I have a WD Ultra 1TB connected full-time to our desktop PC running Vista. I have set it to back up on a set schedule: every day at 9 AM and I have set the Sleep Timer to put the Ultra into Sleep Mode after 10 minutes of inactivity. Yesterday at 9 AM the backup went flawlessly and lasted less than 15 minutes. My CPU activity returned to normal and after 10 minutes the Ultra went back to sleep. It doesn’t always do this and I hoped I was out of the woods. Apparently not so. Today, the back up started at 9 AM. I was busy doing something else and noticed at 1:30 PM that my CPU activity was 80% or higher and apparently had been since 9 AM. Nothing else was running that could have caused it. I launched the WD SmartWAre software, clicked on the Backup tab and then on the small clock button near the bottom of the window to see it this morning’s date and time would be listed under Last Backup to indicate that the back up had completed. The date listed was yesterday at 9:15 and I took from that that today’s backup was not finished and still running! I finally shutdown the computer to stop what appeared to be near runaway CPU activity. When I restarted the computer later, the SmartWare/Backup/clock button stated that the last backup had been today at 1:57Pm…the time I shut down the computer! ??? I called WD Support, explained the issue and I am now being referred to Level 2 Support. They were not available but will call me early next week. The inadequate software and basic manual have both resulted in a frustratingly steep and time consuming learning curve for this device. I am considering erasing the drive, uninstalling the software and starting over. Does anyone have any ideas or solutions for my problem? Thanks in advance.
Check if you have the latest Smartware version installed, also check if any files that Smartware needs to backup are being used by another program, Smartware will only backup the files when they are no used.
http://www.wd.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/wdsmartware.asp?id=wdfMyPassport&os=win
Thank you for your reply.
I do have the latest SmartWare version installed.
Are you saying that SmartWare will skip any files that are open or in use and not back them up or that SmartWare will “run in circles” for hours, using a huge amount of CPU resources (my case), waiting for the files to be closed and then finish the backup? It should skip any files that are open and finish the backup without them. I don’t know if any files were open or not, I’ll watch for that. The backup is supposed to run in the background without any involvement by us. Two out of the last three days it backed up properly but yesterday it ran for 4 1/2 hours before I shut down the computer to stop it. It appeared to be in a loop or running with high activity for no known reason. The learning curve is steep on this thing. Anything additional you can add will be appreciated. Thanks.
To date I have had three phone calls with WD Support Level 1 personnel. All seemed to want to be of assistance but they all provided contradictory and/or incorrect information. I finally spoke with a Level 2 Support rep and he was helpful. He suggested that considering all the difficulty I have had with WD SmartWare that I uninstall it and use Windows Backup and Restore software (that is already on my computer) and use the WD Ultra as the backup destination. I have done that and the Backup and Restore software and function are much better than WD SmartWare software. If you are having difficulty with WD Smartware, uninstall it and use Windows Backup and Resore…it is infinitely better.
