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Connecting Ext. HDD via Ethernet

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I have a 1TB WD "My Book Live" connected to my laptop via ethernet. The drive appears with an IP of 169.254.6.111 on the network. I want to back up the laptop to that drive.

The WD drive does not show up on the three choices for backup destination. If I try and enter it as a "New FTP Connection", the Test Connection fails (I have no idea what the port is).

How can I back up to this drive?

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Alan,  The WD My Book needs to be connected to your router or a switch on your network with the ethernet cable... or it needs to be attached to the computer with USB cable.  You should not attach it to the computer with an ethernet cable - it is not designed for that.  A 169.x.x.x address is a local loopback address which basically means it does not have a real network address (as it would when connected directly to a router or swtich on your network).

Please refer to the WD setup instructions first.  Once you have it configured for your computer correctly, you should be able to use it as a backup location

http://support.wdc.com/KnowledgeBase/answer.aspx?ID=5724