Full system backup on My Book Essential with Norton Ghost

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

I had been using this backupdrive with WD software.  

But I just installed Norton Ghost in order to do timed full system backups.  I don’t want continuous backups that are disruptive.  I now want Ghost to backup at like 3:00AM.   How do I stop WD from doing it’s own thing and giving control of the drive to the Norton software???

Thanks much…

2

Hello,

Just disable the WD Smartware application.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835/session/L3RpbWUvMTMwMDg5NDQzOC9zaWQvX2VCV2pGcGs%3D

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3

Thank you.    I looked this solution over…   a bit confiusing.    Isn’t 

How to uninstall WD SmartWare from Windows (7, Vista, or XP) and Mac OSX (10.4, 10.5, and 10.6)

Answer ID 5373   |    Last Updated 02/16/2011

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5373/related/1/session/L2F2LzEvdGltZS8xMzAwOTI2NzEwL3NpZC9hX3ktaEhwaw%3D%3D     More on target???    I don’t even know what a VCD is! 

4

A VCD is a virtual CD embedded in your My Book Essential hard drive with the WD SmartWare Backup Software, this virtual CD does not take space of your hard drive’s capacity.

The response send to you before is the correct one if you want to disable the VCD to use Norton Ghost.

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3835/session/L3RpbWUvMTMwMDkyOTY2Ny9zaWQveWROeHRIcGs%3D

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5

Thank you for the confirmation and explanation.  Now I know what a VDC is, but I still don’t know why it’s there, or what it does, or why disabling it will “give the reins” to Ghost.  

I’m not really sure but it appears that although Ghost has placed a backup copy on the WD, I see the little activity sight blinking now and then so I guess the WD’s software or the VDC is still updating the Ghost generated backup.   Do I have this right?   I’ll never be an expert on this, but I’d like to at least understand the concept.  

6

The virtual CD contains the WD SmartWare Backup Software and is in your hard drive as an option if you wants to use it as your backup software.

Since you are using Northon Ghost for you backup, you can disable the WD SmartWare VCD, so you wont have two backups running and conflict with each other.

When you started the backup using Norton, it should give you the option where do you want to save the backup to and if you selected the Passport hard drive that’s the reason you see the light flashing.

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7

The VCD is there for password encryption whether you use that or not. I just disabled it on mine in Device Manager.

Joe

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8

OK… I did all that was advised and it appears to have worked.  I did an unscheduled (C) backup and it’s now on a practical schedule. 

I’d like to review the backup to assure that I actually have something there, but ghost is not all that clear to a novice trying to do this for confidence sake.   Can anyone advise???  

My C drive has around 70 Gb used.   My G drive (backup) had2155 Gb used.    How do I determine that it’s actually what I want there?

And thanks loads to date for all the great advice and guidance. 

9

Per the WD manual for the My Book…LED Appearance Power State/Activity

On steady - Idle.  Fast flashing, approximately 3 times per second - Activity.   Slow flashing, approximately every 2.5 seconds - System standby.  

Mine is flashing rapidly 6-8 times in a row then takes a 1-2 sec breather.    That indicates activity, per above.   It is scheduled to backup  around 12 hours from now, so what the heck activity  is it doing???    I double checked that VDC is checked disabled.