The My Book 2TB external drive is backing up (it appears) with both WD Backup and WD SmartWare. Is this something often seen? The volume of data being backed up is resulting in full scan applications running laboriously slow. I’m reasonably sure I only need to be backing up with one application and into one place on the external drive. Any advice is appreciated. Thanks!
Hi,
You can stop either one:
To stop WD Smartware, open it and select a Backup Source and Target Source. Open BAckup Tab. In lower right corner select Disable Backup. Repeat for any other Backup & Target combinations that you don’t need.
To stop WD Backup, open it and select the Backup Plan at the top. Click on Delete Backup Plan at the bottom. Repeat for any other Backup Plan that you don’t need.
WD Smartware is no longer supported by WD. WD Backup is preferred.
Cliff
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Hi Cliff,
Thanks for the quick response. When I stop WD SmartWare, will the My Book
delete backups to date or simply stop adding to them? This doesn’t affect
the WD Backup files, yes?
Bill
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Bill,
No the files will probably remain. You can possibly remove them. Open the drive in Windows. You should find folders ‘WD Smartware.swstor’ and ‘WD Backup.swstor’. You can delete either of these folders and, I hope, not loose the other set.
If you want to check the filles before you delete them Click on the proper ‘swstor’ folder and work your way down until you open a folder with History and Volume{…} folders. Open the Volume{…} folder and you should find all the saved files.
Cliff
Cliff,
I’ve discovered, through trial and error, that WD Backup is still
performing as expected. It does not appear WD Smartware is doing so, in
that it fails to back up recently created files. If possible, I’m
considering deleting WD Smartware completely, along with the files it has
saved up to the point where it stopped (sometime in 2017).
What I’m hoping to end up with is a simple My Book file structure that
backs up all my stuff in one place and doesn’t look like Jacob’s Ladder.
I have found two “volumes” in WD Backup which I think are those to which
you referred. One is backing up files in their original form, the other,
which strangely enough appears to bear the same filename as the other, is
loaded with file extensions I’m not familiar with such as .jpg1234567 and
.jpg_LAST, neither of which I’m able to open.
I’ve attached snips of what I’m seeing in the two “volumes” under WD Backup
in the My Book file structure. I’m only allowed two attachments.
Any recommendations would be appreciated. And thanks for your help and
patience to this point.
Regards,
Bill
Hi Bill,
Ok you found both Volumes. The first that you show is under History and to the best I can figure out these are where the variations (history) of files changes are kept. For your’s they appear to be pictures, which I doubt will change much. The second is the current version of files, so for stories, say, they would be the latest version. When you retrieve files (or folders) you can specify which version and I would expect WD Backup to reconstruct the current version using the data in the History > Volumes folder.
I think I found another set of files once! Anyway, WD Backup will ALWAYS use nearly twice as much space as on the PC. So, don’t be surprised if you get “Drive Full” messages. Just buy a bigger drive.
Before you delete the WD Smartware backups, I suggest you make sure you have them in the WD Backup files or on your PC. And you should know that External hard drives seem to have a life limited to 3 to 5 years, so don’t delete from you PC if you may need in the future. I see a lot of complaints from people who have lost years of picture, videos, etc because the backup drive failed.
Also, don’t use Password for WD Backup if you keep the drive in one place. People forget the password and then can’t recover their files. WD does not keep a copy. If you forget it the files are gone.
Cliff
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Hi again Cliff,
I think (hope) I’ve got it straightened out.
I rearranged my photo files to a configuration that makes sense and then
did a backup. The changes were reflected in the WD Backup but not the WD
SmartWare files. So, going out on a big limb, I deleted everything
associated with WD SmartWare from the files of the My Book drive and
deleted the SmartWare application from the computer. The WD Backup appears
to be sufficiently backing up changes to the computer files.
I’ve no plans to delete any of the remaining photo files from the computer
(I deleted a lot of crappy photos) and have not set a security password
for the My Book Because is has a 2TB capacity and my current files make use
of less than half of that. I think I’ll be OK going forward until such time
as I replace the computer and/or the external drive, which may happen
sooner rather than later.
I appreciate the assistance you’ve given me to date. It has been very
helpful. If it’s OK, I’ll let you know what the results are in a day or two
as I’m still playing around with my original file system and hoping I
haven’t inadvertently deleted anything I really wanted to keep.
Thanks again,
Bill
Bill,
You are welcome. My pleasure to help.
Cliff
