Hello,
I have a laptop that was experiencing some disk errors, and I had been using a My Passport drive for Windows File History. The WD backup software that came with the My Passport device has been installed on that laptop, but I haven’t used it for a long time, probably a year or two by now.
I have just migrated my data to a new laptop. The My Passport drive had also been generating some disk errors, so I don’t want to use it anymore.
A few months ago, I purchased a My Passport Ultra drive which was originally to be used just for security video storage. At the time, I formatted the drive without saving or installing the WD software that came with it, so that software is gone now. I used it to copy/paste my data from old laptop to new. I would now like to use the Passport Ultra drive to do backups (not just Windows File History, but actual backups, since I just found out Windows File History will not restore data from one computer to another).
What should I do? Download the WD backup software from the WD site or install the software that came with the other My Passport drive and update it? Would that work? I won’t be using the My Passport drive on my new computer, as it was also generating some disk errors. I see an installer for WD Smartware did make it over to the new laptop in the data migration process, I just found it in a folder. The date stamp on it is 2013.
Wasn’t sure which to install. I tried the WD Backup and it isn’t very good. I think it tried to run two full backups totalling several hundred Gb’s which I am now deleting from the drive to make room so I can start over with some decent backup software. So far the WD Backup software has just made a huge mess of things. Ideal would be one full backup and then incremental backups of whatever had changed. The old WD software used to do that. I’ll try the Smartware for the Passbook Ultra and hope for better luck with that. The Software that came with my old My Passport was pretty good as well. The best was the software that came with a big WD Essentials backup drive I had many years ago. I’m wondering if I can manage to get my hands on THAT.
It’s probably going to take me several hours to delete the mess the WD Backup software made on my Passport Ultra drive, as folders of that size do not delete easily or quickly.
I ended up formatting the WD Passport Ultra, downloading and installing the Smartware backup software, and I have successfully completed my first backup. This looks like it is going to accomplish what I wanted, continuously backing up any changes I save. It took a few hours, but it looks good. I had to go to ‘legacy software’ to find the right software for my particular drive.
