External Hard Drive

Realizing my computer is over three years and contains lot of info and files, I picked up a WD "My Passport" drive capable of holding 320 GB...more than enough for a few years. Want to use this as a backup, and I think it is also capable of encryption...a handy feature if I have to scrap the drives. My only previous experience having been with flash drives I have been wondering how to proceed with this thing. It seems to have installed OK as shows up as drive "J" in My Computer and when I click on "Send To". I tested it to see if I could transfer a picture and a video, and that seemed to work fine. But the unit seems capable of a lot more than that. I was wondering if anyone on these forums has had experience with these particular drives and advise me on how best to proceed so I won't mess up the installation.

Clicking on the drive in My Computer brings up some various folders:

One called "Extras" brings up a WD Device driver, an Adobe Reader download, and VCVDVersion.xml  Have no idea so won't touch these.

A "System Volume Information" which appears empty and also Access Denied

A 75 page users manual which contains a lot of stuff which I have started to study.

One called WC SmartWare which contains what appear to be a lot of setup files among others and a welcome animation.

Then a couple of applications....WD Quicker Formatter.exe....and WD SmartWare.exe.. After reading all the way through the manual I will probably have a good idea of how to proceed, but a few starter tips from persons familiar with this product would be much appreciated. Hopefully I posted this in the proper forum.