Both my WD Ultra and My Book drives regularly fail to back up per established schedule. Sometimes one does back and the other doesn’t. There does not seem to be any pattern. WD support after a lengthy process of trying to get them to respond, attempted twice to “fix” the problem, the second time with a “level 2” technician. Both times the technician took control of my PC and made changes. This morning after the second attempt at a fix, I found that only one of my drives successfully backed up; the other didn’t. WD doesn’t seem to have any idea of what is causing the problem. I can’t help coming away with the feeling that they are just stabbing in the dark. I don’t have any confidence in my WD drives. Left an e-mail message for WD again, but I’m rapidly loosing confidence that they can fix my problem. I maintain that when backup drives are installed, they should reliably and continually back up my data per established backup plan. Bottom line: I’m frustrated and don’t know how much longer I can go on with WD drives (two year old Dell PC, McAfee antivirus, Firefox browser)
Hi,
Not sure I can help you, but see if this helps.
Are your schedules for each drive at a different time or day so that they don’t conflict with one another? Have you tried starting a backup manually, first on one drive and then after the first completes on the other? Do both succeed? Do you get a notification (lower right corner of the screen) when WD Backup succeeds/fails?
Also, I was told that Ultra uses a different WD Backup variation. Maybe you need to download the WD BAckup specified under Downloads for My Passport Ultra.
Cliff
Yes, both drives are scheduled for an hour apart early in the moaning when PC is not being used. Had a conversation with WD support this morning (third time). This time, they changed setup such that Ultra is under WD Smartware and My Book is under WD Backup. Unsure why this should make a difference (not a PC techie, only Civil Engr degree and MBA with career in corporate America using PC’s every day - office suite to SAP). Maybe this will work; they left me with the statement that “if this doesn’t work,” they will have to punt “to the Engineers.” Punt is my word, not theirs. I have no confidence that this latest effort will work; apparently neither do they. Thanks for the inputs.
After the third attempt by WD technicians, my WD My Book drive failed to back up last night per schedule (this drive controlled if that is the proper word, by “WD Backup.” However, my WD Ultra drive did back up per schedule; this drive controlled by “WD Smartware.” My frustration level remains high. I have no confidence from day-to-day that my data will be backed up by WD products. Has anyone else had similar problems. Using backup remote hard drives should not be this hard particularly with a new (2 year old) Dell PC.
Fast forward to 4/29/20; My My Book drive still fails to backup regularly. Typically, it will back up on alternate days and fail on alternate days. Occasionally, it will back up two days in a row. Ultra drive consistently backs up per schedule. Have renewed contact with WD tech support in India. They appear to be clueless; their approach seems to be: “try this and see if it works.” When “this” fails, their next step is “OK, try this then and see if it works.” Switch to MD File History from WD backup, turn sleep timer off, on, etc, etc. (Why should I be asked to use a MS function to backup a WD drive? Why can’t WD’s software do the job?) I’m about to sever contact with them, scrap the drive, and purchase a new one, NOT a WD My Book. At the end of the day, I want to have a high degree of confidence that my external hard drives will consistently back up my data per scheduled (daily) back up plan. Totally frustrated and not a fan of WD drives
