Selecting files to back up

The WD SmartWare™ software provides two different Backup dialogs, depending on how you want to select files to back up:

• By category—As shown in the content gauge for your computer's internal hard drive

  A category backup can back up everything on your computer except system files, program files, applications, working files, and any files that are stored in a Temp folder.

• By file—As shown in the folder structure of your computer’s internal hard drive

  A file backup can back up everything on your computer—including system files, program files, applications, working files, and some files that are stored in a Temp folder.

Starting a category backup

The initial/default configuration of the WD SmartWare software is for a category backup of everything—all of the files on your computer's hard drive. When you open the Backup dialog for the first time, the WD SmartWare software displays the category backup view and begins scanning the files that are available for backup on your computer's hard drive. Before starting a category backup, you can—if you want—either:

• Select file categories to exclude from the backup.
• Switch to the file backup dialog

To start a category backup:

1. If Ready to perform file backup appears at the upper-left corner of the dialog, click the Switch to Category Backup toggle button and click OK at the Switching Backup Plan prompt.
2. If you want to back up all of your files, in all categories, then click the Start Backup button. You do not have to wait for the WD SmartWare software to complete categorizing your files before starting the backup.
3. If you want to exclude some of the categories from your backup, then:
1. Click Advanced View to display the backup by categories selection box.
2. Clear the check box for each category that you want to exclude from the backup.
3. Click Apply Changes to create a custom backup plan and refresh the content gauge for your My Book or My Passport drive.
4. Click the Start Backup button.

Starting a file backup

The initial/default configuration of the file backup view has none of your files or folders selected for backup. Before starting a file backup you must select the files and folders that you want to back up.

To start a file backup:

1. Click the Switch to File Backup toggle button and click OK at the Switching Backup Plan prompt to display the backup by files selection box.
2. In the backup by files selection box:
1. Click to open the folders and subfolders to find the files that you want to back up.
2. Select the check boxes for the files or folders that you want to include in the backup.
3. Note that selecting the check box for a folder automatically selects all of the files in the folder.
3. Click the:
   • Apply Changes button to create a custom backup plan and save your file and folder selections for the backup
   • Revert button to undo your selections and start over from the last applied configuration

   Note that clicking the Apply Changes button does not update the content gauge for your My Book or My Passport drive. The content gauges are based on file categories, which do not apply to a File Backup operation.

4. Click the Start Backup button.

About the content gauges

The content gauges under the icon and name of your computer's hard drive and your My Book or My Passport drives show the total amount of data, in bytes, of files that are available for backup or that have been backed up in six categories based on their file name extensions:

• Pictures—Photo and image files. Extensions include .jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp, .eps, .raw, .pict, .pxr, .psd, and other picture file extensions.
• Music—Music 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), and other music file extensions.
• Movies—Video 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, and other movie file extensions.
• Mail—E-mail collection file types and individual e-mail file types. Extensions include .msg, .mail, .eml, .dbx, .fol, .ost, .pst, and other mail file extensions.
• 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, and other document file extensions.
• Other—Miscellaneous file types that do not belong in any of the other categories.

Hovering the pointer over a category displays the total number of files in the category.

Note that:

• The System category includes your operating system files, programs, applications, working files like .tmp and .log giles, and any files that are stored in a Temp folder. These files are not available for a category-type backup.

When you select and run a file-type backup, the name of the System category changes to Excluded and it then includes all of the files that were not included in your file backup.

• The Retrieved category includes any files you have already retrieved from a prior backup. They too are not available for a category backup.
• The Additional Files category on the content gauge for your My Book or My Passport drive shows the system files and hidden files that your operating system put there when you installed the drive.
• Because they change so frequently, Outlook .pst files are only backed up once every 24 hours. This exclusion does not apply to other mail application files.

Content gauge colors

The content gauges use the following colors to represent the files on your computer and your My Book or My Passport drive: