Many of my clients complain about their backup drives being hard to access information. Many of these backup drives have software installed that will not allow the user to access information without the software loaded on the drive. Often this software fails and the client is left with information that they cannot access. Toshiba and some Seagate drives seem to be even more problematic. There is a very easy fix to avoid any of these problems.
When you plug in your backup drive check to see if your computer recognizes it. It will need to install some temporary files. Click on “My computer” find the drive and right click on it. Choose “Format” and choose all the options to format the disc. It will warn you that all the information will be deleted. That is exactly what we want to see. After the drive is formatted it becomes a bare mass storage drive.
Depending on the operating system type in backup and it will take you to windows backup program. Yes windows has a built in backup program that you can customize to your liking. After you set up the backup windows will do the rest. You can change it at any time. Remember that the drive needs to be connected to be able to function. I am always surprised at how many people have valuable and irreplaceable things on their computer without any backup.
At the Computer doctor Boise we offer data recovery but it can be expensive and not always perfect. We sell custom backup drives at a ow price for our clients. They are not available to the general public.