My Book Essential is this an external hard disk or a backup system?

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
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I just received “My Book Essential” as a gift from my company.

At first I  thought it is an ordinary External Hard disk where I can Copy/paste files into it or delete files from it.

It seams that it is not going this way and it is only for backup purposes.

Am I right?

Is there any way to use it as a usual HD for data file copy/paste purposes?

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You can use it like any other external drive.  Either don’t install SmartWare, or uninstall it, and use the drive to copy and paste to.

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Thanks for your reply. One more question. If I don’t install the software, would it be possible to open the files from inside it to read let say pdf files?

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Uninstall the Smartware or the whole program. Reinstall just the usb itself but not WD software.

It will find plug n play drivers.

Dowload a free  imaging program, or buy one, and here you can backup and retieve discs or partions so now your Book is a backup and an external drive to safe to…

Imaging is far better than backing up as when you wish to recover you are getting a snapshot not a bunch of dispersed packets.

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If I do this will I lose all of the files I have backed up already on the My Book Essential?

But you said I still will need a imaging program for the My Book Essential to see the files?

Thank you.

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I do not know how many GB of material you have backed up or much information about what you have done.

I would recover the material to my computer and or other media like dvd or flash drives.

When the material is ‘safe’ I would download Macrium for free and use it to “image” to your external hard drive.

If your material is not removed until it is in the pc it is safe. It is then that you can remove the smart ware and anything else in the Book. Start from scratch so to speak.

As I said, when you first plug he Book in, do not use any software. Say no if asked. You will see the Book look for drivers(plug n play).

Using the Macrium you have downloaded you can now"image" the material you want to the external hard drive.

I keep it simple by selecting my entire system to be ‘imaged’. This way you can retieve a single file or your whole system.

I had an incident where my pc needed to be reformatted and reinstalled. Instead I used Macrium to recover the "image’ that was on the externaldrive.

It came back perfectly.

I also have bought Acronis for my other pc but macrium does the job well.

Don’t make a mess for yourself.

Go to forums like Major Geeks and What the Tech. Register so you can log in and ask questions like you are asking me. I know it sounds like a lot of work but you will be better off and it is not all that complicated.

If you take one step at a time and write things on a notepad, you can make an interesting task of this which will benefit you without errors.

Think twice before clicking once.

Write back if you wish but do not be discouraged. It is up to you if you are willing to put a little effort in because there are never quick fixes to a good job.

Remenber, ultimately once you have imaged your system, you can recover any of it as long as your machine is working.

Good luck:wink:

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I want to format this External HD (EHD). HOw many partitions and What capacities do you recommend for a 930GB EHD?

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My lasrt post was about the best I can do as I use a single partition to back my system up to.  I am not a tech.

Partiton Magic can help with creating partitons.

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And how exactly do you uninstall it?

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If u search the folder, u can find an “uninstall” icon. just click it.

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If you are asking how to install the external drive, it depends whether you are using the software that came with it or not.

If you are using the software, see the previous post. If not then save the information on it if you need it.

Then double click the icon in the systray and double click on the Book in the box that appears and it will tell you itis safe to disconnect the drive.

A good way to transfer your information to another drive is to copy and paste it. If you have trouble with letters that designate the drive, Google “how to change drive letters”

You can go to the control panel, open ‘performance + maintenance’ and follow the directions given until you are at the point where you can add or remove the drives letter designation.

Write back if you need specific help with this letter designation as it sounds harder than it is.

But, The first part of my message was more to the point as to removal of the drive. Don’t just pull the usb cable.

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