New external hard drive

[paulavac]

Hi,

I just purchased a My Passportâ„¢Essential Portable Hard Drive and am
completely clueless when it comes to their directions. I did manage to hook
it up to my computer (duh), but do I have to reformat it, and does it just
automatically back up the files/programs that I would like backed up?

Thanks!

 

[Newsgroup Honesty]

paulavac wrote:
| I just purchased a My Passportâ„¢Essential Portable Hard Drive and am
| completely clueless when it comes to their directions. I did manage
| to hook it up to my computer (duh), but do I have to reformat it, and
| does it just automatically back up the files/programs that I would
| like backed up?

You may want to read whatever manuals/FAQs/etc came with your device.
This is *not* a query that would seem to be related to Windows XP. Your
device information might be located here:

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=203&lang=en

With more details here:

http://support.wdc.com/product/install.asp?groupid=203&level1=2&modelno=&lang=en

And here:

http://support.wdc.com/product/kb.asp?groupid=203&level1=2&modelno=&lang=en

I'd wish you luck, but you posted here, so I assume you can read and all
this requires is research. *eg*

Just going by the manuals and such - I don't see that it comes with any
special software - so I doubt it automatically does anything, I assume
it is pre-formatted and ready for use; so hook it up, you'll see the
drive letter and copy stuff to it (drag/drop, with your favorite backup
utility, scheduled task, etc and so on.)

--
Newsgroup Honesty
(e-mail address removed)

* People who are brutally honest get more
satisfaction out of the brutality than
out of the honesty. *
--

 

[paulavac]

Thank you.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I just purchased a My Passport™Essential Portable Hard Drive and am
completely clueless when it comes to their directions. I did manage to hook
it up to my computer (duh), but do I have to reformat it,

I don't know for sure, but it probably comes already formatted. If
it'd not formatted you'll find out as soon as you try to use it, and
you can format it then.

and does it just
automatically back up the files/programs that I would like backed up?

No, it doesn't do anything automatically. When you plug it into your
computer, it becomes almost exactly like an internal drive. If you
want to do anything on it, you have to run appropriate software and
initiate the action yourself.

 

[Lil' Dave]

Hi,

I just purchased a My PassportTEssential Portable Hard Drive and am
completely clueless when it comes to their directions. I did manage to
hook
it up to my computer (duh), but do I have to reformat it, and does it just
automatically back up the files/programs that I would like backed up?

Thanks!

They do mention the word "synchronize", unless I missed something.
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=203&lang=en
Its the 4th software listed here.

If you wish to reformat it, its the 3rd software listed in the above link.

If you're having problems with it, use the 1st software in the above link.

If you have any other questions, consider support listed in the above link.

 

[Daave]

Hi,

I just purchased a My PassportTEssential Portable Hard Drive and am
completely clueless when it comes to their directions. I did manage
to hook it up to my computer (duh), but do I have to reformat it, and
does it just automatically back up the files/programs that I would
like backed up?

Have you read the manual yet? Here it is:

http://www.wdc.com/en/library/portable/4779-705007.pdf

The drive is already formatted, but it is formatted as a single FAT32
partition, which I'm sure won't be useful to you. In fact, if you are
using newer OSes (like XP, Vista, and 7), you have no need for FAT32;
you might as well reformat the drive, using NTFS, which will allow you
to create image archives that can be single files (rather than breaking
them up into multiple files because of FAT32's limitations). You can
create as many partitions as you like - even just one large one; it is
up to you. And you may use Windows XP's Disk Management to do this.

See page 3 of your manual for more information on formatting. Note the
suggestion to go to

http://support.wdc.com/

and read Knowledge Base Article ID 207 for formatting instructions for
Windows XP. Here is a direct link:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/wdc...TEmcF9zZWFyY2hfdGV4dD0yMDc!&p_li=&p_topview=1

Once the drive is formatted, you can do anything you want. You can use
Windows Explorer to copy any files you wish. You can use XP's ntbackup
program to automate the process, too.

Or better, you can install a program like Acronis True Image Home on
your PC and start making images of your hard drive, storing the large
archive files on your new external hard drive. ATI Home will allow you
to make much smaller incremental backup images once the initial (large)
full image is made. Then if you run into a disaster, all you need to do
is boot off the ATI Home bootable CD and restore the image (which is in
that giant file or series of files on your external hard drive),
resulting in your PC's hard drive returning to its exact state (OS and
updates, programs, and data) it was in when you made that particular
image. Very helpful! There would never be a need to reinstall the OS!

Good luck and feel free to ask other questions.