Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > General Storage > How to use Western Digital Portable Hard Drive as a Backup
Ask the community Add a reply
Word :    Username :           
 
kaessex   10-16-2009 at 02:01:21 AM

I recently brought a WD 320GB portable hard drive to back up all files from both my laptop and home PC

After doing this, i deleted a few of the files from my laptop. They were then deleted from my hard drive.

Is there any way to prevent this from happening? I have read that i can delete the sync software off the hard drive. Is this wise?

Any suggestions would be fantastic,

Thankyou

Add a reply
Sponsored Links
Register or log in to remove.
Bronze Storage badge r_manic   10-16-2009 at 08:58:30 AM
- 0 +

What happened was that, when you deleted the files on your laptop, your hard disk's back-up software updated the copy on itself to match what was on your hard disk.

There's most likely an option within the back-up software to control this. Check the manual and/or the help of the backup manager. If you still insist on deleting the backup program that came with your drive, you can just back it up to another location in case you want to use it again.

------------------------------ Desktop | E7300 | P5KPL-AM | 2GB DDR2 667MHz | NVIDIA 9500 GT | ST3320613AS | w2228h
XPS M1330 | T8300 | Dell 0U8042 | 2GB DDR2 800MHz | NVIDIA 8400M GS | WD2500BEVS-75US | 1280 x 800
 Reply to r_manic
jsc   10-16-2009 at 10:18:58 AM
- 0 +

I would buy a copy of Acronis backup software and dump the software that came with your drive. You can download a 30 day trial from the Acronis website.

Reply to jsc
jobz000   10-16-2009 at 10:46:26 AM
- 0 +

What you want to use is backup software like Cobian, which allows you to create more than one backup copy. Remember to test your backups by restoring random files every few months.

Reply to jobz000
liquidsnake718   10-16-2009 at 10:46:42 AM
- 0 +

WDsync automatically copied or mirrored your current Desktop files to the passport thus you should turn off the auto-update feature. You dont need to delete the WDsync software entirely because you might want to use it someday so you can create a new folder and just stash all the WDsync fliles inside it and turn autosync off.

I did this and I just back up my files by either manually opening the Sync program or just copying the files old school way. Either way, you lost your documents because the Passport copied the current state of you desktop.

Reply to liquidsnake718
DiscoDuck   10-16-2009 at 04:49:10 PM
- 0 +

I use MS Synctoy and it couldnt be easier. You create a folder pair and choose whether or not it should delete duplicates or overwrite etc.

Reply to DiscoDuck
Ask the community Add a reply
Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > General Storage > How to use Western Digital Portable Hard Drive as a Backup
Go to:

There are 958 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Forum map
Bestofmedia Forum ©
2000-2009 Bestofmedia Group
Page generated in 0.454 seconds
Sponsored links
  • Ask the community now
  • Publish
Ad
They won a badge
Join us in greeting them
  • 04:06 xyz001 won the Sophmore badge
  • 01:00 scione won the Freshman badge
  • 01:32 aford10 won the Home Brew badge
  • 01:00 Kevinator won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 adis won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 dabell won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 zebo56 won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 drkkmittal won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 jakesvdyk won the Uniformed badge
  • 01:00 artistjane won the Uniformed badge