SmartWare? Or DumbWare?

I thought I understood and was comfortable with WD SmartWare’s continuous backup as a complete backup solution. I’ve been using it (with a My Book drive) for over a year now, so when my data drive recently failed I felt confident that I was in good shape. I bought a new drive and retreived all my data from the SmartWare backup. Sounds good, right?

The first hint that there was a problem came in the form of a message that my Dropbox was full. How could that be, I thought, since I always manage my Dropbox at about 80% of capacity. A little digging around in my files and it started to look like "Smart"Ware had recovered files that I had long ago deleted from my computer. 

How does that make sense for a complete backup solution? I mean, how do they imagine that I’m going to use it? Every time I delete a file from my computer am I supposed to go digging around in the backup to delete it from there as well? I just don’t get it. I’d call that Dumbware. So is my data drive now crammed with all my current data plus every file I’ve deleted in the past year and a half or so? How will I ever clean that mess up? The answer is, I can’t.

If anyone can explain how this is supposed to be a good idea, let alone “Smart”, I’d love to hear it. Also, if I’ve just been using it wrong, please tell me what I need to do to use it correctly. Otherwise, does anyone know of a continuous backup solution that is actually Smart, (meaning that when I delete files from my computer it deletes them from the continuous backup as well)?

Thanks.

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Basically it’s doing it correctly as backup software, not as sync software.

Take another example. You’re working away and thinking you no longer need a file, you delete it. Then the following week you discover that it’s absolutely vital that you have the content of that file, or else the world will end. In your scenario you’re stuffed, as Smartware, having seen that you deleted the file, did likewise and removed it from the backup. Hence you no longer have access to it and you’re screwed. Whereas now you just go back and recover it and you’re on your way again.

Some similar scenario could happen if you get a virus, which either infects or itself deletes files. As things are now you just go back and recover (hopefully) a last known-good one (if your backup versions go back far enough) and you’re back in business.

What I think Smartware perhaps lacks, which would also cover your scenario, is a periodic “inventory snapshot” which basically lists what the actual current file list on your hard drive actually is within the backup set you’ve already made. Hence you could either just restore that (recover your drive as it was at the time) or “go off-piste” and pull back a previously deleted file. The question would of course be how often to make such a snapshot when set to continuous backup, but that’s probably something to make user-configurable.

Your scenario is awkward and time consuming I agree, but having many files to wade through and cherry-pick the ones you want is better than having files missing that you need.

Indeed I think I’ll drop that into the ideas forum later as a possible improvement to the software.

Thanks for the note, and I totally understand what you’re saying, but it seems rather simple to me to have it both ways. When the user deletes a file, the continuous backup software simply (and immediately) tags the backup of that file as deleted. Then if I need to recover a deleted file, it’s still there, (and easier to find, since I only have to look through files tagged as deleted). If I need to do a complete restore, the software could ask, “Do you want to restore deleted files as well?”. “Uh, no thank you,” Done. That would be _Smart_Ware.

The situation that I have now is more than just “awkward and time consuming”, it’s completely impossible. Taking my photo archive alone, I have thousands of photos that I have painstakingly gone through (in small doses, at the time each batch was imported), chosen the best, and deleted the rest. Now all the photos are back. And that’s just photos! I have no idea how I would go through every folder to find every file of every type that I have deleted over the past 18 months and delete them again. Let’s face it, it’s really not possible.

I definitely need to find a smarter backup solution going forward. Still open to suggestions on that.

One more thing, regarding suggesting it as a possible improvement to the software; looks like someone already did that. Then someone actually marked it as “implemented” with a note saying that you can simply go into your backup and delete the files you don’t want anymore. Brilliant! Why didn’t I think of that! [insert appropriate sarcasm emoticon here]

:slight_smile:

I would agree there’s certainly room for improvement, as you say to allow for both types of scenario.

I’ve raised it as a suggestion ( here) - if you’ve anything to add to that (or just support it by clicking on the star beside my post) please add it via the comment tag on the idea.

i came across the same problem now and am probably shocked the way JustStan was.
Do you know if there was any improvment on the end?