WD program won't run - scared to lose data; also data storage question

WD External Drives External Drives for PC
1

Hi,

I’ve successfully used my WD My Book Essential in the past. I’ve not used it for a while. 

I have had some virus issues lately with my laptop, and I’m not sure if a setting got messed up, or some anti-virus won’t let the program start, or what - but I went to copy some more ebooks onto the Essential, and the SmartWare won’t load. 

I can unlock my drive, and see the files in it  - however the files are in a LOT of folders, and it appears as though it’s copied things over repeatedly - each folder has the User and Desktop and other ‘parts’ repeatedly.

Two issues:

I want my SmartWare program to run again so I can find my ebooks folder, and add some to the folder… 

and I’d like to know if I used the device/software properly, as most of my 1T is used up, and I honestly don’t think I have that much data on there, but I think it might be duplicating things (that I didn’t back up right…).

What is the easiest way to fix these things? I need to move some stuff off my laptop, soon, and want to make sure I have a good backup that I can access. 

Thanks in advance. 

(I’m not very hardware literate, though I can find my way around a bit… .thanks for the patience when answering me)

Cary

2

Since you already have duplicates on the drives, make sure to copy the files you need manually and delete the files you don’t need.

You can also reformat the drive once the files have been backed up to make sure you remove any virus or corruption there might be on the drive.

Make you sure to act quickly as the drive my cease to come up on the computer if it gets to heavily corrupted by a virus.