The current version of Smartware is 2.4.1, at least according to the install I have at home on my netbook. I agree the software isn’t so smart or effective, but for a free bit of software it’s not too bad.
One initial question - have you updated your MBL firmware since the original set-up (when the old version of the software that you have worked)? A mismatch there could possibly be why things aren’t being seen perhaps.
Also on your MBL, what is the name of the folder that contains your back-up? From my MyCloudMirror it should be a folder “Smartware” in the root, with sub-folder “WD SmartWare.swstor” below that with then further sub-folders for each machine that Smartware has backed up, sub-divided again by the hard drive volume ID. If any of those folder names have been altered then that could perhaps explain why it’s not being found by the software but is visible directly via explorer?
To answer Q2 - no, it won’t wipe anything to update to 2.30 (or 2.41). The Smartware is the software that runs on your local PC for communicating to the MBL (or MyCloud in my case), rather than anything that runs on the remote WD drive itself. But what it means is that your old list of files/folders to be backed up won’t survive the upgrade you mentioned, so will need to be set-up again. In your case as you’re trying to recover rather than start backing up again, I’d say 2.4.1 is your best shot.
The download link for MBL software from the WD site is: MBL Software Link - sorry I’ve no idea about if/where older versions of Smartware may be available from.
The link in the above post should also be valid, as it’s aimed to set the drive up for the first time (as it will be as you’ve done the Win7 reinstall) and so it should set everything up fresh with the latest up to date version of the software for the drive. Your disc is of course 3 years old now, so will contain older versions of the software (as your Smartware clearly is from the version number you posted). If you (or it) have updated since that original installation in 2011 and also your firmware has updated on the drive for example, then that could perhaps explain things.
If I were in your situation I’d try the latest software versions (either from my link in this post or the one given in the link posted above by Ichigo) and see if that helps or not.
