SmartWare

I just purchased My Book Essential 1TB HD.  I purchased it to back up files, especially two large websites I have.  What is SmartWare and do I need to load it when all I need is storage?

Smartware may not work it is selective on what type of files it backsup.

Joe

Is that all it is…backup?

Windows now says I have this update…what is this?  I just loaded the program yesterday afternoon?

Western Digital Technologies - Other hardware - WD SES Device

Download size: 21 KB

You may need to restart your computer for this update to take effect.

Update type: Recommended

Western Digital Technologies Other hardware software update released in January, 2011

More information:
http://winqual.microsoft.com/support/?driverid=20408167

Help and Support:
http://support.microsoft.com/select/?target=hub

Trying to find this forum useful, but having hard time…?

I don’t use Smartware but look in that forum. Bill posted some things there to help.

Joe

If all you’re using it for is storage, then you can get away with not installing SmartWare, or uninstalling SmartWare if it’s already installed.

The MyBook Essential drives work fine as plain ol’ drives.  I’m using 4 that way at the moment.

SmartWare is essentially a backup manager.  But it’s selective in which of your user files it backs up… it’s not a “system backup” tool.

People who want to back up their photos are happy enough with it.  Anyone using the drives for full backups, uses other programs, and anyone using the drives just as drives, just accesses them from Explorer or the file requesters in any application.

The “SES Driver” is for the communications channel between the drive and the PC.  The drive will work as a drive without the driver installed, but you’ll keep getting the nags to install the driver every time you attach the drive.  In this case it’s used for the password functionality and for the little LEDs that show how full the drive is.  You’re fine updating the driver so that Windoze will stop bugging you about the update it has found.

Can I use Smartware as a backup manager and also just use the drive as a normal drive that I copy and paste to?  Can I copy and paste the same files that get backed up by Smartware just so I have them organized differently??

Yep… you can use the drive as a normal drive.

Hi I’m new to this… I just bought a 2T My Book Essential and just want it as storage but when I installed the SmartWare it backs up everything and I delete the file from C: , when I restart my computer it Restores it back to C:… So if I delete or uninstall the SmartWare it will work fine? or would it be best to put some other software?

Well, if you delete the original file, then your copy isn’t a “backup”, it’s just the sole copy… if the drive fails (and all drives will, sooner or later) your data will be lost.

The point of a backup is that it’s a second (or third) copy of something.

Having said that, yes, you can uninstall Smartware and use another program (like Windoze Backup), or just copy files manually as if it were any other drive.