WD Backup or WD Smartware backup. Which one to use?

WD Software WD Software
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I have a My Passport Ultra (not the metal version) and currently use WD Backup. When I go to WD’s download webpage and click on WD Smartware the application products lists My Passport Ultra Metal. The My Passport Ultra product does not show up. Is that information wrong? Should My Passport Ultra be listed as a supported device? Yet posts I read show people using WD Smartware with the My Passport Ultra hardware.

If I click on WD Backup the application products list My Passport Ultra. According to that information, I should be using WD Backup as my software.

So which software is the correct one to use for My Passport Ultra? Can both used if I transition over to WD Smartware?

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Neither. If you have Windows 7 or higher use Windows backup. WD needs to upgrade their backup software to do system image files.

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I have Windows 10. I am looking for incremental backups. Maybe I’m wrong but I don’t think Windows will do that.

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Check out this page. Windows doesn’t like to call an incremental back an incremental backup. They are very anal about putting out a product that another company is putting out. Kind of like honour among thieves.

Look at the ‘File History’ feature:

Also, this page recommends the free Aomei backup:

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I have used WD Smartware on my Passport Ultra for a few years. I saw the same download page and downloaded WD Backup. I tried to use it and would not work and the options are much poorer than WD Smartware. I removed WD Backup and Smartware continues to work for me.

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However WD Smarware does not recognize newer WD external drives. Just purchased a new WD MyBook 6 TB, WD Smartware does not recognize it.

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I was kinda hoping someone from the WD staff would answer this question. I assume they are monitoring these boards as I sometimes see them answering questions. A little guidance would be appreciated.

My WD Backup seems to work but I’m not so sure. I don’t want to wait until a disaster happens and find out something isn’t quite right for a restore.

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Thanks Gordo for the link on the backup. If I cannot determine which WD software is correct, at least I have this other option.

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That sounds familiar. I just replaced WD Backup with Smartware 2.4.21.1 on my Windows 10 computer. SmartWare will not recognize My Passport (diagonal design version) and My Book (also diagonal design) as target drives. It will recognize them as Source drives. Some prior versions of SmartWare had similar properties.

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“If you have Windows 7 or higher use Windows backup.”
Bad advice. Windows backup is a very blunt instrument.

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I didn’t know they now have yet another My Passport with no model or version. To have to label it as the diagonal design version show how poorly WD markets their own products without having over 10 digits and letters after it. This is especially true when they have so many different My Passport products. They can and should do a better job than that.

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As far as I can tell, WD Backup is just garbage software.

With Backup, some files and folders are not backed up. I have not yet determined why, but for one, it seems empty folders are not backed up. Also, there is little feedback during backup.

I have used SmartWare for years, and other than a small UI design issue, it was excellent.
Since the newer WD portable drives are not supported by SmartWare, I will be looking elsewhere for portable drives. Has anybody used Seagate?

Backups without testing recovery are no backups.

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Best advice I found. WD Smartware no longer works properly and Acronis is miserable to use unless you have days to find a stored file. WD tech support is DOA now so getting away from their software is the best thing to do.