3TB hard drive says full

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

I have My Book Essential 3TB external hard drive that I got in March. Something isn’t right. I tried to do a Windows System Image, but it could not complete. The Windows backup set up a folder, but there is nothing in it. I have the My Book set to do backups, but there is duplication of files - everything is all together, there is no backup #1 date, backup #2 date, etc. I cannot delete old backups.

Here is a list of folders on the 3T drive and their sizes:

Adobe Photoshop backup (63 GB)

Extras (37.3 KB)

(computer) (0 bytes) this should be the Windows backup

User Manuals (50.8 MB)

WD SmartWare (260 MB)

WD SmartWare for Mac (76.9 MB)

WD SmartWare.swstor (572 GB) - supposedly this is my WD automatic backup

WindowsImageBackup (0 bytes)

MedID.bin (4 KB)

WD Quick Formatter.exe (3.14 MB)

WD SmartWare.exe (4.05 MB)

Obviously this is not close to 3TB. But I’m showing only 159 GB free. Should I just delete the files and start over? Or what? I’d appreciate your ideas on this problem.

2

I would start over. You can also use Smartware to backup your files.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3828/session/L3RpbWUvMTM0MTY5MjM2Mi9zaWQvUXl4UHF6Kms%3D

3

Thanks. I think that starting over is the best option. I was using SmartWare for backup - it looks like all my files are backed up under the folder “WD SmartWare.swstor”. However there are duplicate files. aaarrgghhh. What a way to spend a weekend!

4

The most important thing with backups is to know exactly what is getting backed up and what is not.

A backup program should be clear and concise with no ambiguity as to what is happening.

Personally I use a simple strategy of imaging the main disk from time to time. This captures everything in one fell swoop. And I can restore my system immediately at a moment’s notice. When I’m working with important files I’ll save two copies periodically.

The point here is to have two copies of everything. And to also know you can restore the system successfully. This means that you’ll have already tested the solution and have complete confidence it will work as intended.