How do backup a Windows 7 Machine to a Network attached Drive (WD Worldbook) -- using the Windows backup utility?

If you can't browse to the share you should be able to type the share name in, i.e.

\\netdrive\sharename

When you open "Computer" from the Start Menu click on "Network". Do you see the network drive there? If not then you would have to type in the name per the example above or enable Network Discovery or some other option so that you can browse to the share.

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Kerry Brown MS-MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Thanks... but I can access and browse the share and drive just fine... My problem is that  I am trying to setup the automated Backup tool in Windows. It is during that setup that I cannot locate any network drive (It just gives me the option to backup to DVD). It should list external drives as well, no? -- Including any network attached storage devices.

I can backup using the Western Digital software just fine (but much rather use the Windows 7 Backup tool instead). Therefore, does the inbedded Windows 7 Backup software support Network Drives, and can it "auto-discover"?

Thanks

Thats the problem. Thanks for the help!

What I did was get an old IDE disk drive, place it in an external USB enclosure and back my system up using it.  From there all I had to do is copy my files over to a network drive (once a week).  It may be a little more convoluted than I would like, but it works.  It allows me to set and forget the backups and the file copy.  If the old disk ever dies, I will replace it with a new 1TB SATA USB drive and keep the process going.  Besides, backups directly to a network drive take forever and eat a bunch of CPU.  If the network is busy, it can take days to back up a full disk across a network.  This solution is fast and supported.

I know this thread is old and mostly dead, but I wanted to add a bit of information to the knowledge already here. While the previous posters are all correct about Windows 7 Home not being able (read: willing) to backup to a network volume, there is one potential workaround depending on your network setup.

Windows 7 is smart enough to recognize that a mapped network drive is not local, so that won't work. It will, however, allow you to backup to an iSCSI drive. If you are lucky enough to have purchased a Network Attached Storage (NAS) unit as your backup/data device, you may be able to set up part of the drive space as an iSCSI target and backup to that (the machine next to me is doing that right now). As for getting a computer to share a drive using iSCSI, I have no idea how you would go about that, but someone smarter than me might be able to point you in the right direction.

Will Windows 7 Professional do it?

 

Jim and Dave - Thanks for posting those tips. I'm using a second HD temporarily as I happened to have an extra one, but I much prefer locating the backup in a different physical box.

It's too bad customers have to take the time to devise workarounds for features that have been disabled for marketing purposes. I'm sure Windows 7 Home Premium COULD do a network backup, it just WON'T because some genius decided that low-end customers don't deserve that feature.

Will Windows 7 Professional do it?

Yes. In addition to full-system Backup and Restore found in all Windows 7 editions, you can back up to a home or business network on Professional and Ultimate.

True, Home Version DO NOT backup to network locations only LOCAL DRIVES. This feature was removed in Windows 7 as it was available in previous versions Thats Micro$$$oft