Wait, back up...

Here is my problem.

I want to back up my computer files so I can loosen up some much needed space on its hard drive. I have backed up my hard drive - but now when I delete any file on my computer, it also deletes from my back up. The point in backing up my hard drive was to preserve my files so I could make space on my hard drive... I do not see the point of having a back up that deletes files I do not want deleting.

Is there a way to have your back up and delete it too (that is, have your back up yet delete the files from your hard drive knowing you will always have a copy of those files in your back up.

What am I not getting here. This should not be complicated. If I wanted to delete my files entirely, I would not even bother creating a back up.

Were the inventors of the back up just fucking with us or what.  

What backup program are you using?
How are you backing up the files? Are you overwriting the old backup file with each new backup?

I just got a WD My Passport for Xmas. It is a tiny, compact external USB drive that works almost automatically when I plug in the USB. All it seems to ask is whether I want to back up my files daily, weekly or monthly, or, on an ongoing basis in real time. It also asks whether I want specific files backed up, or a comprehensive back up. Other than that I do not know.

I looked at WD's website and there are several different types of My Passport, with different backup capabilities. If you would like for me to look into this for you, please let me know the model number of your drive and the version of software you are using. Also, there are sometimes differences in the software for PCs and Macs; which computer do you have?

Back in the olden days, I worked for a company that created most of the world's backup software at the time (primarily for backing up to tape drives). I may remember enough to help you out, but no promises (when you get old enough, you get to say that).

You can always prevent the computer from deleting the backup files by unplugging the backup drive once it's full.

But if you're using the drive to store files you *don't want* on your main drive, you're not really "backing up."  What you're doing is "offsite storage."  You need to set up the new Western Digital drive as just another drive on your system, and drag all the files you want stored there. You might have it set up wrong.

NoCoPilot wrote:

You can always prevent the computer from deleting the backup files by unplugging the backup drive once it's full.

But if you're using the drive to store files you *don't want* on your main drive, you're not really "backing up."  What you're doing is "offsite storage."  You need to set up the new Western Digital drive as just another drive on your system, and drag all the files you want stored there. You might have it set up wrong.

Ahhh... I see. I am not sure I can set up the new WD drive as just a storage drive and not a back up drive. I will look into this further.

For the time being I have simply unplugged the back up drive as you have suggested, so it does not delete files from itself. My concern is though that once I plug it back in that it will automatically recognize the differences between itself and the source drive and begin making changes to eliminate those differences.

It might ;(

You've got a strange program there, SAI. Not really what would be defined as  a backup program. I was surprised when I was reading about the device on WD's website and it said that it did not back up system files.

Can you run the program that can with the drive without having the drive turned on? If so, unplug the drive and run the program to see what options are available to you. See if there is something that will work for you. It sounds like what you have is just a program that maintains an exact copy of the specified files on your computer, rather than what is normally considered a backup program.

Can the drive be used as a simple external drive, without using the software that came with it? If so, I would recommend uninstalling the software that came with the drive before hooking up the drive again, Use our good friend Google and you will be able to find freeware for recovering deleted files. Some of them take a long time to run and some are difficult to use, but if the files you lost are important to you, it may be worth the hassle.

After you have recovered the deleted files on the Passport, restore them to your computer's hard drive. After you have all the files copied back, delete everything on the Passport. If you are running XP, its backup program will do everything you need. I assume that the Mac, if that's what you have, will also have a decent backup program (NoCo would know about that, I'm sure).

_Howard wrote:

It sounds like what you have is just a program that maintains an exact copy of the specified files on your computer, rather than what is normally considered a backup program.

Apple's Time Machine does the exact same thing -- every so often, a couple times per day, it takes a snapshot, so to speak, of everything on your computer and stores it away. This snapshot is incremental -- only has ONE COPY of everything -- but keeps track of all of the changes between snapshots. Therefore if you happen to load ONE PROGRAM that fucks everything up, you can load the Time Machine image from just before you loaded that program and go on as if it never happened. If you change ONE SETTING or open ONE INFECTED E-Mail, you can return quickly and reliably to the last working image with no loss of data.

What you have described, NoCo, is a version control program. Is it built in to the operating system, or is it a separate application? Having version control work automatically like that is very cool. I think I'll see if something like that is available for XP. I have version control software, but it is not automatic.

Windows XP (and probably later versions of Windows) have something similar for the operating system, called System Restore. You may lose some data when restoring the system to an earlier date, but you can recover the OS. Normally, no data are lost, but is it possible.

Looked at the info on your link, and it's not version control, after all. It's a really well-designed backup program. Very nice. I guess I should take a closer look at the backup software I have and see if any of it will do the same thing. I have a bunch of unopened backup software (the company I worked for always gave the engineers new versions of all the programs when they were released. I just stuffed them in a box and forgot about them).

_Howard wrote:

Can you run the program that can with the drive without having the drive turned on? If so, unplug the drive and run the program to see what options are available to you.

There is no on/off switch on the drive. It "turns on" when its usb is plugged into the usb port. When it is not "plugged in" the software doesn't function and asks for the drive to be "plugged in" via its usb.

_Howard wrote:

Can the drive be used as a simple external drive, without using the software that came with it? If so, I would recommend uninstalling the software that came with the drive before hooking up the drive again

It appears I can drag and drop files directly onto the external passport drive bypassing the software... and the files appear to stay there even after I unplug and replug its usb... so yes, I would assume it can do simple drag and drop. My concern is that since I've bypassed the software, the software won't recognize those files's existence on the drive as they were planted there artificially. If I use the software, those files may get overwritten, no?

The software, which is called 'WD Smartware', seems to be purely a backup software. It has no allowance for any kind of storage (up until the last few days I didn't think there was any difference between storage of and backing up of, files. How have I missed that all these years? And how is it that WD assumes people know this?

_Howard wrote:

Use our good friend Google and you will be able to find freeware for recovering deleted files. Some of them take a long time to run and some are difficult to use, but if the files you lost are important to you, it may be worth the hassle.

No worries. I haven't as yet lost any important files I care about. Thank goodness.

_Howard wrote:

After you have recovered the deleted files on the Passport, restore them to your computer's hard drive. After you have all the files copied back, delete everything on the Passport. If you are running XP, its backup program will do everything you need. I assume that the Mac, if that's what you have, will also have a decent backup program (NoCo would know about that, I'm sure).

I run Windows 8.

Thanks for your points though, Howard.

SAI2 wrote:

The software, which is called 'WD Smartware', seems to be purely a backup software. It has no allowance for any kind of storage

The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

On both my 1TB laptop backup drive and my 2TB desktop backup drive I use Time Machine IN ADDITION TO storing files (mainly music and movies) I don't want to keep on the computers.

Windows 8 has a program called "File History" which may be just what you want, SAI.
Read up on that and see if it will fit your needs. You'll just need to uninstall the WD program and use the Passport drive as the target drive for File History.