SmartWare for WD Essential 1tb cannot select files for backup!

Smartware, not that smart after all as it disallows me to select the files I wish to backup .

Instead, it is preprogramme to only allow me to select things such as Documents, Others, Pictures etc…

I need a workaround as i noticed not everything is backuped though it is technically correct under those categories.

Please advise…

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Hello,

Even if the file you wish to back up is not in the Documents, Picture, Music, Movies, Mail list.

However, it still will be add into the Smartware Other list or in Additional Files list.

 All of your files (not OS or program files) are still back up to the WD external drive without you know it.

In the Backup tap, you can click on the arrow next to the Detail View to show all files in each categories.

You can select or de-select each categories as you wish to back up.

Or if you prefer, you can manually copy and paste the files to the WD external drive your self from explore windows. Not within the Smartware screen.

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The “Smartware” software does not backup ANY .exe files, even if it is not a system file and is in the My Documents folder as far as I can see. Thus the WD drives are not a viable backup option using “Smartware”.

Many of us have .exe files from software we downloaded and need to save. This needs to be corrected by WD.

Clicking the Backup tab and expanding the “Detailed View” does not show a list of files – at least not using my WS Smartware. AllI I see are the “Document,” “Mail,” Movies," Other," etc., checkboxes! If you click Retrieve, you have the option of selecting files, but the software has to “rebuild volumes” first before it displays them. In my case, this rebuilding process now has been running for more than 30 minutes, with no end in sight!

My ‘Mail’ is recognised on the Home tab, but on the back-up tab its not listed, and is not backed-up. I’ve checking in restore and there are no emails…how do I get my’Mail’ backed up?

Or if you prefer, you can manually copy and paste the files to the WD external drive your self from explore windows. Not within the Smartware screen. ~says thanarath

i’d like to ask how to do that?? i tried to manually copy and paste the files to my WD Essential from explore windows, but it keeps saying,“Access is denied”…

please help me…thank you

I found a workaround that if you create a zip file with all your .exe files, then SmartWare will automatically back up the zip file.  

My problem with SmartWare that it takes forever to rebuild the volume to display the list of files to retrieve and the way it organizes the backed up files into non-intuitive folders that makes it almost unusable when you need to retrieve a single file.  By the time the volume list is rebuilt I could have used explorer to find the file and copy it to my destination, made changes, resaved the file, and eaten my lunch.  Please WD make it less painful to retrieve the data.

I just use Windows 7 Backup to backup to the external drive - can select files & folders to backup.

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