old WD External HD issues

[mrlang30]

I am planning on buying a new External HD.

I have an old WD My Book Essential External HD.  In the past I have lost a lot of files.  I would use its interface and didnt realize it only copies your current files over the old one's.  I was told i should have just copy/paste into the drive itself.  

If I buy your recommendation of SanDisk Professional 4TB G-DRIVE Enterprise-Class USB 3.2 Gen 1 External Hard Drive, will I have to copy/paste or is its interface much better than my old HD?

I dont want to continually lose files because I dont know what Im doing! 

p.s. I have them on a 2nd backup, so technically not completely lost.

[mrlang30]

I use a Windows 10 PC Asus laptop.

Edited November 17, 2021 by mrlang30
update PC info

[Brian]

I’m a bit confused. So the real question I think you are asking, is you want to copy changed files over automatically or backup one drive to another automatically? 
 

Personally, WD software has sucked since the 1990’s and it does not surprise me at all that you have lost stuff. 
 

So how do you want to do you backups? 

[mrlang30]

In the past I have backed up up onto the WD, then deleted the files from the PC.  The next time I backed up to the WD it deleted all the files I had previously deleted from the PC.  I want my EHD to save ALL files I add to it, it do not want it to mirror the PC.  Does that make sense?  Were the lost files my fault, did I use the WD improperly?

Also in the future, if I work on a file and its changed, I want the file to reflect the change on the new EHD.  Is that possible?

[Brian]

2 hours ago, mrlang30 said:

Were the lost files my fault, did I use the WD improperly?

Yep.

Just plug in the External HD, and save directly to it. You just have to navigate to the drive. Most EHDs will have a letter like D:\ or G:\ you just have to figure out drive letter is assigned to it.

Or if you want to save to the main drive while you are working on something, then copy it to the external, all you would need to do is select the file(s) and right-click-choose-copy. Then open your EHD to the appropriate folder that you want to save and right-click-paste. It will then copy the files leaving the originals intact on your HD. When you are satisfied that everything is copied over correctly, you can then delete the files on the main HD. By using copy/paste and NOT cut/paste, you are keeping the original files in-tact so that in the event that something goes wrong, or you screw up, you can try again. Believe me, I've screwed up. I lost photos from 2007-2010 and still haven't gotten all of them back. Always Copy/Paste your files. 

If you do purchase that G-Drive, create a new thread. I want to make sure it's setup and partitioned correctly before you use it.

[mrlang30]

In current treads I've read you recommended the SanDisk G-Drive but in last years threads you were still recommending the WD's.   Trying to keep my budget below $100 and still have a nice EXH with 4TB.  Do you no longer support WD?

[Brian]

23 hours ago, mrlang30 said:

keep my budget below $100 and still have a nice EXH with 4TB.  Do you no longer support WD?

When it comes to a hard drive, "Nice" and "below $100" can not be in the same sentence.

I will NEVER recommend a EHD that is a $99 Special from a Big-Box Store. I like my HDs beefy and stable, and that comes with a cost. As of right now, I really would have you save up more money and Buy-it-Right than to screw around with your data on a cheap drive. In this case, you really do get what you pay for.

Western Digital Drives: You have to be careful with them and the ones that you purchase. The worst kind of drives, either from Seagate or WD, are the "Eco-Friendly" or "Green" HDs. The difference between a working Green Drive and a Dead one is about 3-4 weeks. Those suckers are junk. Pure Garbage. They are also cheap (Those $99 Drives,) so a lot of people have them. It's true that I have owned and recommended WD drives in the past, but they are usually the WD "Black" line that has 7200RPM drives in them. The 5400RPM drives tend to be the lower-quality drives and it's very difficult to figure out what drive is installed in the external enclosure. WD isn't always that good in telling you what is installed.

Example: Here are 5 Dead External Western Digital "Green" Drives out of 7 for an old customer of mine. The are all the same Western Digital External "My Book" Drives.

All of them were doing the "Click-Click--Ka-Thump--Click-Click..." situation. (Click of the Angry HD. ) Fortunately, I had two other HDs that had the data, so we just disposed of these bad drives.

Now when I mean, "Black," I'm not talking about the color of the enclosure. WD has different "Lines" of drives, from the Green / Eco-Friendly, to the more Prosumer "Blue" line, to the Caviar "Black" Line and then they have the "Red" & "Gold" meant for Servers and NAS Units. Finally, there is the "Purple" line that is meant for to record Video. Most consumers won't ever purchase the "Purple" line, those are meant for Security Systems and DVRs and such.

So it's really hard for me to recommend an External HD from Western Digital. Here is a WD 12TB Easystore EHD at around $300. The Easystore Drives seem to be the 7200RPM models, and the Passport line tends to be 5400RPM. At that price-point, you are in the territory of a G-Drive in terms of cost.

G-Drives: These are the drives that have my data. They are Enterprise Grade (Business / Commercial), are "Beefy," "Fast," and have the high quality components inside. They also cost A LOT more than the $99 Drives. But I don't worry about them. I know my data is safe. Personally, I'd rather spend $500 or so on a high quality drive, that lasts for years, then purchase a $99 Drive which has to have data recovered by a Data Recovery Service for $1500 because the HD is "Clicking" and requires major surgery to get your data back. 

Bottom Line: When it's all said and done, you just need to save up another $84 or so to get a 4TB Enterprise Grade G-Drive. At that point, you might as well spend $210 and get an extra 2TB with the 6TB G-Drive Model, which I feel is "The Best Bang for your Buck" model. You can never have "Too Much" HD space. The other G-Drives you probably have seen me recommending tend to be for Mac Users that have Thunderbolt 3 Ports. THOSE drives are really expensive, usually around $700 expensive. You don't need one of those.

[mrlang30]

Do you ever recommend the data recovery Protection Plans?  Amazon has 3 years for $14.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, mrlang30 said:

Do you ever recommend the data recovery Protection Plans?

Nope.

I do encourage purchasing decent recovery software though. Such as RescuePro Deluxe for Flash Based Media (SD, & CF Cards, etc.) and File Recovery Standard Edition for HD Recovery. I have also used EaseUS Data Recovery in the past.

If you are looking for a free option, Recuva is the software that seems to be recommended most.

Honesty? All those Service Plans are Pure Profit. That's how Service Companies make money; you give them the money in case if something happens, but often nothing does. If you don't ever place a service call with them or file a claim, they still have your money. $14 times hundreds and thousands of people is a lot of money.

Honestly? The ONLY plan that I willingly purchase is AppleCare for my Mac Products. Why? Because Apple is really the only one who fixes their items.

[mrlang30]

SanDisk Professional 4TB G-DRIVE Enterprise-Class Desktop Hard Drive HDD, Ultrastar Drive Inside, Up to 195MB/s, USB-C (5Gbps), USB 3.2 Gen 1 - SDPH91G-004T-NBAAD

Above is what I ordered. You mentioned coming back to you for help formating it to a PC.  Thank you.

[Brian]

Yep. Let me know when it arrives. Partitioning and Formatting takes about 5 minutes and is very easy to do.

 

[mrlang30]

The drive has been delivered.  I am ready to format to Windows 10.

[Brian]

Quote

Begin Instructions

OK! Let's get that external powered up, don't hook up the USB Cable right now. Speaking of USB, for the best performance, be sure to utilize a USB 3.0 Port.

Deleting a Windows Partition and creating a new one is pretty straightforward, and just takes a few minutes to complete. No special software is needed, especially software from the Hard Drive Manufactures; all that is required is built into the Windows Operating System so do not use ANY Manufacture's software, it just gets in the way. So let's begin!

1. Right-Click on the Start Button and select Disk Management:
   
   
    
2. This will bring up the main Disk Management Utility Window. Make note of which hard drives are currently mounted. Most folks will only see one HD, labeled Disk 0:
   
   
    
3. Now insert the EHD into your USB port and allow it to mount/spin up. It should appear in the list. In this example, note "Disk 1" that appeared in the list after it mounted. This will be the drive that I will modifying; your Disk Number might be different so pay attention and be sure to select the correct drive. There is no difference, it's just another number in the list. It could be listed as "Disk 3" or even "Disk 5," Again...THE IMPORTANT THING IS THAT WE CHOOSE THE CORRECT DRIVE!  This is why we hold off hooking up things until now. I want you to pay attention to WHAT drive your new EHD is, so you don't screw up and delete the wrong drive!
   
   That would be bad.
    
4. 
    
5. Select the Partition that you would like to Delete. The box will go from a plain white background to one that has slashes in it and should be highlighted. This is Windows' way of letting you know which Partition you have chosen:
   
   
    
6. Now Right-Click on that Partition and select Delete Volume. It should go without saying, that you really-really-really want to be sure that this is the correct Partition to delete.
   
   
    
7. A Warning Message will appear asking for permission to delete. If the Partition was created on another type of OS, such as a Mac, this error message will appear differently. This is completely normal, just click "Yes" and wait a few seconds.
   
   Error Warning with a Windows-Created Partition:
   
   
   
   Error Warning with a Macintosh-Created Partition:
   
   
    
8. After deleting your Disk Management Window should have your (new) EHD as a large, solid/continuous black line:
   
   
    
9. At this point, if your HD is 2TB or smaller, we can continue with the Wizard to create a new Partition. If your EHD is 3TB or Larger, then we will need to covert the Drive from a MBR Disk to a GPT Disk. This step ONLY affects those with EHDs that are 3TB or larger. GPT is meant to create a single partition that is larger than 3TB since MBR has a 2TB maximum limit. Make sense? To convert it to a GPT Disk, right click on the Disk # Box in the left column you are modifying and select "Convert to GPT Disk" and follow the prompts. (Click OK, OK, etc., etc.)
   
   Note: I do not have a 3TB Drive hooked up for this document, and am using this next example as a guide. Your 3TB HD will be larger in capacity than my smaller one that I'm using in this tutorial. The important thing is to right-click on the Drive # box that you want to convert to a GPT Disk:
   
   
   
   After Right-Clicking on the Drive # square in the left column, select "Convert to GPT Disk" and follow the prompts.
   
   
   
   Again, this is only for the folks who have 3TB or larger Hard Drives! 2TB or smaller, leave it at a MBR Disk.
    
10. Now for the fun part, creating a new Partition! Right click on the area that has a black stripe and select, "New Simple Volume."
    
    
     
11. The Wizard should appear, click Next: 
    
    
     
12. Specify the Volume Size. For the majority and this example, we will leave it at the default, which is the maximum capacity of the drive. If you are going to create multiple partitions on this Hard Drive at different sizes, I'd use an online calculator tool to create the size you need. For example, if you wanted to create a 6TB partition, you would enter 6,291,456. But to keep things simple, leave it at the default and click next. 
    
    
     
13. Assign a Drive Letter. This is the spot that you can assign a drive letter if you choose. For example, if this EHD is one that will contain personal files. we could change the Drive Letter to P:\ for "Personal Drive." Again, this is completely up to you to decide. There is no right or wrong answer. If you'd like all of your EHDs to be the "E Drive" (i.e. E:\ ) then change the default to E by clicking the Down Arrow next to the Drive Letter and selecting E. Please note, that if you use an external DVD Drive, or another drive that uses the same drive letter, things might go wonky for you if you hook up both devices at the same time. So don't be afraid to "spread" things out. Drive Letters A --> E are the most traditional, so anything that is "H" or above is almost always fair-game. 
    
    
    
    After making your choice, click Next. We will leave it at "D" for this example.
     
14. The next screen is very important. It's the "Format Partition" selections. For today's modern Windows Computers' hard drives that are meant for permanent storage, you want to use NTFS. Some devices like Thumb Drives, you would want to use FAT32. Again, for this example we will leave it at the default of NTFS. The Allocation Size should be left at the default and it is highly recommended that you give your HD a name, to keep things organized. "Data," "Photos," "EHD #2," etc. are all examples. Keep is short and simple.
    
    
    
    Before clicking Next, be sure to click the check-box next to "Perform a quick format!" Otherwise it will take HOURS to format your HD!
    Leave the "Enable file and folder compression" UN-CHECKED.
    
    Click Next.
     
15. A Summary Window should appear with your selections. Confirm them if you'd like and click Finish.
    
    
     
16. The Hard Drive will begin the process and Windows will assign it a letter and name. This process should take less than 30 seconds, but this depends on the speed of your computer and Hard Drive. Some complete this task in as little as 5-7 seconds, others take longer. When completed, the Disk Manger should have the drive in the list, along with the name that you chose for the drive:
    
    
     
17. Exit out of the Disk Manger and either use "This PC" or the "Windows Explorer" to use the new Drive.
    
    
     
18. With any new Hard Drive, now is the time to think of a Directory Structure on how you want to organize your Hard Drive. This is completely up to you, but I would take the time and think of how you are going to store stuff, rather than it become a dumping ground for your files/images. Here is one example:
    
    
    
    You could also keep things very simple, and have folders that are just the year:
    
    
    
    The sky's the limit! So make your Directory Structure a good one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mrlang30]

I'm at step 8. Going from 2TB to 4TB. When I right click on the Disk # I only have the option to convert to Dynamic Disk and not a GPT Disk. Are they one in the same? 

[Brian]

I need a screenshot of your Disk Utilities Window. All of the partitions on the new drive need to be gone. Right-click on the existing partitions and select delete. We need the drive to be completely blank. 

[mrlang30]

[Brian]

STOP!!!

YOU ARE ON THE WRONG BLASTED HARD DRIVE!!!

You are not following my directions!!!

Where is the new 4TB Drive? It's not in the list!!!!

You are about to Royally Screw Up your computer!!!!

 

5 hours ago, mrlang30 said:

I'm at step 8. Going from 2TB to 4TB.

You don't go from 2TB to 4TB, you select a new hard drive. You can not make a 4TB Drive out of an existing 2TB Drive.

[Brian]

The only drive that is listed is your current internal one. Where is the new External Drive? I thought you purchased a new 4TB External HD and that it arrived. Correct?

Connect the new External Sandisk to your computer, power it on if needed, and it should appear in the Disk Management Window.

Post a screen-shot and we will continue.

[mrlang30]

Sorry! Disk 1 is the new EHD. It was on there when I deleted the correct partition, just not on the pic above. Here is an updated pic. 

[Brian]

PHEW!!!

That's MUCH better. OK, delete the 200MB Partition? I want to see nothing but a black bar all the way across. If you can't that's fine.

Then I want you to Right Click Here:

Look for "Convert to GPT Disk." But I'm thinking it will say, "Convert to MBR." IF it says "MBR," don't do anything, because it's already a GPT Disk, and then right click in this area and select "New Simple Volume"

Then follow STEP 9 and beyond above. ^^^^^

[mrlang30]

I was unable to delete the 200mb and it wouldn't let me covert to gpt or mbr. Its the same drop.down as in my 1st pic above.. So I'm onto creating simple volume. 

Its only giving me 3815000mb but 4tb should be 4194000mb. Leave as is for volume size? 

Edited December 12, 2021 by mrlang30
Update

[Brian]

2 minutes ago, mrlang30 said:

Its only giving me 3815000mb but 4tb should be 4194000mb. Leave as is for volume size? 

That's marketing. Hard Drive Manufacturers say that 1000GB is 1TB. Microsoft says 1024GB is 1TB.

You will ALWAYS LOSE capacity when you partition/format.

3815GB is 4TB after being formatted.

Surprise!!  

[mrlang30]

Ok. Looks like I'm set. Thanks for your expertise. 

One last question.   I purchased this external hard drive partly because I have 0 storage left on my old computer (24.7gb free of 285gb). It basically starts up and that's it, I can't even get to any user folders unless it's thru the 😄 drive. Can I copy/paste (later delete) files from my 😄 drive onto the external in order to create more space on that old computer? 

[Brian]

5 minutes ago, mrlang30 said:

Can I copy/paste (later delete) files from my 😄 drive onto the external in order to create more space on that old computer? 

Yes.

In fact, your goal is to get that 285GB Drive above 100GB free at the least. The more you can free up the better your computer will like it.

[mrlang30]

Perfect!  That's the goal. And idk why when I typed C drive it made a smiling face !!!