Purchased a new Maxtor One Touch 4 Plus 500 Gb external hard drive fully expecting that I could use it as a slave drive to back up my personal files (Excel, Word and Email) and a few of the more important small programs on my machine.
 
It installed easily and went right into backup on command.  When I looked at the backup data, almost every line was “not supported” so I really didn’t get a backup at all.
 
I checked the online manual (134 pages so most people won’t bother to copy it) and found that it will not backup the operating system, programs files (without special help), e-mail, internet favorites/bookmarks, proprietary files such as financial, and all hidden files and the like. The manual says it is designed to only backup documents, pictures, music, videos etc. that are contained in the user’s documents folder. You can add a few exe files one by one if you set it up that way. It suggests that, if this is not what you want, you can always backup the entire drive using their special Safety Drill software.
 
What am I missing? 
 
Shouldn’t a backup drive act as a slave allowing you to backup and retrieve files easily whenever you want. 
 
How do I make this thing useful?

Ed Whitnall
Dell Dimension 8200
All the bells and whistles
Windows XP SR2
Connected FireWire not USB 2.0

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