I’ve been backing up my hard drive 2x week onto the Passport. Periodically I would look at the restore files to see what was backed up there.
Last week the hard drive failed. I installed a new drive; installed Windows 7; and then installed the WD Passport software. The Passport works fine but it wouldn’t let me Restore until I created a backup plan. I did so and backed up one file, then tried to restore the apps and files from the old drive. There were no restore files on the Passport but when I looked at the files on the WD I could see the data (but not the apps themselves).
What happened to the restore files? How do I recover and reinstall all my apps and data?
If you used the WD Smartware software to backup your files then you should be able to restore them without any issues. However, the WD Smartware software only does data backup. This means that is does not backup software/programs/applications.
In order to restore your files you can either use the WD Smartware software or you can just copy and paste the files from he passport to the computer.
Thank you for your response. I did use the WD Smartware to back up the
data. How can I use it for restoring files when none of the backup files
appear in WD Smartware?
David Steckler
In a message dated 11/23/2015 1:06:40 P.M. Central Standard Time, wdsupport@wdc.com writes:
_Hamlet_ (https://community.wd.com/users/hamlet)
November 23
Hello,
If you used the WD Smartware software to backup your files then you should
be able to restore them without any issues. However, the WD Smartware
software only does data backup. This means that is does not backup
software/programs/applications.
In order to restore your files you can either use the WD Smartware
software or you can just copy and paste the files from he passport to the
computer.
I’ve run into the exact same issue as Dave. My PC crashed and I restored the operating system and reloaded the WD Backup application. However, the Restore function within the application doesn’t recognize (can’t find) the saved files unless I try to make a new back-up first. I understand I could copy/paste, but why does the Restore function not work the way it should? That’s the whole point of having the backup drive in the first place.
I also have the same issue, I bought a new laptop in July, and a new My Passport Ultra, backed up my files several times with WD Backup. In late August the laptop failed, went back for repair and came back with a new hard drive, and newly installed copy of Windows 10. So I wanted to restore all my files to the laptop. But exactly the same issue - I’ve run WD Backup once since it was returned, then tried to restore the files from August but they aren’t listed - I can only see the new backup from September.
I found the backup files on the drive, but WD backup renames them to ,DOC_LAST, ,JPG_LAST etc (and might also compress them), so there’s no point in copying those across to the laptop.
I’ve logged a message with WD support about it, but no reply from them yet.
If I don’t get a satisfactory answer, I’ll ask for my money back as the item is Not of Merchantable Quality under the Sale of Goods Act. (I can restore most of the files from my old PC which I still have)
I also logged a support call with WD Support, and got this reply
“In this case I suggest you to manually recover the file made with this past back up. In the My Passport Ultra, you should go to the Backup/volume folder and manually transfer the files from the My Passport to your computer. The proper files must be there.”
I found the files in
E:\WD Backup.swstor\richa\NGFlYjQ0ZWMxNzkzNGJjNj\Volume{e5120d16-fe3c-4758-a814-5c32cd1c0176}\Users
and successfully restored them to my laptop.
No, the files didn’t have “_LAST” appended. They have retained the original names. But there is another folder called History, with other folders beneath it with files that have "_LAST"appended. It seems that the backup creates both files each time it backs up - the latest files are from my backup 3 days ago.
