How to back up a Windows computer with WD SmartWare

Sr. Product Marketing Manager, Matthew Bennion, walks you through how to get your Windows computer backed up. Whether you're using a My Passport, My Book or even My Cloud, WD SmartWare provides great backup options for your Windows computers. We'll review how to install WD SmartWare, configure your first backup and even restore your files. With WD SmartWare and a WD external hard drive, WD makes keeping your data safe, very easy.

[jaym]

Pretty telling that there are questions and comments here over a number of years that not a single WD employee has answered. That told me everything I needed to know.

[lowKut]

Which folder are the backed-up files stored in on My Book, is it visible by default? Can you create subfolders and specify it to be the backup destination?

[Visionery]

The most important question, does the software purge old backups, or does the backup size just keep increasing, until the backup drive is full and backups stop? The WD software has a "keep X numbers of the same file" option, but there's no option to 'recycle' the backup to keep the size down. I've been using Retrospect for over 10 years, it has the 'Recycle' option.

[janiebenaziza]

I have been backing up my macbook now for 3 weeks to the WD Mycloud. I have 440 gbs to back up and only about 100 gbs so far have transferred to the backup. At this rate maybe in a couple of months it will be finished...then I can do the updates.

[degee]

hi, I purchased my external WD hard drive and backed up my computer. That computer was replaced by a new computer,  so I attached my ex hard drive and I can find the hard drive and see the old computer data listed in zip folders. I did as you showed in the video and also updated the shareware but now that I go to retrieve data there is nothing listed under volume and hard drive is showing 0kg beside the old computer's name. what to do

[ramonantelo]

Hello, thankd for the video, anyway I stiil need your help as the software doesn't run ! It stays stack is it because is too old and needs updates ? Mybook Essencial is identified by the PC but doesn't open the files and I really need them. Thanks

[jn]

The backup program is very limited. I have a 2 TB WD external drive attached to a Windows 10 HP All-inOne desktop PC. I've had the drive connected for at least 3 or 4 months maybe longer. Haven't really checked the backups for a while but this afternoon I noticed the WD Backup Engine running after noticing my CPU was running a bit high. The backups are schedules to run at 2:00AM every night so why is the backup still running? I can't tell because the program has limited ability to actually figure out what progress has been made and when it started, or if it paused or anything you would need to figure this out. Where are the logs? The last backup shows date of Saturday Nov 11, 2017 which was yesterday. Backup was scheduled to start at 2:00 AM on Saturday (overnight Friday to Saturday in layman's terms). But why is Sunday 2:00 AM still running when it's 1:30PM now? I don't see anyway to pause the backup either.

[johnnyvo]

go the easystore and LOVE it, with 5tb. and thanks for the instructional video. thank you.

[MrGhostface]

When you do a back up does it do everything just like if your doing cloning the hard drive ?

[adventureriders]

im not sure which to use. smart ware and od backup or wd sync ? they seem to both copy the files to the my cloud nas device... and either way i can also access the files on the go... correct?

[cardocando]

Matt I am getting a error every time I try to use wd apps setup on my windows 7 computer. The error reads The type initializer for threw an exception. It worked previously and the something happened an now I just get this error. Can you help me?

[hearsilence]

does it back up the system ? it looks like it does back up videos, music, photos, documents, etc but not the system. I want to back up even my softwares and systems. how to do this ?

[tpaxp]

Why i dont see my other Local Disks ? Only C drive! Also i have E, D that i want to backup ??? Why this limitation is exist ? Why i cant select all Local Disks and choose folders i need ?

[bedok]

Hello, I tried to buck up my PS4 to my cloud but the ps4 says there is no usb connected

[IJRPUBLIC]

Can the backup drive backup off sight? Meaning can we connect it in such a manner that it can stay at home but backup the office computer?

[asmcriminaL]

What sucks is that you can't tell it where to back it up. I have a cloud sync folder in my drive and I want to back up things to that folder.

[zulizali]

Thank you so much, nicely explained, excellent video.

[iamric]

I warn anyone to use the continual backing up of your computer. The reason is if your computer is hit with malware/virus/hacking, it can also affect your connected backup. My advice is to backup the computer with that external drive, then disconnect it until you need to back it up again.

[jn]

I'm assuming the backups are only doing incremental, in other words only backing files that have changed since the last back. Very few files should have changes since yesterday, there is plenty of space on the backup drive, so why is the backup still running at 1:50 PM when it was supposed to start at 2:00AM? I found the logs but they don't tell me much

Not sure how to decipher this log output...seems like there is a problem but the backup for whatever reason seems to keep trying to run.
11-12-2017 01:16:27 >> does not contain a 1.2 backup.

11-12-2017 01:16:27 >> Checking for 1.3 upgrade.

11-12-2017 01:16:27 >> Check 1.2 upgrade of

11-12-2017 01:16:27 >> does not contain a 1.2 backup.

11-12-2017 01:16:27 >> Checking for 1.3 upgrade.

11-12-2017 01:16:29 >> Attempted to access a drive that is not available.

11-12-2017 01:16:31 >> The specified server cannot perform the requested operation. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007003A)

11-12-2017 01:17:27 >>
Application exception:
The specified server cannot perform the requested operation. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007003A)
Stack trace:
at bstrUncPath, String bstrConfigPath, UInt64& pullTotalCapacity, UInt64& pullFreeCapacity)
at uncPath, String configPath, UInt64& totalCapacity, UInt64& freeCapacity)
at
at
at stack)
at



11-12-2017 01:17:27 >> UnobservedTaskException : The specified server cannot perform the requested operation. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007003A)

11-12-2017 01:17:27 >> (0x8007003A): The specified server cannot perform the requested operation. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007003A)
at bstrUncPath, String bstrConfigPath, UInt64& pullTotalCapacity, UInt64& pullFreeCapacity)
at uncPath, String configPath, UInt64& totalCapacity, UInt64& freeCapacity)
at
at
at stack)

seeing this on the other log
12-Nov-2017 01:15:25 PM> Selected locale directory : C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare\\Locale\en_US.lproj
12-Nov-2017 01:15:25 PM> Selected locale TMX file : C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare\\Locale\WD Smartware.tmx
12-Nov-2017 01:42:48 PM> Selected culture name : EN-US
12-Nov-2017 01:42:48 PM> Selected 3-letter code : ENG
12-Nov-2017 01:42:48 PM> Selected locale directory : C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare\\Locale\en_US.lproj
12-Nov-2017 01:42:48 PM> Selected locale TMX file : C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare\\Locale\WD Smartware.tmx

[MrGhostface]

How long does it take for w d my passport back up ?