how is an auto-back up hard drive different?

There are two Western Digital external hard drives, one is called 'Ultra' cause it has auto back up and drop box cloud storage, the other doesn't have any of that listed but is $15 dollars cheaper.

Am wondering does the auto-backup HD have extra hard ware in it for that functionality or is that strictly a software driven feature?? If anyone would even know that.


link to the 'WD My Passport Ultra 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0'
http://www.canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=15_213_602&item_id=063330

 

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I hate the idea of auto backup...I don't want my hard drive sending anything online on it's own and am just checking that formatting the drive will give me a clean empty drive. But if there is anyting extra hardware related in there it might still do that. I haven't opend it yet so I was thinking of returning but I guess I can just format it and see.

 

Funny how you said that. I've had secure thumbdrives come with the companys secure software that I realized I never used. So I formatted the drive - but - I did make a copy of the software just to see if it worked later on any other drive. My bet is it probably would.

 

In addition to doing an automatic backup, I also do a one-time clone of my operating system HDD using the same size drive as the original one. This is best done when the PC is relatively new and all your important software (e.g. MS-Office) is installed; however it's never too late so long as your current drive isn't corrupted.

Again, do this on an internal style drive (mounted in a USB case of needed). Most newer external drives cannot be converted for internal SATA use.

If your drive tanks, this will save you hours of time having to reload Windows and software plus avoid license code hassles. Once replaced, all you'll need to do is run the restoration of your backed-up files from the backup drive.