My company has a MyBook Essential that I would like to use as an offsite backup. It was installed on a server running Windows Server 2008 R2 which we have a Raid array for full backup.
I have tried to research this but still have questions:
I believe that I will have to unlock the drive using WD Utility software which will erase the data that is on it. Is this the only way to use the drive?
I plan on just copying (as in DOS copy) a few folders that contain critical data files on a weekly basis and storing them offsite. I have had bad experiences with trying to restore files from backups in the past and desire to just use the copy command (xcopy actually)
If this was a password protected drive, I would think that just reformatting the drive would unlock it, although all data there would be deleted, too… I have no idea what WD utilities you are referring to.
Thanks for the response, Mike. At one time I had came across some posts that suggested the WD utilities - I think the thought was you could reformat the drive as you suggest. Currently file explorer does not show the drive, however it does show up in device manager and Devices and Printers. I have yet to figure out how to reformat it. My intent is to use it as a standard external USB drive.
Not that familiar with the My Book Essential drive - seems like there may be electronics inside that provide encryption/password protection? The drive was installed on a server and the employees that managed it are no longer with our company. I have been asked to oversee the offsite backup aspect and thought I would use this drive if I can make it work.
Still searching…
This is for a company project, right? Then forget about this old Elements drive. You can play with it later if you want to. Meanwhile, order a new WD My Book from Amazon in the disk capacity you need.
Update: Have managed to have Windows Server Backup release the drive. Now I see the drive in file explorer and can use it like an external hard drive. Currently I am backing up about 140 GB of what I have deemed critical files consisting of data files that we have created. About 10 years worth. I figure all the other stuff can be reloaded or reinstalled if need be. 4 Hours and have backed up about 100 GB - don’t know how that compares to other situations? (I remember downloading a 1MB file took about 20 min from the local BBS - had to throw that one in!)
Anyway, thanks for the advice and I’m going to browse Amazon just in case ;{
If it is a USB 2 (or worse yet, a USB1) it can take quite a while. If you click on "more details) in file transfer Windows will tell you how fast/slow it is all transferring. Small files take longer than a few large files due to disk seeking for many small files.
