Seagate Backup Plus - WD MyBook/My Passport

Major Eazy

Major Eazy

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Not adderssing specific production, just using those as examples:
Seagate Backup Plus Drive
Seagate Backup Expansion Portable Hard Drive
Western Digital MyBook
Western Digital My Passport
And similar production like those...

Most of them tend to talk about 'one click' backup, or 'automatic' backup.

They're external hard drives right?

I'm not interested in quick backup, I just want to use them as if they were oversized USB memory key, so can I still tread them as if they were no different from HDD in your computers or USB memory keys? I mean, can I still create my own folders and sub-folders and can I still move or copy files from computers to those such hard drives using Windows Explorer?

Or are they different breed of hard drives and that they can only be used as 'one click' back up which needs its own software to transfer files and can't be accessed via Windows Explorer?
 
My Western Digital works as a normal drive, allowing me to create directories, save etc from anywhere on my network.
 
Oh that's great then, so I just ignore those 'one click' and 'automatic' backup buttons and software, and just open Windows Explorer, and start creating folders and sub-folders under the root dir.

Thanks guys.
 
I have a couple of WD external hard drives and they come pre installed with all the "easy backup" software on them.

First drive I had I re formatted it to get rid of all the WD stuff, worked perfectly there after.

Second one I left the WD software alone, but only because the drive was 2TB and it's going to be a while before I need the space the WD software is taking up.

I have an inbuilt distrust of allowing someone else's software to arrange catalogues etc. of my files.

I use Sync Toy to back up my files and as far as I can tell (although it does build a record file of what's new etc) it backs up in the same way I would.
 
Willid1 said:
I have a couple of WD external hard drives and they come pre installed with all the "easy backup" software on them.

First drive I had I re formatted it to get rid of all the WD stuff, worked perfectly there after.
Click to expand...

So if I buy something like Seagate's Expansion or Wester Digital's My Passport, do I really need to reformate those hard drives if I would rather want to create my own folders under root directory? As I'm hardly likely to use about up to 100GB, would it still work if I just leave the pre-installed "easy backup" software and just set up my own folders?
 
I didn't format mine.
 
I have a WD Passport, you can simply treat it as a separate drive :) and just ignore the supplied backup software.
However I decided to use the backup software, which is installed on the main computer Hard Drive. I had lots of problems with a software update at one point but since I went back to an earlier version it has been OK.
What is good about it is that it mirrors your Hard Drive creating folders, sub folders and files as you create them. So if you open a photo, edit it and then save it the WD program creates a backup automatically, it also keeps past versions of files (you can set how many) and you can easily retrieve these if needed.
 
All of you are right, I bought a WD Elements USB 3.0 500GB portable HDD, plugged it in, ignore whatever back-up software it have on the HDD, just use Windows Explorer and started creating my own folders under the root. So yeah, you all were right, no formatting needed (unless you use Mac system) and just treat them no different from a normal HDD, and don't use the supplied software if I don't want to use it.

Many thanks everyone.
 
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