External Drives

[Bruce Page]

I have a Western Digital external backup drive that is making me crazy! I like the idea of having everything backed up but every time the WD drive is active it slows my PC to a crawl. Is this normal? I have uninstalled and reinstalled the WD software to no avail. The connection between the external drive and PC is through a USB. I’m almost to the point of ditching the WD altogether.

[Chuck Wintle]

Don't use the WD software at all...there are some very good(and free) backup utilities that do a much better job. With it you can selectively backup any or all parts of your computer. One good free utility that comes to mind is Syncback free edition

[Joe Chritz]

My external is a WD and I don't notice it even being attached. The back up takes a while but with 20K songs and more pictures it is a lot of info to do. I don't run it when doing anything else so I can't say how much it slows the system down. I don't use the WD programs either. Currently I use Syncback and it does everything I could possibly want it to.

Joe

[Bruce Page]

Thanks. I will check out Syncback.

[Rich Konopka]

Bruce,

If you are using win 7 you may want to check the drive by right clicking on the drive in explorer and choosing properties. If the bottom check box is checked to "allow file content to be indexed" You may want to uncheck that. Also, I have seen some backups that use encryption and or compression which can bring a machine to its knees's. I hope this helps.

[Myk Rian]

The USB is a slow connection. Does it also have a SATA connector? That would speed it up.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Bruce,

I have a WD backup 1TB drive and I'm using a 1 year old Dell with Windows 7. I don't keep the drive connected. I connect it when I want to backup everything and don't even know it is there when it's connected.