Setting up Passport To backup laptop and second external HD

Portable Drives My Passport
1

Greetings

I have a new 2TB WD Passport that I would like to use for two purposes:

  • To backup my entire Windows 7 laptop (~200GB out of 500GB capacity)

  • To backup my photos, which I store on a separate external HD (~500GB of images; when I need to work on images I move them over to the laptop, but generally do not keep duplicates on my laptop)

My questions:

  1. Can WD Backup automatically conduct Windows 7 system backups ie backups that could be used to restore my laptop in the event of catastrophic failure? I know directories can be individually selected for backup, but it seems from my reading that I might need additional software to create an entire system image?

  2. Can WD Backup schedule and conduct backups between 2 external HDs? I don’t see issues automating back ups of the laptop to the Passport, but what about automatically (or even manually) backing up my old external to the new Passport?

  3. Is it preferable/required that I create two partitions in order to separately back up my laptop system and my photos?

Thanks very much,
Stuart

2

Hi Stuart,

You can use WD Backup to copy the Windows 7 and I think it will include the system, but not sure. It did copy the Windows folder on one of mine. If you move files from the laptop and the Passport is password protected, you MUST NOT FORGET the password, or you lose everything.

You could also use Acronis True Image (See Downloads).

IIf the old external is recognized by the laptop, you should be able to use WD Backup. I have an internal drive besides the C: drive and that is no problem. It may depend on how the external is connected to the laptop. And it probably should be a WD drive.

I use several partitions but with a problem. The Passport keeps two copies of the files. One for the actual data and one apparently for changes to the data. So the Passport needs twice as much space. I my case one partition is too small and I cannot extend it. It looks as though I may have to erase the Passport drive and start over. Oh! and WD Backup offers to Delete some space. but never seems to accomplish the delete!

Cliff

3

Thanks Cliff - that’s helpful.

I’m thinking I will proceed as follows:

  1. Use the Windows 7 scheduled/automatic system backup feature to drive the
    Windows backup on the Passport, rather than WD Backup

  2. Use WD Backup to schedule/automate the backing up of my other external
    HD to the Passport (I don’t think it’s a WD but am hopeful it will be
    recognized - will dive into this over the weekend and report back).