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Can the My Passport Ultra be used as a simple external drive

I’ve been told that the unit won’t function as a plain external drive. All I want to do is attach (USB) the unit to my Home Server (WHS2011) and use the Home Server backup utility to backup the files. Is there software on the unit (like the GoFlex Home) that won’t let it be used like a simple external drive?

Hi and welcome to the WD community

Its possible to use the my passport ultra as a normal external drive. the software that comes with the unit is not mandatory to use so you are able to use the drive to just drag and drop or copy and paste.

Is it possible to see the individual files on my WD My Passport Ultra?

How do I bypass the WD Smartware so that I can use my Passport drive as a simple “dumb” external drive? I’d prefer to delete ALL of the software and use it as a simple storage device, if possible.

You don’t need the Smartware installed. You can use the drive like any regular drive copy to, drag and drop etc.

Joe 

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