I am not the kind of person who registers on a forum to complain about a new piece of hardware or software I have bought - even though I have had my share of bad experiences - but this time I really couldn’t hold back. After using WD hard drives for years, always to my contentment, I am having real trouble understanding WD’s choice of software on their new Passport drives.
Some time ago I bought a 320gb Passport drive which came with WDSync. An unelegant tool for backing up data, but it did it’s job and I got to select the directory (sub)structures I wished to copy to my drive. Because I wanted a second backup device for my most important data, I bought a new Passport 1TB this week. It came with different software, namely WD Smartware. Assuming this software should definitely be superior to WDSync, I installed it.
First disappointment: I wasn’t able to select any directories to back up, just a generic overview of ‘pictures’, ‘movies’ and the like. Sure to be overlooking something I consulted the manual, to discover this basic functionality was nowhere to be found. Ok, so at least the software would autodetect what to copy, right?
Second disappointment: Smartware indicated there was 35gb of photo’s to be backed up on my hard drive. But in actuality I have 60gb of photo’s to backup. All in the same directory.
Third disappointment: A clone of a CD-drive that is not removable? This can’t be real.
So I bought an external hard drive with a backup program that provides encryption to my data, but turns out to be completely user-unfriendly, unreliable and… useless? Who wants software that offers no control over your data on a backup device?
I know all of this has been posted many times before and if my post is judged to be redundant, by all means close or delete it. I just wanted to express how abhorred and disappointed I am by this so-called 'Smart’ware. I am planning on sending back this device and unless WD shows penitence for this big mistake, I will not return to buying WD products again in the future.
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