WD hard drive - Vista compatibility

Bealman · September 03, 2017, 09:41:56 AM

It's Father's Day here in Oz, and the Bealettes kindly got Dad a Western Digital backup 2TB drive for his venerable 10 year old laptop (it even went to the UK and Ireland with me).

Without starting an OS argument, my computer runs Vista. I know it got rubbished from the start, but it's what I've got. However, I have a feeling that the laptop is about to cark it.

I therefore want to backup all the pics, etc that are on the laptop.

It says on the box of the drive that it is only compatible with Windows7 or higher.

Apparently the guy in the shop reckons it will work with Vista.

Question is: should I open the box and try it, or take it back?

austinbob · September 03, 2017, 09:57:22 AM

How about if you phone the shop you bought it from, tell the guy the story about being Windows 7 or higher compatibility and ask if its ok to try the drive and then return it to the shop if it doesn't work.
If the shop says it can't do that then take it back for a refund/replacement

Bealman · September 03, 2017, 10:16:53 AM

I'd better act quickly then.... I don't know what shop Bealette got it from, and she leaves to take up a job in Japan later this week! True.... Railsquid here I come!

But on a serious note, I see your point. I'm sure she has the receipt.

Still tempted to try it though, it's just stock files, no fancy applications (I hate the apps word).

George

railsquid · September 03, 2017, 10:33:49 AM

Quote from: Bealman on September 03, 2017, 10:16:53 AM
I'd better act quickly then.... I don't know what shop Bealette got it from, and she leaves to take up a job in Japan later this week! True.... Railsquid here I come!

Eek, before I get scared by George turning up with his historical laptop, I can't see why there'd be a problem, a quick search indicates 2TB is the maximum for Vista, might be tricky if you want to boot the OS off it but I don't think that will be the case here

Bealman · September 03, 2017, 10:46:56 AM

Thanks mate, that's what I was thinking.

Things like Firefox and Dropbox tell me that they're not going to be supporting Vista by the end of this month anyway. So I'm living on borrowed time when it comes to Vista.

I'll give it a try anyway. If it doesn't work, Bealette can take it with her.

I promise I won't bring the laptop to Japan!

railsquid · September 03, 2017, 11:05:14 AM

Worst case is the BIOS might not recognise the disk; second worst case is you might not be able to use all the 2TB. Either way, just plugging it in won't break it.

10 years ago is around the time Stuff (especially USB) just started to Work without having to faff around with installing drivers, so my gut feeling is it will probably work. But don't quote me if it doesn't

Bealman · September 03, 2017, 11:12:01 AM

I'll give it a shot then.

If worst comes to worse, it'll end up in your locale with Bealette!

George

Railwaygun · September 03, 2017, 11:35:39 AM

An upgrade to Win7 is probably your best bet after you've got the data off.

A bit more memory ( 4 gb) and an SSD/ new HD is also a good way of invigorating an old machine.

Pm me if you can't find a cheap copy.

Bealman · September 03, 2017, 11:46:55 AM

Thanks, mate.

I worry about uploading operating systems, though.

Could turn a working computer into a doorstop.

If it works, don't fix it, is my motto

MalcolmInN · September 03, 2017, 04:24:22 PM

Quote from: Bealman on September 03, 2017, 09:41:56 AM
I therefore want to backup all the pics, etc that are on the laptop.

It says on the box of the drive that it is only compatible with Windows7 or higher.

Apparently the guy in the shop reckons it will work with Vista.

Dont know if this will help :
I have a Western Digital 2Tb "My Passport" white enclosure usb3blue plug.
I have just taken it off its usual Win7 lappy and (specially for you

) put it on my Vista(never did me any harm either

! ) and it said "Windows needs to install ,,, " yadda, so it didnt find a driver, I ignored that and carried on. It reads the files I had on it ok and writes them back, it sees the folder tree OK. All are now readable back on the Win7 m/c. So, no probs !

The drive came with a load of WD security gizmos on it that I did not need so I had shunted them off into an out of the way folder to stop it reminding me etc. I suspect the driver may be in that lot ?
No mind, it seems to have gracefully fallen back to a Ms generic driver OK.

My box said Win 7 8 10 or some such, I cant remember the phrase, dont remember it saying "only" though, they would have to put a caveat in like that anyway cos Ms no longer support Vista, so it lets them off the hook.

Dorsetmike · September 03, 2017, 04:36:05 PM

Win 7 runs a 2Tb hard drive and a 240Gb SSD Quite happily so you have that to look forward to.

As Malcolm says you could put the 2Tb into a "caddy" with a USB connection and download everything you want to save to it. Install Win 7 on an SSD, use the SSD for software and the 2TB for storage of pics and other data.

zwilnik · September 03, 2017, 04:45:54 PM

A lot of the time the "Compatible with" or "Needs Windows xxx" are really about the various daft bits of utility software they bundle on the disks (the worst being one WD did a while back that attempted to stop DVD piracy by blocking certain file types from working). Most of the time it's easier and better just to format the thing and use it with the OS drivers.

MalcolmInN · September 03, 2017, 04:59:12 PM

Following up on what Mike says :
I was uncertain if the "Hard drive" in the topic title meant a bare-bones drive or a USBready one. I suspect the latter as it would be perhaps a little unusual to stick a new bare HD into an old laptop ? Desktop yes !
So without getting magnifying glass out for model/serial I thort best to give a wee description of which Western Digital I was playing with.

Some further thoughts :
If it really does need a specific WD driver ( for optimum speed etc.) it could prob be found on WD website ?

Have no fear about Win7, both of us dyed-in-wool refugees from preXP days have no probs, though presentGoodLady did balk a bit at Win8.1, so that sees little use yet, Vista/Win7 is acceptable

I'm waffling, what I meant to say that over here there are lots of "refurbish"ers selling cheap recycled Win7, Win8 and even now Win10 m/c very cheap on ebay and usually thus to be found locally.
So a good way to recover the WD situation if the Vista m/c does "cark it" or even protem belt&braces before that ?

Dorsetmike · September 03, 2017, 06:40:49 PM

Also Win 7 CDs are available at quite low prices, or if you already have a CD then a licence that allows you to install on another machine.

MJKERR · September 03, 2017, 10:43:39 PM

Quote from: Bealman on September 03, 2017, 09:41:56 AMI therefore want to backup all the pics, etc that are on the laptop

If all you are backing up are files, then you do not need to worry about the compatibility
Yes, the laptop may only see up to 2TB, but that is the device size anyway

The next question is whether you want to use the provided software or simply copy the files
This is probably where the compatibility requirements come from, as many software providers stopped checking Vista compatability even though it will work without any issues

If all you are doing is copying the images then there are no issues

I have two backup devices
I started off using the software, then found that all it was doing was copying the files which I could complete in the same time!