To test whether my file were being backed up “behind the scenes”, I attempted to retrieve an Excel spreadsheet that I had updated the night before (on 20th March 2010). My software is set up to save 5 versions, and 5 versions were listed but the latest one was dated 17th March 2010!?! I attempted to retrieve this file (just in case the date was incorrect), but the retrieve failed. When I clicked on “view files”, these details were given:
Account checks 2010.xls 22.98MB Jan 10, 2010 Failed to find metadata for file = N:\Home Finance\ Account checks 2010.xls, type =‘file’, checksum =‘xVDNxecpRE9MDOysEADILIA4YpDU’, attributes = Normal, create time =10/01/2010 10:09:21, last write time =17/03/2010 20:17:34, length = 0, compressed length = 0, instance id = 5265, file id = 0
I have tried rebooting & reconnecting the drive. Today is 23rd Mar and I am still unable to retrieve the file, and edited versions of the file are NOT being backed up. I may need to delete the backup set and backup again, but I don’t know how to do that – can anybody help?
Text files created on my desktop were not being backed up so I examined a log file called “FrontParlorLog.txt” which is found in “…Local Settings\Application Data\Western Digital\WD SmartWare” on my XP PC at work, and I found …
03-23-2010 10:07:53>> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Application exception: Could not find the drive 'L:'. The drive might not be ready or might not be mapped. Stack trace: at System.IO.__Error.WinIODriveError(String driveName, Int32 errorCode) at System.IO.DriveInfo.get_TotalSize() at WDSmartWare.Wddm.WddmServer.ProcessGetDeviceAbbreviatedResponse(Byte data) at WDSmartWare.Wddm.WddmServer.RetrieveWdDrives() --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
at the end of the file.
So I figured that there may be a problem with drive letter assignments.
When I installed Smartware:
G: was the Smartware UDF drive
L: was the passport NTFS drive
Today:
F: is the Smartware UDF drive
G: is my USB pen CDFS drive
L: is the passport NTFS drive
H: is my USB pen FAT32 drive
By swapping drive letter assignments F: & G: I have now managed to get Smartware to backup the newly created text files on the desktop. The last line in the “FrontParlorLog.txt” file now reads:-
03-23-2010 10:13:07>> Language file used: C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare\Front Parlor\Locale\en_US.lproj\Localizable.Strings
So … in conclusion. Smartware may fail to backup your files, log the issue in a text file on your system, but fail to WARN/NOTIFY the user in Smartware itself!
Until I fully trust this software to do what it promises to do, I’m having to create a test text file, then retrieve it using Smartware before I log off!!! Not quite “… watching my computer …” & “… instantly backing up …” is it?
