Anyone have experience with Western Digital USB HD

[gator32]

I bought a WD MY BOOK Premium ES Edition HD to backup several of my office PCs and laptops. I was told at the store I purchased from, this would not be a problem. Specifically, I told them the application was to go to each PC and back up data. I was told that I could name each of the PCs(or hard drives) and back them up at will; by name.  I have been looking all through this new drive and the support site for it and I have found no mention of this capability.

So before I take it back to the store (BEst Buy) I would like to know if there is indeed any way to make this work for the above application.  Does anyone have any advice for this or how they would backup several devices not all on a network.

Thank you

[patio]

You ran into a Salesman...
But more details would be helpful...when you say backup how are you doing it? ?
What software do you plan on using? ?
How many machines ? ?
What is the frequency of the backups ? ?

[honvetops]

You ran into a Salesman...
But more details would be helpful...when you say backup how are you doing it? ?
What software do you plan on using? ?
How many machines ? ?  guessing 5-12 OR I  am pretty scared of this Comp.
What is the frequency of the backups ? ?   (software)  << what type are you going to be using again ?  Did You know you*  will have to buy this  "extra" $$ ....probably did not come with your computer...

PS... listen to  Patio ...

[tommyq]

western digitals are cr** i bought 1 at christmas and so far its stop working 4 times and had to be formated 4 times, so that means i have actually lost all my back up 4 times, which meant when my computer got vista installed... my external hd went down and i lost all my data because vista deleted it all on my local hd (because it's rubbish) and my external hd had to be formated as it said that it was a 1kb RAW file system not the fat32 it should be, moral of the story buy a sever to do you back ups...

[patio]

Vista doesn't just delete things...a RAW file system is a symptom of a drive that has been unplugged prematurely...

[gator32]

I have 3 laptops and 3 pc's on a Dell server. Essentially I thought this would make a convenient light to medium technical routine of going to each system and first making a complete backup, and then making scheduled incremental data backups. I was told that the WD HD as able to identify or Make provisions for me to identify each machIne and back It up.

Well.............that's sort of correct. (After spending most of the day tracking down information from Western Digital and backup software vendors). I can create folders and after copying or backing up a system, then copy/paste or drag the files into the created folders I made. Ok...I can live with that, not as lazy as I wanted to be, but it works.

As far as the incremental data backups, it ain't gonna happen with the EMC retrospect Express that comes with the MY Book Premium ES. Apparently, Western Digital does have a fairly nice software called HD Backup software, but I cannot purchase it. (Even though they list it on their website and give details etc....) So..I am looking for a client softare that I can install on each machine that I hope at a reasonable price will allow for incremental backups, scheduled events etc.  Does anyone have a software that will do all of this?

Thanks for and all advice,

[patio]

I use Acronis True Image for backups...it can not only be scheduled but will also do incremental backups.
Best deal on it is at newegg...Kudos to GX1_Man...
You may also want to look into burning your backups regularly to CD/DVD...all HDD's fail eventually.

[WillyW]

... So..I am looking for a client softare that I can install on each machine that I hope at a reasonable price will allow for incremental backups, scheduled events etc.  Does anyone have a software that will do all of this?

In addition to the software already mentioned, you might like to check out a couple more.
Cobian Backup
and
SyncBack

These links take you to the free versions.