Before I go and break something, can a My Book Essential with the WD software backup multiple PCs? I backed up mine but I’d also like to backup my wife’s PC. I don’t see anything in the docs referencing this and nothing in the software that implies it can be done or how the data would be kept separate.
If not, is it feasible to reformat the drive per the online reformatting instructions creating 2 partitions and use 3rd party image backup software to back up each PC to one of the partitions? Is this a better solution?
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Hello, yes, you can backup as many computers as you want as long as you have free space. You don’t need to create any additional partitions, Smarware will just create a new folder with the name of the new computer. To backup the files from the second PC you need to install Smartware.
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A word of caution… The very WD usb Essentials Hd used to backup image from both windows 7 64 bit and windows 8 64 bit laptops now shows following error whenever connected:
“USB Mass Storage Device is an older USB device and might not work with USB 3.0. Try plugging it in to a USB 2.o port. Then Click Next.”
can read on the windows 7, will not read on windows 8 … have recovery cds for both, but HD will not read on windows 8 at all.
WD element HD. used to image hd from 2 windows 8 64 laptops…need to reflash laptops after MS framework downloads and have error. " USB Mass Storage Device is an older USB device and might not work with USB 3.0
Try plugging it in to a USB 2.o port. Then Click Next.".
How can it now not read the usb hard drive that I used to put the image into from the same laptop? Anybody, Please suggest a fix as I now have a dead laptop that I need to restore the image on. I can still read the HD on windows 7 but have now lost all my programs that were imaged on window 8…because it is not “OLD” just did the imaging about a month ago. So If I use WD hard drives to Image my system, It will not work later because it is too OLD !!! Sorry, lost it all a little “*&)&^&'ed” the programs cost more than the laptops to rebuy. Since Microsoft now HIDES the key codes…God knows Where … I can not reinstall my Office programs and don’t know about windows 8…Just be careful … will wait for some Hero Geek to get me a resolution for a while, I have now got a great Laptop and maybe a WD hard drive that I can use for paperweights… I HATE windows 8. and am learning not to use MICROSOFT anymore.
Thanks for help from anyone. ps … uninstalling framework updates did not work, and reflashing my settings lost most of my installed programs. Can recover the ones that I have the Key Codes for , but not the MS programs.
. " USB Mass Storage Device is an older USB device and might not work with USB 3.0 Try plugging it in to a USB 2.o port. Then Click Next.".
