Feedback: WD SmartWare - Practically Useless, and Reckless! Enhancement required!

WD Legacy Products My Book Live
1

I just purchased two WD MyBook solutions (MyBook Essentials, and MyBook Live), though I was initially impressed with both the hardware, and software, imagine my surprise when I learned that neither solution allows users to add additional file extensions to be backup!

How can a software developer assume which files a user does NOT need to backup? How irresponsible is that?

The amount of different software solutions available to consumers today are astonishing to say the least, each generating their own data file formats (e.g. Cooking Recipes, Image Editors, Video Editor, Sound Editor, Financial Records, Medical Records, Family Tree, Gardening, Landscaping, Gardening, Floor Plan, Weight Loss Management, Diabetes, Games, etc… SOHO; Accounting, Fulfillment, Inventory, Credit Card Processing, etc…).

Imagine someone innocently buying and using this backup solution to later discover during the moment of truth, that only data file extensions WD SmartWare developers deemed important were backed-up, unforgivably reckless!

Suggestion:

Provide users with the Operating System all icons/File Types Extensions and Program Name Association table each with their own check-box, check default common file extensions to be backed-up, along with Select All, Select None option. Similar to most, if not all image editing software do during installation, and reconfiguration.

I, and perhaps WD management/developers would like to gauge how many concur with my opinion by simply replying with two words “I Concur.”, or “I Disagree.”.

Thank you.

2

switch over to file back up and select which directories you want backup up and problem solved 

3

In response to your reply, thanks!

However, technical support advised me that this is not an option, settting, and /or method issue. According to technical support its a software limitation issue, if the file extension is not in the so called list of extensions deemed by WD SmartWare developers worthy of being backup, it wont get backup.

4

interesting. that wasn’t the case for me. I would say just give it a try and see WD tech support isn’t always right.

5

Hello,

If you switch to “File Backup” it should backup any file format you select. Even if its not a support format for the “category backup”

6

It seems to be working, thanks.

Don’t understand why WD SmartWare Technical Support told me differently.

If neither respondants to my inital posts hears back from me, it means all worked out for me. But most of all, thank you both for your help.

7

Well, I tried your suggestion, “Switch To File Backup” botton located at the bottom of the Backup tab, and selected Drive E (external hard drive), which automatically checked/selected all subfolders.

However, it failed to backup three folders. Two folders that were displayed and selected via SmartWare application, and one that is not even displayed in the screen, yet visibible through the Windows XP.

This kind of thing really bothers me, because it creates a sensse of unreliability, as the application does not seem to report how many files/folders to backup, informative progress/status/feedback bar, and no completion stats to compare with files/folders selected to backup. Hence, a level of doubt is created whethere or not all files/folders were backup or not, and which one were not.

Unless of course Im doing something wrong, which I have not ruled out.

8

JChavez Please check your private messages.