I had my docs backed up on MyPassport Ultra and WD backup was showing 750 G backed up. My HP Envy hard drive failed and I had to replace it. I downloaded WD backup software and the computer sees the drive but shows no files on the Passport drive. Under properties It shows 1.37 G used (how big are the system files on the Passport Ultra?) but not any folders or files. I tried showing “hidden files” - still nothing. I really need those files back! Help!
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Hi,
When you say “but shows no files on the Passport drive”, do you mean your particular files, or completely blank? If blank, I.m not able to help you. You may need to go to the WD Support for help.
Does the drive show “WD Backup.swstor”, or similar? If so, open it and step through several single folders until you see History and Volume folders. History contains changes made to your files and deleted files. Volume contains the actual files. You may be able to recover them to your PC drive.
If during your normal activities, you deleted many files from the PC drive, History folder will have copies of them and may account for the high 1.37gb. I don’t think there are any ‘system files’ on the Passport.
Cliff
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Hello, sorry to butt in but I have exactly the same problem. The hard drive on my PC failed, I have installed a new drive and reinstalled Windows 10. I’m now trying to restore a backup I made from the old, failed drive. I have followed your instructions and have all the data you suggest should be there. When I run WD Backup…restore…select files to restore I don’t see the backup (run on October 24th). The data is there it WD backup doesn’t seem to recognise it. Like DFortier9 says I really need those files.
Thanks 
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Hi Culp,
Since you found the files using WD BAckup.swstor, try using Copy and Paste with Windows Explorer from the WD drive to your PC drive and check to see if they are the latest version.
I’m not sure how WD Backup handles changes to new versions of a file.
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It could keep the original version in Volume and keep changes in History; then apply the changes to the original version to restore a selected version. In that case you would only be able to recover the original version of the file.
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OR it could keep the latest version in Volume and use changes in History to restore a selected version.
I’ll run some tests to see what happens.
Cliff
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Thank you Cliff,
No files at all are showing but using 1.37 gb of space on MyPassport Ultra. Very strange because I had it on auto backup and got a message a while back that the disk was full so I reduced from keeping three copies of the backup to only two. I figured that with two I would be safe. Apparently not. Thanks for your input.
Well, it seems that whatever happened to my hard drive really did a number on my backups. I re-installed the backup utilities and dashboard from WD for the Passport drive to my new PC drive. It read the Passport drive fine but still showed no backup volumes or files.
I went ahead and backed up one folder. It recognized it, reads the file and allows me to retrieve it. The Tech guy who installed the new hard drive advised me to ditch using the backup utilities because they often encode the information. He says to just get a high volume external drive or use the cloud and make it a habit to copy your essential files. That way no encryption and no passwords to fight with. I hope you have better luck.
Denise
Oh, and just as a side note.
My HP Envy i7 17" touchscreen which was supposed to be cream of the crop when I bought it in 2015 had always run slow and had numerous problems. I kept taking it back to Best Buy and their “pro team” would check it out and say they had done various checks and tests, which always involved me having to spend days re-installing software.
