I had an old Passport which worked very well with the old WD software but it became full so I purchased a new one which is now forcing me to use the new Acronis software and frankly I’m baffled by it.
All I want to do is back up my files and if my computer dies I want to be able to restore them either to a repaired machine or a new one. With the old software it was a simple matter of navigating to the backed up files and dragging then across to where I wanted them.
The new drive comes with a 150 page online manual plus help pages which are so detailed and technical as to become impenetrable when I have what I feel are simple requirements and simple questions! I would be grateful if someone could answer these in straightforward terms:
1- I have set an incremental schedule and this appears to have worked, however, as it isn’t possible to simply open those folders on the Passport, is there a way of checking whether the files are really there? With the old software it was possible to view them and it was nice to have that assurance.
2- As it isn’t possible to simply view the individual files and folders, I assume that in the event that I needed to recover these I wouldn’t be able to simply drag and drop them back to my computer, but rather I would need to go through the recovery process (which seems quite complicated from the instructions with numerous options and restrictions but which might be simple in practise). Can you confirm my understanding here?
3- I initally thought that maybe running a full backup schedule rather than an incremental schedule might make this possible but if I can’t drag and drop then this probably isn’t the case?
4- Reading the manual today I wondered whether it would be a better idea to back up the entire system rather than just files? I can no longer find where I read about this as the manual is so extensive, however, I recall something which said if I used that option I would be unable to change the destination. This makes it sound like I couldn’t recover my files to a new computer if it wasn’t possible to rescue the old one. I would like to have re-read that if I could find my way back to it! My question - if I back up everything, will I still have the option to recover files to a new destination if I need to?
I guess my final question, which should really have been my first question, is whether there is any way to continue to use the old software which was easy to use and perfect for my needs? I still have the old software and it recognises my old Passport but fails to recognise the new one when I plug it in to set up a new plan.
Thanks for any help.
Hi @Raymondo2,
Have you opened a Support Case? If not opened, for more information, please contact the WD Technical Support team for the best assistance and troubleshooting:
https://support-en.wd.com/app/ask
Thanks.
No, I didn’t contact support. Given how technical the manual is, I didn’t want a convoluted technical response - I felt a straightforward confirmation from a user would be better.
In the absence of a response though I did browse the forum to see what other issues people might be having, and to be honest, the more I read the more questions I had and it became clear that this wasn’t the programme for me. There was one particular issue which I had encountered, which I thought might be solved once I got the thing working. However, it seems that this apparently is insoluable at present, and for me that’s a deal breaker.
On that basis I installed alternative software, which I am pleased to say is much more straightforward and which is working well, doing everything I need it to.
Thanks again for responding.
