File History - Alternate to Memeo WD Anywhere backup

Hello All,

After windows 8.1 upgrade, just like you, I ran into WD Memeo Backup incompatibility issues. I tried bunch of options to get it to work but failed and got only one message "WD Anywhere Backup cannot be run under this version of windows" and Memeo does not have any plans to extend support for this version of backup software.

Solution

I tried couple of options, like FreeFileSync, Synkronizer etc, to get my backup plan up and running but finally settled down with Windows 8.1 "File History" program. It's bit messy in terms of setting up, unless you know "how it does". But once you get it right you will be happy that you do not have to reply on any third party program and worry about any installation/un-installation.

I am listing out steps which will help you to set your backup.

Few concepts before we proceed.

1. "File History" program manages backing up files using your "library folders".
2. By default it will backup all Library Folders(My Documents, My Music, My Videos etc), Desktop, Contacts, and couple of more items including One Drive(only offline files).
3. You can setup "exclude list" to exclude any folders that you might want to be part of backup.
4. Setup Network Folder from your WD Network Hard Disk.
5. Few "Advanced Setting" options to set frequency and version.

Let's get to work !!!

Note: By Default all libraries(Default and Custom) will get selected for backup. So do not set "File History" to ON unless you have all exclude list setup(as in Step 2) to avoid unnecessary files to be part of backup plan.

Step 1 (optional): Setup a new Library Folder and have folders listed in it that you want to be part of backup plan.

• As shown in below image, open Explorer, Right click on "Documents" -> Include In Library -> "Create new library"
• Provide a name for your library
• New Library folder will get listed under Homegroup as shown in picture below.

Create Library Folder

• Now under manage tab, click on "Manage Library" folder.
• Add folders that you want to be the part of backup plan.
• That's it setting up your Library Folder.

Step 2: Press Windows key from your desktop and key in "File History" for search and select "File History" and Setup "Exclude Folders"

Launch File History

File History

Step 3: Network Directory share.

• Create new share or use already existing share from your WD Network Hard Drive.
• Open WD Drive in explorer, and you will list of all shared folders.
• Right Click on desired backup folder and click on "Map Network Drive"

Step 4: From Start Menu, search for "File History" and go to "File History Settings"
Turn On "File History" and Select newly mapped network drive.

File History Settings

And your backup process should commence !!!

Step 5: Configure frequency and version settings
Open the "File History" window as mentioned in step 2, and goto "Advanced  Setting" options and make necessary changes.

Once a cycle of backup completes, you can clear your memeo backup files and un-install memeo backup program.

That's all folks !!! :)

Thanks.

WD My Book World Edition 2TB

!!! I've got some space !!!

WD My Book World Edition 2TB White Light Edition (WDH1NC20000)
Yippeee!!! I got my disk.

This disk basically a NAS(Network Attached Storage) drive. It comes with a pre-installed Linux. It is a cut down version of Linux. That means Users, file permission groups etc etc basic features of Linux comes into the picture. So you can be pretty sure that only authorized users will be accessing your data. And its pretty good once you have your data on Network.

As I said Linux, no need to worry to all those who don't have knowledge of Linux. It's has got a pretty decent web interface to control & configure the disk properties. Thanks to the httpd service running on it. :)

Apart from that it has got a licensed version of Twonky media server. You can configure Twonky media server to share videos, music and pictures. And the same can be accessed by any PC, cellphone or any other device in the Network. Using web interface you can also enable services like NFS, AFP and FTP.

It has also got iTunes media sharing service running. So iTunes lovers will see this disk under "Sharing" section of iTunes. :)

Cons:
Although this unit Gigabit LAN capable, the data transfer rate is pretty slow over the network. I got max speed of 1350 kB/s while transferring data from my PC/USB Drive to the disk over the 100Mbps LAN card.

Initially I thought I didn't configure the disk properly but after going through blogs & forums I got to know that this disk is powered by ARM9 processor running at 200 MHz. Well I'm still not sure that this is the bottle neck in my case. I google on this a bit more and found that this processor can be over clocked to 500MHz. Probabilily this could improve the data transfer rate. But I didn't tried.

Anyways I got most of data on WD 160 GB USB disk. So I connect my USB disk to the USB port available at the back of the 2TB unit. This basically exposes the USB disk as a network share. To transfer the data logged in to the disk using SSH and fired "cp" command to transfer all my data. And guess what I transferred 50 GB of data in approximately 53 minutes. Pretty impressive...huh !!! ;)

Now since all my data is a one place I really don't need to do a lot of bulk transfer over the LAN. All that data dumping stuff was a one time task and I'm done with that.

To summarize, it's a pretty impressive unit to have your data at one place and share it in home with different PC's/devices(I use my cellphone a lot ;) ). With the Linux in place adds data security. Twonky & iTunes software makes this disk a perfect media server and I'm pretty happy with it after backing up my data.

And special thanks to Mini who brought this for me. :)