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.

Thank you for taking the time to respond. My computer has been warning of USB device that it does not recognize every time I log in with my password. Today with your advice I unplugged the power lead from the drive and the computer did audible blip. Reconnected it. Unplugged the USB cord at the drive, audible blip, reconnected it audible blip. Disconnected the USB at the back of the computer with audible blip and reconnected at the front with audible blip and the light on the drive is now ON! My Book J now again shows up on the Computer window. Need to move the USB connection back to the back of the computer if possible as the two front USB ports are often used for other things. I am left wondering exactly what happened to make it stop working. Thanks for your help.

for anyone looking for a great price on an external drive I just spotted this deal at buy.com. Fantom G-Force GF1000EU32 1 TB - Hard Drive "Fantom Drives G-Force eSATA\USB 2.0 Hard Drives offer the most affordable storage solution for USB and eSATA enabled PCs and Macs. The USB 2.0 interface is capable of up to 60MB\sec transfer rates while the eSATA interface is capable of up to 150MB/sec transfer rates. This products features sturdy aluminum casing to provide maximum durability, fan-free design for silent operation, and could be placed horizontally or stand vertically to allow maximum deskspace. From increasing storage space to providing a safe and flexible data backup solution, Fantom Drives G-Force eSATA\USB 2.0 Hard Drives are ideal for home and business users alike." a 1 TB hard drive for $59.99 and free shipping that is a decent deal and the customer reviews are good. Nice that it offers both usb and eSATA. I buy from buy.com often and have never had any issues with them and I know they do have a coupon code for first time buyers, so googling for buy.com codes should bring that up.

thanks for the comments pkponder and owbist. I posted replies to the other original post, in which I said something related to what owbist is saying here. Basically, acronis support also suggested that I create a bootable CD to restart from. After hours trying to understand how to do that, I got Acronis started from the CD only to have it complain about reading some acronis files all over again (different error msg though). The msgs made it sound as if the file was maybe corrupted or something. This being a new external drive, I seriously doubt there is any file corruption or bas spot on the external disk itself. I noticed how the letter assigned to the external drive changes when I am in normal Windows Explorer Mode & Acronis off the bootable CD. In Windows Explorer, the external Drive is letter J. When messing with Acronis off the CD, it is I but the internal records for the backups kept by Acronis display the file names with letter J. Odd. owbist, caution! I originally thought I was in high heaven when acronis was backing up things regularly but, after this bad taste trying to do a restore, you may want to ck to see if trying to restore is possible or not for you. So frustrating since it did exactly this same restore request last month like a champ! Luis PS - My apologies for not replying sooner. One of the effects of what screwed me up is not being able to start Outlook. Some file called outlook.pst is missing so I have not been able to check my emails for a few weeks...