Western Digital My Book Elements 1TB USB 3.0 (my experience)
Now that backup of my RAID 0 2x250=500GB disk containing My Documents is completed, I feel a few comments are necessary. Western Digital, what were you thinking! The software (Smartware it's called) that you bundled with this drive is one of the saddest pieces of software I have had the misfortune to try to use. I ugraded the disk's firmware and the software, still one of the flakiest pieces of software I have ever seen. The concept is nice, the execution worse than poor. At one point the Smartware backup software was counting downwards when displaying files successfully copied! Western Digital Co., just how much faith do you think I would have that my precious files would be there when I need them? My next disk (to be used for offsite storage) will be a 3.5 inch Hitachi fitted to an enclosure, and I guess I'll have to find some decent software (Acronis or similar) if I want to do simple incremental backups. I know...Western Digital purchased Hitachi's disk manufacturing division, but I can still get one that pre-dates that acquisition. Western Digital makes reasonably good drives, but they should stay out of the software business.
This backup was accomplished by uninstalling Smartware, formatting the disk, and using the copy command. Mysteriously I am not seeing the VCD (Virtual CD) that has troubled so many other users. Be aware that WD claims the VCD can be disabled but not completely removed. Let Google be your friend for more info on WD Smartware. Hey, if it works for you great, but my experience seems to match that of many, many others.
Western Digital My Book Elements 1TB USB 3.0 (my experience)
Now that backup of my RAID 0 2x250=500GB disk containing My Documents is completed, I feel a few comments are necessary. Western Digital, what were you thinking! The software (Smartware it's called) that you bundled with this drive is one of the saddest pieces of software I have had the misfortune to try to use. I ugraded the disk's firmware and the software, still one of the flakiest pieces of software I have ever seen. The concept is nice, the execution worse than poor. At one point the Smartware backup software was counting downwards when displaying files successfully copied! Western Digital Co., just how much faith do you think I would have that my precious files would be there when I need them? My next disk (to be used for offsite storage) will be a 3.5 inch Hitachi fitted to an enclosure, and I guess I'll have to find some decent software (Acronis or similar) if I want to do simple incremental backups. I know...Western Digital purchased Hitachi's disk manufacturing division, but I can still get one that pre-dates that acquisition. Western Digital makes reasonably good drives, but they should stay out of the software business.
This backup was accomplished by uninstalling Smartware, formatting the disk, and using the copy command. Mysteriously I am not seeing the VCD (Virtual CD) that has troubled so many other users. Be aware that WD claims the VCD can be disabled but not completely removed. Let Google be your friend for more info on WD Smartware. Hey, if it works for you great, but my experience seems to match that of many, many others.