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Question: canthis be used with out theWD back up software ? I have a third party one that I use ?
Document: I've said this in the past - make sure to get the drives from Amazon instead of a third party. Also the box should come shrink wrapped - ALWAYS. If it's not, then there is a good chance someone used it previously.My experience has been positive with all of my SIX (6) external WD drives. I have couple 2 TB and 4 TB drives. Over 5 years of use and no issues. I highly recommend doing a full format instead of the quick format.
The drive capacity should be more than adequate for my use.I use Windows 7 Home Premium operating system and previous 3rd party backup software that i've attempted to use has been confusing and very unsatisfactory. I've used a different Cloud Backup and haven't switched at this time.
This external obviously has tons of storage and is easy to set up. The read/write rates are quite fast. I have not used any of WD's backup software, as I prefer a 3rd party software.
This is my third My Book and now have a total of 12TBs for all my backups & stuff. Ridiculous accumulation for an individual! The seamless and background backups with access protection software is fantastic. I am a retired network consultant and have used WD products for many years and they have never let me down.
I don't like backup programs -- years ago despite having used a backup program when I went to restore files to a new computer, too many files were either missing or corrupted. So now that huge memory is so relatively cheap, I simply use a WD 4TB external drive -- in fact 2 of them -- to copy my files. I alternate drives. One week I back up to one of them and the next week to the other.
Used window 7 pro back up and restore , back up 3 times still failed .called WD support , they 're said do to limitation if 3T , window can't do it , they recommend call Microsoft or use WD software to back up
Works great. Fast (around 120MB/s between external drives), silent and reliable. My 2TB and 4TB drives are all still operational. Bought the first one in 2010 (Elements 2TB external drive). I don't move mine around. They all stay put and are used for storage and backup purposes. Windows 8.1 detects them immediately. I don't use any of the software that came with the drive.
Second, they do not offer data retrieval, if you want to retrieve your data from the dead drive you have to give them a credit card number so they can bill you for a second unit, mail you the second unit so that you can go pay a third party to do the data retrieval for you, and then you pay to mail the dead unit in to them and when they receive it they will credit your card with the purchase price of the second unit.
THe drive installed quickly and easily, works well, quietly, coolly.What is it with the software for all these backup programs? As far as I can tell, this one does standard timed back up or continuous backups. I haven't yet figured out if it does things such as backup Outlook, or make recoverable system images.. I guess I need to rely on Acronic for those features. Why have to use two separate programs? Except for software would have given 5 stars
... for large external, non-portable HDD.THE GOOD:  Quiet, high capacity, accompanying WD and 3rd party free Acronis backup software, good WD tech support, and seemingly low power consumption. Even after being on for a few hours transferring data the external temperature of the drive was very low.THE NOT SO GOOD:  My installation required adapting my desktop system unit to USB 3.0 to use the intended capability of this drive and that was not without a few problems.
Answer: Yes I think to lock the drive down you need the software but for backing up and using as hard drive you can use whatever.  Weather Digital is good for that reason.