Fernando Gonzalez Gentile wrote:
> Yes, interesting to say the least: before buying this 1TB "My Book", I tried
> the smaller 500MB "My Passport" (powered by a 30 cm USB cable - if I added 60
> cm of cable, it wouldn't work ...).
>
Those 2.5" drives are powered by the USB port. In the instructions, it
says some application may require a special cable, really just one with
two computer end connections, to get enough power. Resistance losses in
the extra connection and cable length have simply dropped power below
what it needs. A two headed cable or AC powered USB hub should fix that.
> WD "My Passport" worked just the same as "My Book": needed to install
> SmartWare to be seen by XP, 7, etc, ...oh!
Nope, I've got a WD "My Passport" HDD. Just plug it into the XP laptop,
the Vista desktop, even the old Win98SE or Win2000 notebooks and the OS
recognizes and installs it as "Mass Storage USB Device" Whatever WD has
packaged with yours is just a bunch of fluff and Window dressing on top
of a straightforward USB drive.
> and a tweak to be used by TimeMachine.
I'm confused. I thought that was a Mac OS-X application? You were just
talking Windoze.
> There's a virtual CD inside the HDD to install the driver, otherwise XP sees
> it as an 'unknown USB storage blah blah ... '. Unless using a notebook or
> netbook, I wouldn't recommend the elegant My Passport devices.
>
I'm mystified. I thought the software on the HDD was just for their
second rate back-up software. I just pulled my Passport out of the box,
plugged it into my XP home laptop and it popped up in Explorer, ready to
go.. Literal Plug-n-Play. After each day's shooting, I would download to
the laptop, plug in the Passport, let SyncBack back up the new images,
unplug the Passport and store it separately from the cameras and computer.
It was literally zero effort or problem, I've since connected it to
other Windoze computers with the same results.
> Nonetheless, there seems to be some way to bypass SmartWare, couldn't study
> the full user manual, got this device since yesterday and was short of time.
>
From what I recall, WD Smartware - isn't - smart, according to user
reviews. It's been a while, but I'm pretty sure that's what I concluded
when I looked at the WD external drives; buy if the best price, but
ignore the software. Try SyncBack. It's free, solid and happily used by
several here. Then dump the SmartWare.
> I'm very annoyed right now: 10 files failed to be backed up into My Book
> because of 'access denied'.
>
As above ...
> And there seems to be no way to copy the contents of a DVD, just by
> copy/paste, into the WD device. Data must first be copied to C, then to H (H
> = My Book). A most probable source of errors, isn't it?
>
Get out of SmartWare and use Explorer. You can simply drag and drop the
files from one drive to the other - or copy and paste.
Moose
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