 
of the .NET Framework from your system:

  * This tool is designed as a last resort for cases where install, uninstall, repair or patch installation did not 
    succeed for unusual reasons. It is not a substitute for the standard uninstall procedure. You should try the 
    steps listed in this blog post before using this cleanup tool.
 
  * This cleanup tool will delete shared files and registry keys used by other versions of the .NET Framework. If 
    you run the cleanup tool, you will need to perform a repair/re-install for all other versions of the .NET 
    Framework that are on your computer or they will not work correctly afterwards.

-----------------------------------
DOWNLOAD LOCATIONS
-----------------------------------

The .NET Framework cleanup tool is available for download at the following locations:

http://cid-27e6a35d1a492af7.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/Blog_Tools/dotnetfx_cleanup_tool.zip 
http://blogs.msdn.com/astebner/attachment/8904493.ashx

The .zip file that contains the tool also contains a file named history.txt that lists when the most recent version 
of the tool was published and what changes have been made to the tool over time.

 However, if you have not had any problems installing .NET, it does not seem that this approach is applicable.

At this point, I can only suggest that you contact Support for advice. I wish I could offer more, but I can’t really think of anything else. I know this is frustrating for you. It is for me, too, since I like finding ways to make things work properly. The Support link below should give you phone and email contact information. (At the moment, I can’t get any of the Support links to work. It says, “New Session Failed”. I have no clue what that is about.) EDIT: That seemed to be a glitch in Firefox, perhaps because the window had too many tabs. I opened a new window and the link worked.

http://support.wdc.com/

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