external hard drive software?

robert707 · Jan 1, 2013

Hi got my mom an external hard drive for X-mas, on the box it says it has auto-back up and pre-installed software. I just wanted her to have a drive that she can drag and drop stuff to like my own external adata hard drive. This was the only 2.0 one I could find. Before I open it, I was wondering, how does this pre-installed software work? Is there a whole user interface she will have to deal with to files in there?
Does it just back-up the whole PC drive at once or can you still selectively drag and drop files into it.?

Samsung:

http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_213_602&item_id=051671

foogoo · Jan 2, 2013

I don't have that drive, I do have a few Toshiba and Iomega models, plus a slew of desktop external drives. Most of them just have a simple file copying (backup program) not a full system backup solution. The installer is on the drive that you have to install on the PC and configure. They usually are just external drives so you can just drag and drop files on them with installing any additional software. I look for specifics but found none on the model.

If you want to automate the file backups you can use their software or try Cobian Backup or if you want to buy a program try Second Copy.

plodr · Jan 2, 2013

I have a couple Western Digital externals. I never install nor use whatever backup program is on the external drive. I keep x-ing out the dialog to set up the software and ignore the warning that the device might not operate properly since that backup software is not installed.

I move the drives among computers running Win 2K, XP, 7 and linux. I have Acronis images stored on them as well as other files I simply drag and drop from Windows Explorer.

NewEgg had 14 reviews and two mentioned the backup software.

The software didn't execute as it was supposed to.

Upon plugging it in, the autoplay didn't run. I tried to manually run the autoplay, but it seems the developers didn't commit it as an executable and all I got was half of the code. This wasn't a big deal - I just ran the individual executable.

Once the device manager software was installed, I tried to setup a backup session. It prompted me for a password, and upon my entering a password, the program froze and crashed. I tried every possible password combo of letters, caps, numbers, and characters, all of them returned the same issue.
Click to expand...

Your mom probably will not even know there is backup software if no prompt shows up. Just have her drag and drop her files using Windows Explorer.

brownizs · Jan 2, 2013

The first thing I do with pocket drives, is format them, to get rid of any trace of manufacturer software on them. No need for that garbage, if all you are doing is dragging and dropping, or saving files to the drive.

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external hard drive software?

robert707 Corporal

foogoo Major "foogoo" Geek

plodr MajorGeek Super Extraordinaire Moderator Staff Member

brownizs MajorGeek