External hard drive with automatic backup software

Just got myself a new Western Digital My Book 2 TB external hard drive for my PC running Win 7. It comes with WD SmartWare - automatic backup software.

How good is this software?

Is it recommended to use it or just backup myself in a manual way?

If I install it, can I bypass it or will take over the hard drive?

Why would you repeatedly pulg and unplug a backup device? Surely leaving it permanently attached is less risky.

the wd software is very good. I also have a Seagate backup drive which also allows backup to Flickr. I have a spare free Flickr account which gives you 1tb free

Thanks for the replies.
Now a complete non-computer geeks - laymen questions.
What are the big benefits of automatic backup programs? I do not like the idea of too much automatic procedures and tend to prefer to backup manually.
What does it mean when you make a mirror (clone) of your hard drive - does it backup also the system and all the installed programs?
The external hard drive I got will serve me as a master backup device (my insurance policy...)and will not be connected permanently to the computer. For daily work I using also a portable hard drive.

I have given up totally on the WD hardware, their own forum is awash with people like me who just can't get it to work in any reliable way, this morning it told I had 52368 files pending backup.

I use an online backup called Carbonite link

Actually no.

What about in a fire or break-in? The PC would go, as would the drive.

Mine is often locked away and additionally some stored off site too.

I also have a WD Passport and find it easy to use and very reliable and like the ability to select folders/drives to back-up. I didn't find the software particularly intuitive to use at first, especially the "Files not backed up" message mentioned by Steven, but once I got used to it I find it fairly straight-forward

The reason why I unplug mine is to keep it separate to the PC, so that in the vent of fire/theft I have a safe copy.

I keep my external hard drives always separately for safety.

Try downloading Microsoft's 'SyncToy'.

It's very basic and simple, which is one of it's attractions, and it just copies files rather than saving them in a proprietary format used by most backup programs. This means you can easily and quickly access files on the external drive from any computer without needing to do a 'restore' using that proprietary software. Just take care to set a one direction only copy, rather than synchronise.

To automatically run an unattended/automatic backup/copy you can use Task Scheduler, which is built in to Windows 7, to start and run SyncToy. You can also use Task Scheduler to display the logfile from SyncToy to confirm the copy has taken place.

A bit of googling will soon give you all the information you need to set up both of these programs.

Another program called 'FreeFileSync' is equally as effective as 'SyncToy'

So those if those of you with backup devices is that your only backup plan, no online backups?

i backup to my local wd drive which is then backed up to my Seagate which then backs up to Flickr twice as i use two private accounts for backup purposes. That way i leave my backup drives permanantly connected and auto backup when changes are made to watched folders.

I have an external drive but I backup my 'special' DNG's to MS Skydrive. I got the introductory offer so have enough GB's for a lifetime's worth of 'best' images. Flickr is for the JPEGs.

I've been using Clickfree products for the last few years in preference to NAS systems, disk imaging software and all the other gubbins. Their products just do the job and store the files in native format, so there's no fear of losing images because of a software failure. This gizmo -- link -- attaches to any hard drive and its firmware takes care of incremental backups automatically. I have a couple of their all-in-one units as well, which cost more than the equivalent hard drives alone but work a treat. I think the product in the link has been discontinued by the company itself but it still seems to be available on Amazon and works a treat with Windows XP and 7 (don't know about .

Al

I have used the Clickfree products as well, and if I recall they will back up system files etc. so that a full restore of your machine can be done - both data and system files (if you choose those options). I agree, it is simple to use, maintains the native file format and it does work well.

But I found if all you want is copies of your data/image files it is simpler and cheaper using SyncToy or FreeFileSync.

In my previous life of providing IT support to a wide range of people and businesses, my experience of the WD software has not been a good one, albeit it has been improved a little over the last year of so. It is a typical outcome of the attitude of the software companies that create software for individuals and small businesses, i.e. "it'll do, it's only for home users etc". When it comes to my data, "it'll do" is not good enough.

I personally would not use it for several reasons, one is it not warning you when your data hasn't been backed up for whatever reason, especially if the backup disk has become full. The software *should* keep a number of revisions of your files and delete older ones but this fails also, sometimes leaving you with no backup of some files and no way of finding this out until you come to recover them...

Some of the WD external drive models have the backup software "baked-in" and force you to use it; it cannot be removed from the device. Some models such as the 2TB My Passport model I use have the backup software included on the disk and require you to install it: if you don't want it, don't install it.

I have almost twenty years experience of being responsible for the recovery of data and systems ranging from small departmental servers to large systems used by national retailers. My experience has taught me one thing: no matter your backup regime - test it. And test it again.

I started my current job earlier this year and within four days, the main server suffered a catastrophic failure which required a restore from the last backup. It was at this time that I discovered that the server had never been the subject of a recovery test ... it took me three days to piece it back together and with a bit of luck managed it with no data loss. Much of my previous recovery experience came into play during that task!

The server in question has now been properly documented and the various recovery paths tested.

For what it's worth, my home Windows computer is backed up using the built-in Windows Backup program. This provides a system image which provides quick restore due to a disk failure, for example. My data is backed-up separately using the command line utility robocopy, which is provided with recent versions of Windows. This ensures that the data is simply copied and is not kept in some proprietary format that presents its own recovery challenges.

I also have several distinct copies of my data on different devices. Paranoid? Yep! I have worked through the night on too many occasions recovering systems that other people couldn't be bothered to consider how to restore in the event of a human or machine failure.

Now that I've given you the heebie jeebies, how are you getting on with backing up your data?

Nigel,

I decided to take the simple road and you the external as a simple manual backup device, and just ignore the automatic backup software.