The Memeo Backup WD Anywhere backup that came bundled with WD MyBook was a good set-it-and-forget-it backup software. It came with the WD Anywhere external hard drive that I bought. I have been using for a good pass 18 months and it was almost quite smooth in its back up function. However recently the latest nagging requesting you to update its Memeo WD Anywhere Backup makes it out to be a very irritating nagware.
All this while they have been giving free updates, which was not too bad, and I have been able to update the Memeo WD Anywhere Backup software without any problem.
Mind you the Memeo WD Anywhere Backup is not perfect. I’m also using Microsoft SyncToy 1.4 which after syncing, left some bits of ghost files. Those little ghost files is to tell SyncToy which files has been synchronized. And once the syncing was done, those little bits of files would be deleted.
Unfortunately WD Anywhere Backup would detect those ghost files and attempt to back it up only to find that it has been deleted. So in your WD Anywhere Backup log file you would see errors. This was kinda irritating, because you would have to clear all errors manually. But in the end it will show up again. It is not so big deal, except that when you hover your mouse over the WD Anywhere backup taskbar icon it would still show pending backup leaving you to wonder whether any backup was ever completed, although it was completed, just that the ghost files cause it to report backup is still in progress.
This wasn’t so irritating until the latest reminder for update. In fact it wasn’t even an update, it was an upgrade offer. As the saying goes, it isn’t broke, don’t fix it. And so far, the current WD Anywhere Backup may not be perfect; it still does a decent backup. So it is not quite broke, but not quite perfect. Tell me which software isn’t perfect? As long as it functions as much as it could without too much problem it is as good as it is.
So the latest offer for upgrade at a special offer of US$29.95 is not special for me. In fact, I don’t need the upgrade. You may say, if you don’t need it then don’t upgrade. The problem was every time I boot up my Windows Vista, the reminder will pop up. I couldn’t switch it off. I couldn’t find any settings to switch off the reminder. If that is the case, then Memeo WD Anywhere has now become a nagware. You may have paid for it as part of the bundled software from the WD MyBook unfortunately it is now functioning more like a shareware. I wish there was a way to switch it off, but short of uninstalling, there is no way but have to tolerate this pop up every time I boot up my Windows.
So no choice but to continue using Memeo WD Anywhere backup until I find another software that isn’t so nagging. I did find a couple nice freeware backup solution previously and there are some interesting open source backup software out there. So for now I will tolerate it just a little while longer until I find the time to get another back up software.
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