Will WD SmartWare Pro be replaced by WD Backup on all new drive models? What’s the difference between WD SmartWare Pro and WD Backup? WD Backup is a new software released on May 27th, 2015. Will WD SmartWare Pro be discontinued?
What a weird reply!!!
What’s the point in announcing a new product if you can’t list the features. And I am sure that all Smatware Pro users have exactly the same question!! Should I uninstall Smartware and install WD Backup instead?? Even when I google the new Backup, I don’t find anything
Hello,
This is the description found on WD website about the new WD Bakcup.
“WD Backup is an easy-to-use backup application. It automatically protects your files, photos and documents with on premise backups to a WD drive as primary storage. Off-premise backups to a cloud as secondary storage for disaster recovery purpose.”
Take a look at this link also:
http://community.wd.com/t5/News-Announcements/New-Software-WD-Backup-5-27-15/td-p/876832
I bought a My Passport Ultra last week. It came with WD SmartWare Pro. My interest is to back up files (libraries). I first tried Continuous (realtime) Backup. That didn’t work. I then tried Scheduled (daily) Backup. That worked for two days and stoped. The missing scheduled backup was not reported. The only status message during backup was “Copying files …” no matter what was actually happening or it was failing. The summary graph showed incorrect amount of data being backed up. At least for Files Backup, this software is unreliable and unfriendly.
I found WD Backup from the WD support site and intalled it. It works like a charm. You can select Libraries to backup instead of specific file folders. It provides precise status messages and a backup progress meter. It tells you how much data is backed up each time. For Files Backup, it is reliable and friendly.
I have uninstalled WD SmarWare and removed its store. I now understand why WD came up with WD Backup and why the new My Passport Ultra comes only with WD Backup.
Can anyone tell me the pros and cons from ‘WD Smartware Pro’ and ‘WD Backup’?
Is ‘WD Backup’ only a newer version of the ‘WD Smartware Pro’?
Why can I buy new HDDs with ‘WD SmartwarePro’ OR ‘WD Backup’?
Can’t tell you the pros and cons, just my experience: I bought a new WD My Book today and installed the software. The backup feature wouldn’t work, didn’t get installed. In the drive folder is WD Backup.exe, and I tried to install it manually. Got the message: “WD Smartware is installed(it’s not). If you install WD Backup, any backups made by WD Smartware can’t be restored by WD Backup.”
I don’t know what the difference is but my attempt to use WD Backup failed. The software did not work. I appeared to work but I paused. When I came back to resume the backup, I got a notice to update my firmware. At that point the drive locked up and my password no longer worked. The software gave me an option to erase and start over, so I did that. The WD Backup no longer did anything and only the WD Smartware can access the drive. So I don’t think that WD Backup is any improvement since only the WD Smartware works.
wd is just the pits
Thw WD Website explains the compatibility for WD_Smartware and your particular WD External drive.
WD_Backup is compatible with the non-Ultra drives mostly - that is a personal observation after having bought 4 WD External drives of various flavors.
For Image Backup - Use Acronis
For Backups that restore your Outlook based email - and User-Files in a Smart way - Use WD_Smartware
For just a File based backup - mostly to local external drive - Use WD_Backup
Hope that helps
WD_Smartuser
