Retrieve lost data: no files shown on C drive but they are there

WD External and Portable SSD External SSD for Windows
1

I have WD My Book Essential 1TB (WDBAAF0010hbk-00) running on Vista Home premium 64-bit backing up with WD Smartware. I had a hard drive failure (internal drive), checked that files were indeed backed up on My Book and sent in hard drive for warranty. My only copy of important files is on My Book. I installed Windows 7 64-bit and tried to retrieve backup.

Installed Smartware from My Book CD version 1.1.1.6 Went to Retrieve tab and select my Original Computer’s Original Volume C and Select Destination. I click In a Retrieved Content Folder. Since C drive is a small solid state drive running OS and programs, tried to retrieve files to larger F drive and click Select Files. It rebuilds volumes to retrieve from but shows Data to Retrieve: Files 0 Size 0.

But they are there because using Computer I can navigate through WD SmartWare.swstor and find them. But I don’t want to copy directly through there because I have 18k files in documents nested within multiple folders. I also chose to backup 5 versions of files so there are MANY unnecessary files and deleting them would be a HUGE waste of time. And I’m not sure if I originally chose to keep deleted files. It would be a nightmare.

When I update Smartware to version 1.5.4.5, Backup and Retrieve tabs are grayed out. Settings tab is blue but doesn’t contain anything. Unplugging and replugging My Book and restarting computer with and without My Book attached still has same grayed out tabs. Also tried Retrieve on my Vista Home Premium 32-bit laptop. Same navigation to messy files, but no way to retrieve wanted files.

Uninstalled updated Smartware version and reinstalled old version from CD using both options to Retrieve a backup and set up drive was tried. Both show many GB of data in grey on My Book, but show Data Backed Up: Files 0 and Size 0 in blue.

WD Smartware.swstor on My Book shows 22,410 files, 147 GB but when I copied this entire folder to my F drive, it showed 38,425 files 239 GB. Why the difference? There were about 9 folders that didn’t copy because the file name was too long though there were short names included on the list.

Please help. There has to be a cleaner way to retrieve backups to another computer upon hard drive failure. If there isn’t, I am extremely disappointed in WD.

2

Try installing the latest smartware version again and from the home tab click on the my book icon, that should make the backup and retrieve tabs available. If you are still unable to retrieve your files, well just copy what you need (pictures, music, videos, etc.) manually instead of  the complete backup folder.

3

I updated to the latest Smartware version and from the home tab clicked the blue head outline in the upper left hand corner which I am assuming is the my book icon. The Backup and Retrieve tabs are still grayed out and not accessable.

The problem with copying the files manually is that I have tens of thousands of files. And I used the Smartware function of keeping 5 versions or previous saves of the same file.This would mean manually going through each folder and selecting and deleting older versions of the current files.  I don’t know how long this would take, but I would guess it would be measured in days, not hours.

I also checked the option to keep deleted files available for retrieval too. The new computer would also contain files that I had previously deleted. I would have no way of knowing which files I previously deleted.

4

Well is not the blue head, you need to click directly on top of the My Book icon on top of the right column.