The title says it all. WD Smartware, Utilities, etc. will not open, yet the file system sees the drive and I can access files such as the PDF manual. What can/should I do? Is there a solution that preserves the backed-up data on the drive?
…An error message flashes so quickly as to be unreadable, but I caught it with 'printscreen." It reads “The invocation of the constructor on type ‘WDSmartware.Retrieve.Retrieve’ that matches the specified binding constraints threw an exception.” Does that mean anything to anyone??
Hi there,
As long as you can access your drive via File Explorer, your data is safe. WD SmartWare does not store your data in the program, but rather in the drive itself.
I would suggest you uninstall WD SmartWare as it is now and reinstall the latest version from our website.
Thanks, Feragui! Downloaded and reinstalled, and everything seems to be here.
One question, though: Will the newly installed software recognize the previously backed up material (which is now greyed out, instead of blue), or will backups going forward be duplicating the previous material (and thereby taking up twice as much space on the Passport Drive)?
–Update: I just went back into WD Smartware: the previous backup material on the Passport Drive shows up as “additional material.” Does this mean it will be inaccessible to me? In the Retrieve section, I was able to select a file, but the “Start Retrieving” button remained gray. Is there something I can do to have the software recognize the old backup?
–Update#2: Smartware is now backing up my C: drive normally, but it is backing up to a new section (partition?). Oddly, I can go into the Retrieve section, locate a previously backed-up file, and retrieve it. Yet the new version of Smartware apparently doesn’t recognize this content as its backup target. Is there any way to address this, or will I have to abandon previously backed up files and start fresh. Corollary question: if I can’t specify the old material as the target, how do I safely delete it to make space for the new backup?
