New Drive Won't Connect and Software Not Working

WD Software & Mobile Apps WD Software
1

I own a new My Book Essential 3TB external drive and use Win 7.  I use another program to backup but it won’t connect to this drive (but does to other drives) even though I can access it through Win Explorer and move files back and forth. The message states that it can’t find the drive. My drive is connected to a new wirless router using the USB cable and that router is connected by cable to my laptop.

I decided to load the WD backup software.  It installed and updated to the latest version of 1.6 but I can’t seem to do anything with it.  On the Home tab the left panel shows up with my local drive files but the rest of the screen is blank and not as I’ve seen in some screenshots. The dropdown shows my C drive and one other old connected external drive (directly to my laptop) but not this new 3TB drive. The Backup and Retrieve tabs are grayed out and the Settings tab offers nothing I can use to help me.  I’ve read where others suggest upgrading the firmware but I don’t see where I can do this.

Also, if I get this working  is there a way to select which files I want to backup?

2

If the My book is connected to the router, it wont be recognized by smartware, only when is connected directly to the PC.

3

Wow!  That’s not what I wanted to hear.  Three different sales people at BestBuy told me I could use this external drive plugged into my wireless routers USB port  to backup my data.  I explained I had to do it through the wireless router and its USB port.  I think I will have to return it.  Is anywya around this?  Wondering if this is why my Geni backup software is saying it can’t find the drive too, even though my laptop sees it in Win Explorer.  Thanks.

4

As a followup, I was able to use my Genie Backup software to perform backups.  I had originally tried this by setting the backup software to use the path I had previously mapped to a drive letter but this always failed.  The solution was not use that normal method because it was connected to my wireless router but to use \readyshare\usb_storage in the software settings.