I bought a MBLD, and from everything I read beforehand, I was under the impression I will easily be able to create a central backup solution for my files on Mac and PC. I installed Smartware on my (PC Windows 7), and everything works fine. I can open Smartware and see my PC and the MBLD on the welcome screen, then create file backup via the Backup tab. (I do not want to backup via category, but retain my file structure) However, on the Mac (Lion 10.7.5), I am facing some problems. I can install Smartware, but on the welcome screen only the Mac is shown, not the MBLD. I do feel that everything is correctly installed and connected, as I can see the MBLD in the Finder, and also access the Dashbord. Initially when I installed Smartware, it did not recognize the MBLD during the installation process, but after updating to the latest software versions, this could be solved. Since then, my Mac and the MBLD recognize each other, and I can move files via the Finder (drag and drop), but the MBLD just does not appear in the Welcome screen when opening Smartware. I am new to all this so here come my questions: - Can Smartware actually be used with Mac the same way as I do with Windows? I am not interested to use Time Machine. - I am seeking a solution where I can centrally backup ALL my files on my MBLD, and both the Mac and the PC automatically connect with the MBLD to always keep the most updated file via automatic updates. Am I expecting too much? (I do not want to back up my system, just the files). - If Smartware is not able to handle, any other software to recommend? I still feel that Smartware promises to be able to handle this (see WD website), so I am puzzled why I cannot set everything up the way I want. Maybe I am just overlooking something simple, so any hint or comment is much appreciated.
I have used smarter and looks fine for the amateur user
In my experience it did not work well on Mac…
I suggest to continue backing up your PC with Smarter and user Time Machine for the Mac computer
Thanks for the reply. It does not solve the problem yet, as I do not want separate backups for my mac and pc, but share all data among both machines. If I work on a file on my mac, I want it backed up on the MyBook Live Duo, and then be able to access it from the PC later on. I can’t be the only one wanting to do this? On the website it is one of the main features they are promoting: “Shared storage for all your computers. The perfect dual-drive solution for centralizing and sharing data on your wired or wireless network. Connect the My Book Live Duo to your wireless router to share and access videos, music, photos and important files with any PC or Mac computer on your network”
You are able to access the data from all of the computers you want.
You want centralize storage not backup…
In this case you can just transfer whatever files to the drive and access them from the computer you want
you can also go to the backup folders and view the files
remember that deleting or editing backed up files will endup corrupting the back, that’s the reason why is better to manually transfer the files
