Bought a My Book 2Tb and installed today. However I can’t find a place where i can actually view the backed up files on it. My reason for buying was I want to do a complete restore on my pc and obviously don’t want to lose files, photos and videos. In the past I’ve burned copies of everything I didn’t want to lose then reloaded after a restore. My thinking was this might be easier as I have about 160 gigs worth of stuff I want to keep.
After installing I’m thinking maybe I didn’t do the right thing. After using the disks I created after I bought the pc to restore to straight from box condition can I then just select to retrieve the backed up files? Do I need to reload programs first? Or, would I have been better off to have not installed the software so I could use it more of a 2nd harddrive and manually moving all file, folders etc I want to keep?
Like I said I’ve done it “the old fashion way” in the past but this is also my first pc that doesn’t have a copy of the operating system with it. Before I do anything I want to make certain I won’t lose any files. This is my first experience with this type of back up.
After the hard drive is connected, you will have the option to install WD SmartWare in order to perform automatic backups. It can also be downloaded for free from Page Not Found | WD Support
On the other hand, the hard drive will still work as a regular storage drive for copy/paste operations, and will be displayed in the “Computer” section of Windows Explorer. If you made a backup with WD SmartWare, then it will be stored in a folder called Smartware.swstor
However, please bear in mind WD SmartWare is not a system backup application, and as such it will not copy system files or program files. If you need a 1:1 system image, then I would recommend a different backup solution more in tune with your needs.
First, thanks for the reply. Found the Smartware.swstor file and it does contain my things. Had to go back to my desktop as they were not necessarily where I thought they would be. But, I am able to find everything. When looking for them before I just didn’t go far enough.
At this point then I should be able to restore pc using the disks I created and then reload all my programs. Lastly install WD My Book agian. At that point I should then be able to retrieve all my files/folders etc from My Book. If I am correct then I would be back exactly where I am now but with a fully restored pc, correct? By reloading MY Book to my restored pc that will have no affect on data already on MY Book?
I used to do a full restore about every 6 months but when I bought this pc 2/3 years ago I got lazy. Always my biggest loss was emails and pics. I’ve learned to forward emails to myself to another on line email system so I can access them from any pc.
Installing WD SmartWare again after restoring the computer should not affect stored data as long as you do not run a new backup if you keep the same computer name since that is how the application keeps track of computers already copied. As a recommendation, it would be wise to have the hard drive completely disconnected while the computer is being restored just as a precaution.
The files in Smartware.swstor are not encrypted, and can be copied out to your computer even if WD SmartWare is not installed.
