1 computer backing up to 2 Passports - Help!

WD Software & Mobile Apps WD Software
1

Hi,

I backup my laptop (windows 7 pro) to two 500Gb My Passports. The first always backs up no problem, but when I plug the second in it seems to think that it has already backed up, when it hasn’t. I assume this is because it thinks I’ve just plugged the first one back in.

Is there a way to manually tell it to check for files to backup again?

The only way I’ve found to get round this is to back up each passport on different days.

Cheers

Chris

2

Hello,

Try to change the name of one of the drives, for Smartware to recognize the other drive name and create the backup.

3

How do you rename a drive?

4

watermom22 wrote:

How do you rename a drive?

 

Start > Computer > right click on the drive could be My Passport or Mo Book ( depending the drive you have), select Rename and you will be able to write another name for the drive, click on any empty space and that’s it !

5

Still having the same problem as Chris, even after the second Passport has been renamed…any other ideas?

Shannon

6

Well after going on the WD support desk, renaming the drive, uninstalling the software and re-installing, nothing has worked.

My solution was simple. I wiped the  drive completely (apart from the annoying 30Gb or so it won’t give me back!) and installed Allway Sync on my computer, it’s free and very easy to use. Back up is now simple and automatic when I plug the drive in. The best thing is it doesn’t encrypt the files so when I plug it in I can see a mirror of all the folders I’ve asked it to back up. I’d highly recommend it.

Sorry WD but your software just isn’t up to the job.

7

were both of the passports smartware drives?  the reason I’m asking is because smartware drives still do hardware encryption, regardless whether you use the password or not.  oh, and by the way, smartware should have been able to read both of those drives if they are both smartware drives.

wd just came out with another update for smartware.  it supposedly can backup files and folders, now.  and I would also make sure that you have the latest firmware updates on those drives.

8

Thanks Wayne. They are both WD My Passport Essentials which came with Smartware installed. I think the problem was that once I’d backed up to one drive and plugged the other straight in, Smartware looked at the drive and though ‘it’s the same one, I’ve already backed that up’ and so did nothing.

The other thing I didn’t like about Smartware was the need to retrieve files to see if they’re actually backed up correctly.

With Allway Sync I can just look in the folder. No encryption as far as I can see and it works perfectly.

9

Then that’s all that matters.