I have the 1TB Western Digital My Book Essential which has the USB3 connection (compatible with USB2). I use EaseUS Todo free backup program. First I make a complete image of my internal HDD, and then I can schedule backups on whatever schedule I wish. I love this program for its ease of use after struggling with Acronis. I am very pleased also with the WD external drive. They do stand behind their warranties and replaced an internal HDD that failed, without question. All hard drives are subject to failure, so I think you're okay as long as you stick with a name brand.

Whoops I'm sorry----Click on Learn more to play the video. I just want to know if it really is backing stuff up and if it's backing up what I want it to Yes! My friend got a 1tb WD My Book and picks what files she wants to go on there like I do with my Verb external drive. Just don't put shortcut icons on it as it is not saving the file (pics) and will not open on another computer. You are only saving the shortcut icon. (smiles)

I think that the type of file that was made for the backup may be critical for scanning success. If the file was an "image" of the original computer, then it probably can be scanned for malware and viruses. However. removing such items changes the file and it may no longer be an image of the original and can not be used to transfer the operating system to a new computer. An unadulterated image file is required for moving an operating system and its installed applications. If the the backup is merely a collection of copies of data files, then scan the external hard drive to rid it of baddies before copying these file to the new computer. When backing up data files, often backup software does not just make copies of the data, but creates a large data base containing compressed files of the data files. I'm not sure if this type of file can be scanned for viruses. Carefully read the capabilities of the scanner software. Some may say they have the ability to scan compressed files, but this may mean only files that are individually compressed and not a batch of files that have been collected into a single compressed (backup) file.

I have many times had to Replace Hard Drives that Crashed (at least 5). Use to take care of a couple Small Businesses computers. If it hadn't been for the Cloned Drives I would have spent countless hours reinstalling everything and restoring files. I too have lots of systems to oversee. No, many aren't mine and I can only recommend Backing up, cloning, etc... That doesn't mean that one will be done! We have 5 Laptops, 1 Desktop, and 1 Tablet all on Windows 10 here at my house. I only Clone 3 of those computers! My old boss lost her home computers hard drives twice, loosing everything before she learned to listen to me! I did get her started on a Cloning Program and it did save her the next time her computer crashed. Not sure what this woman did to her computers, but she had many problems. I do recall her saying they had power outages in their area all of the time, but she did have her pc on a UPS Battery Backup system. She had a ton of valuable information on her home computers, as did her small businesses computers which I maintained for her. Never had any problems with the Work Computers, maybe because she didn't use them (The Office Manager and Employees used them)! Yes, even a dormant hard drive can die, although I've never had that happen. The Business Computers I Cloned usually had Two Clones made. Usually One copy was in the Safe at the Workplace and the other usually stored in a Safety Deposit Box at a Bank!