When I backup my files to my Simpletech external hard drive(J) It requires a file name to proceed. I enter a file name and I get an answer that the directory is " read only select another ". How do I proceed fronm here to select a new diectory and create a file name?

Usually with an external hard drive it's not necessary for it to copy over an existing backup or at least you can program your PC not to do this. What will happen is you will have several different copies of backup's and you will have to decide if you want to erase the others and keep the most resent one. Yes your file will be saved withing the backup but if you change the file name it will file this as a new file

Determine how much space you need. The first step in backing up your hard drive is to figure out how much space you will need to back up all of your files. You can do this in a couple of ways. Find out how large the hard drive is on your computer first to see if you can back up the whole thing. Click on "My Computer," right-click the "C" drive and select "Properties." This shows the approximate of your hard drive, how much space is actually taken, plus the space used by your operating system. If your hard drive is manageable (the space actually taken), back up the whole thing. Your second option is to create a file called "Backup" and copy all of your important files into it. Right-click on the folder once everything is copied over and choose "Properties" to find out the of the folder. This is how much space you will need to back up your important files only. Choose a backup method. Choose either an external hard drive, data disks (CDs, for example) or use an online backup service. There are advantages and disadvantages to all. An external drive is convenient because you can plug it into other computers and immediately transfer or copy files without needing the Internet or having to worry at all about security. However you have to carry the drive with you and always face the remote possibility that both your computer and the hard drive would break. Data disks provide the same advantages and disadvantages as external hard drives: portability, but the possibility of theft or breakage. You can also use an online backup service. These services range in price depending on the amount of storage. The advantage of an online service is that you can access your files from anywhere there is Internet, and it is generally cheaper, especially for small amounts of service. Also, you don't need to carry or store another piece of equipment. The disadvantage is your backup is stored on the service's external server, so security is a potential issue. Back up your files.
Once you have chosen your method of backup, do not forget the most important step: back up your files. For external media, go into "My Computer" and double-click the "C" drive to open it. Select all the files if backing up your entire hard drive, or select your "Backup" folder if just backing up your important files. Holding your "CTRL" key, drag your selected files to your back up source, either your external hard drive or data disk drive. Release your mouse button and "CTRL" key and allow the files to be copied onto your backup media. Hope this helps.

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If you are asking how to restore a Time Machine backup, you will need to connect and turn on your drive, then open Time Machine, navigate to the drive, highlite the backup and click on the restore button. It should then restore the files from your backup.

The whole point of having a "backup" disk-drive is to create one additional copy of all your files. So, if the "internal" disk-drive fails, you still have the files, on the "external" drive, and vice-versa.

Open "My Computer".
Connect the SimpleTech to a USB port.
Watch "My Computer" -- it should update after Windows detects the new hardware.
Open "My Documents".
Click "Edit".
Click "Select All".
Right-mouse click on one of the files.
Point at "Send To".
Point at the "new" drive-letter that Windows assigned to the drive,
and all the selected files will be copied to the SimpleTech.

Go to My Computer, right click the external drive, cilck open. That will show the contents of the drive. Once you are happy that you wish to delete all the files click Edit/select all right click delete.

Or right click on the drive and select format.

Backup software compresses the files and encodes them to an image file made up of a series of sequenced files. The same software you used to do the backup should have the restore options needed to locate desired files. SimpleTech website shows Fabrik to be the name of the backup software.
If you utilized, there's also an online backup site used to store files. Following link is the users guide:
http://www.simpletech.com/support/guides/user-guides/60000-00168-001.pdf

The BPA files are the backed up copies of your data. The simpletech utility backs up your files to compresse file ending in BPA. Any computer running the simpletech restore program can extract the data from these files.

You will simply need to install this software on a spare computer in order to test the backups. Frankly though I would just use windows backup to copy the files/folders you want to the drive raw as this can be read anywhere.

Hope this helps FixYa,

Chris

I had a very similar problem. It turned out to be a faulty case.

If the drive was formatted, there is a very good chance you've destroyed your data and may need professional services to recover the files (if possible)

Chances are you just needed to replace the external case by removing the harddrive from the simpletech case and installing it in a new case.

But again, if the drive's been formatted, it may have wiped out your data.

my advice to you is open it and unplug the one touch button.

well first off you should not use teh same external hard drive for both dell and mac! and for it to work on a dell you need to go to disc utility in the applications folder and click on you external hard drive and go to the last pannel which is called restore and put in the given info and it shall work!