Starting a Backup
WD SmartWare™ has located and categorized all the files on your computer that are candidates for a backup operation, and is ready to begin backing up files. WD SmartWare recognizes and backs up files based on file extensions and categories, and displays them in content gauges.
To back up all the categories of available files:
Click Start Backup to start your initial backup.
To back up only selected categories:
- On the Backup screen, click the triangle next to Detailed View (between the two gauges) to display categories separately. By default, all categories are selected for backup.
- Deselect the categories you do not want included in your initial backup.
- Click Apply to create a customized backup plan.
- If desired, click Update Gauges to display the changes made in the Detailed View. (Macintosh only)
- Click Start Backup.
To skip backup and continue to drive settings:
Click Skip Backup to skip backup file selection and continue to the Drive Settings screen.
About Content Categories
- Music. Music content files plus music container files, music coded files, and music playlist files. Extensions include .mp3, .mp3, .mpg3, .mpeg3, .mp4, .mpg4, .mpeg4, .wma, .wav, wav (pcm, lpcm).
- Movies. Video content files plus video container files, video coded files, and video playlist files. Extensions include .mp4, .m1v, .m21, .m1v, .m2v, .m4e, .m4u, .mjp, .mj2, .mp21, .mp4, .mpe, .mpg, .mpeg, .mpv2 (MPEG), .mov, .avi, .moov, .movie (QuickTime), .mtv, .xvid.
- Photos. Photo and image content files. Extensions include .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .eps, .raw, .pict, .pxr, .psd.
- Documents. Word processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation, scheduling, plain text files, and other file types used by document processing software. Extensions include .doc, .dot, .txt, .htm, .html, .xml, .docm, .php, .ppt, .xls, .xlt.
- Email. E-mail collection file types and individual email file types. Extensions include .msg, .mail, .eml, .dbx, .fol, .ost, .pst.
- Other. All folders and the files within them that are not defined as System files or certain other excluded file types.
For a complete list of both supported and excluded file types, please search for Answer ID 3644 in the WD Knowledge Base at http://support.wdc.com.
For Windows Users
WD SmartWare backs up files for Windows systems by file extensions, as partially defined above.
For Macintosh Users
Macintosh files are not categorized by file extensions; rather by folder locations, as defined by the Macintosh operating system.
- Music
- Movies
- Pictures
- Library/Mail
- Other
About the Content Gauges
When you click Backup, the content gauges for both your computer and WD drive display different colors to represent different states. When you hover over a category on a content gauge, the number of files in the category is displayed.
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Unused or free drive space, for example, the color of your WD drive content gauge before your first backup. |
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Available, but excluded from backup, for example, your System Files |
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Not yet backed up or new content |
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Backed up and retrieved content |
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Content ready for backup or retrieve, for example, all your original files |
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