I am on Win7 and just installed My Passport 1TB. Tried to make a full-system backup and could not. Unfortunately, I got to level 1 support who advised me I could not do a full system backup using My Passport. I asked about using Acronis software and he said it still couldn’t be done (wrong!). I asked about using My Book and he said again, can’t be done (wrong again - a friend has My Book and he does his full system backup straight from Win 7, no special software).
My questions are:
Can I perform a full system backup on My Passport?
If so, does WD provide a fulltime, free version of Acronis?
Can I perform a full system backup on My Book without any special software?
You should be able to do a backup to your Passport. The WD Acronis edition is based on the 2009 version and not well updated. Acronis has a try and decide option. EaseUS Paragon and Macrium all have free stripped down versions of their backup software. I use Acronis TI 2010 and regularlly backup to 3 different My Books without problems.
Thanks for the quick response Joe. One thing still confuses me. My friend has the My Book and he can perform a full system backup without any special software - just goes through Start/Control Panel, etc. Like my system, his is Win 7.
Rich
PS: I’m beginning to believe the paid tech support at WD is worthless. After getting incorrect info on my first try I called back and got back to another person who didn’t understand full system backups. I requested to go to level 2. She said fine and within a minute I was disconnected. I called back and got another person, explained I was disconnected, and that person said someone from level 2 would phone me within 2 hours. I am now into my 17th hour and waiting!
I’ve never had dealings with WD service. From what I’ve seen the Windows backup has a lot of problems. It works for some but not others. I’d try one of the third party ones I mentioned. I would make the boot disk and do the image that way then nothing updates in the middle to cause problems. That’s how I make mine cleanup defrag and then reboot from the CD.
I just created a System Image of Windows 7 to store on my Passport but it does not show any activity for today. I had already created a regular backup on the Passport at a previous date. Is it sending files there?
