I recommend use the Smartwar version 1.6.2.5. It works fine. Dont upgrade to 1.6.4 until WD resolve issue.
Hello again PAR-BR,
If you are sticking with 1.5.1.6 you need to be aware that many of us had problems with etilqsxxxx files building up in the Windows Temp folder and not being deleted on close down or disk cleanup. This is difficult to spot because they are hidden files. They take up tens of GBs and all you notice at first is free disk space diminishing. There is a complete string on this with some workarounds at http://community.wdc.com/t5/WD-Software/WDsmartware-building-etilqs-files-in-my-windows-temp-folder/td-p/307856.
This was an issue that was solved with 1.6 software
Where can I find a copy of Smartware 1.6.2.5?
I can send it you. I have it. My O.S is Windows Vista Home Premium.
Thank you Watchful. Perhpes WD should think sorting their WD SmartWare before losing more of their loyal cutsomers.
Hi Josemigrp,
Can you send me the 1.6.2 version to me as well? I only have the 1.5 and the newest update doesn’t work for me either 
Thanks in advance!
I need a e-mail to send it.
Me too. Absolute junk software. I out-grew my two 250G Passports, so upgraded to 1TB Passports. Only to find that WDSync is no longer supported, and now include this **bleep** in it’s place. If I wanted additional backup software installed on my PC, I would have purchased it. At least it would have backed up my files that are larger than 50M (which I have several).
I’ve been a long-time Western Digital user, but they should be embarrased to allow this kind of thing to happen.
I am one of the many who are patiently waiting for the the next software update. I have two 3TB drives that are sitting DEAD on my network right now with this useless version of software with no help from WD. Why don’t we have access to a previous version that worked properly. All users who are in this same situation need to express this on this site so WD understands the extent and gravity of the dilemma we as users are experiencing. Please WD - get right this time.
Let me share my experience with WD SmartWare verion upgrade from 1.6.2 to 1.6.4. Hope it will help.
I have 3 PCs connected to MyBookLive through my home network.
PC A (HP windows 7 32-bit machine) problem and ways to solve it:
One month ago, it took long time to backup files and sometimes it did not back up. I could not upgrade from 1.6.2 to 1.64. The MBL green light was brinking 24 hours. My the other 2 PCs (PC B & PC C) backup were normal. I talked to WD support staff and he advised me to do factory restore. I did do the full factory restore and the MBL brinking green light problem solved. My other 2 PCs (PC B & PC C) backup are also normal. But my PC A problem still exists. I took my PC A to HP support centre to check the entire PC especially the network adaptor. They checked the hardware and found no problem but they advised me to restore the entire Windows 7 OS. I followed and restored the Windows 7 OS. Then I downloaded SmartWare 1.6.4 from WD and it works perfectly since I restored the OS.
PC B (Lenovo windows 7 64-bit machine) problem and ways to solve it:
Could not upgrade from 1.6.2 to 1.6.4 but it works normally. To solve the upgrade problem, I uninstalled the Smartware program and download the new version from WD and installed it. It works perfectly since I re-installed Smartware.
PC C (Compaq windows vista machine) problem and ways to solve it:
Same as PC B.
Regards,
Johnny
One of the frustrating things about all this trouble is the fact that whatever WD SmartWare Version 1.6.4 did to my hard drive and operating system, fooled the technical guys at Staples into thinking that my hard drive went bad and needed to be replaced. I later found that even if the drive did have a few bad sectors, and what terabyte drive doesn’t, reformatting the drive appears to have put it back to a fully operational condition. Reinstalling Windows 7, and re-installation of applications from my original discs and downloading a bunch of programs from the Internet, has returned my machine to something usable. My old data file backups put me “back in business”. Still, it will take me a while to implement the right mix of programs, which had taken over 3 years of tweaking to produce. A consequence of reformatting my HP machine is that now I find I no longer have the original HP software and utilities which came with the computer. This includes the OEM version of Microsoft Works. All that stuff was stored in a separate partition that went away after the “reformation” of the drive. I do have old HP Recovery DVD’s I made when I bought the computer several years ago, but running those may take me back to 2009 and Windows VISTA. Among other things, these recovery discs do provide a super hard drive utility which I ran without any errors being reported on my errant WD drive. There are also several HP backup utilities available. A good tutorial on backups can be found on the net at: http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/types-backup-software-what-s-difference-between-disk-imaging-file-based-backup-or-synchroniz
All,
I installed 1.6.4 after taking a break from Smartware (I was using 1.6.0, it quit working, and I decided to live without it for a while). I am noticing that many files are not being backed up because “access is denied.” Any idea what I need to change to make these files accessible? AFAIK, they are not protected in any particular way.
Also, one of my reasons for uninstalling 1.6.0 is that Smartware was a battery hog when I was on the road (with laptop un-plugged and without access to the portable HD used by Smartware). Has anyone experienced this and/or have any suggestions on how to avoid this problem?
Thanks.
According to WD technical help there is a problem with Version 1.6.4 and they are trying to resolve it! Why is taking several weeks I don’t know. They are also unhelpful. If you e-mail them, like I did, they will either come back to you with irrelevant questions, or they don’t answer at all. Perhaps you could back up manually (copy and paste folders) until they find a solution. Although I don’t hold my breath if I was you.
WagWaf,
Thanks for your response. Can you be more specific about the problem WDC is aware of? There are so many!
Thanks.
Here’s the solution:
-
Do not use password protection, or if you are turn it off using SmartWare.
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Then uninstall SmartWare and never install it again.
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Download and Install CrashPlan backup software. It’s free for local backups to an external drive like the Passport, it’s reliable, has great customer support, and has an optional cloud based storage option for a reasonable fee.
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Use MS BitLocker (included with some versions of Windows) or TrueCrypt (free) if you want the security of a password protected drive.
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Problems solved!!!
Your life will be much easier and you will never again need to worry if your critical files are actually being backed up.
The Passport hardware is great. The SmartWare software is total rubbish. WD could save a lot of money on software development and support if they would just drop the SmartWare product. These savings could then be passed on to consumers through reduced hardware costs. The WD external drives would be much more competitive and their sales would skyrocket!
In the words of a famous comedian:
“That’s my opinion. I could be wrong.”
“I rant, therefore I am.”
Grtore
The problem is SmartWare does not backup. Other problem is that it prevents Windows from going to sleep. The problems are many, and I don’t see that WD will resolve these problems for several months to come.
D000D
It may be a good idea, but why paying for a software when WD has provided one as part of the purchase for the hard drive. If it worked for you then I think perhaps we should all do the same. That may make WD invest a little more to provide a software that works, otherwise people will stop buying WD products. I will try the backup software you mentioned below. Did you have to delete the files or format the drive or just installed SmarWare?
WagWaf wrote:
D000D
It may be a good idea, but why paying for a software when WD has provided one as part of the purchase for the hard drive. If it worked for you then I think perhaps we should all do the same. That may make WD invest a little more to provide a software that works, otherwise people will stop buying WD products. I will try the backup software you mentioned below. Did you have to delete the files or format the drive or just installed SmarWare?
- *> WagWaf,> The objective here is to extricate yourself from every needing to use SmartWare again.> I would recommend running chkdsk /r on your WD drive from a command prompt window to make sure that the drive has not been corrupted. That will check every sector on your drive and fix any bad sectors that may be found. > You may or may not need to format the drive. I did format my drive because of some issues with using BitLocker on the drive. Running chkdsk and reformatting solved all of those problems (but not the SmartWare problems). Of course, if you reformat you lose all the data on the drive.> If you don’t think you need to reformat then you should be able to leave the files on the drive if you like. The problem is that SmartWare by default could have saved up to 5 versions (5 by default unless you changed the number of versions) of any files that changed while you were using SmartWare, so restoring the files once you quit using SmartWare becomes problematic. The problem is that SmartWare adds cryptic text to the file names of older versions. > If the files are just backups of the files already on your main drive you could just delete them off of your WD drive and then run a new backup with CrashPlan (Note: CrashPlan is free if you don’t sign up for their cloud based storage option). If you want to save any of the files I suggest using SmartWare to restore just the most recent versions (assuming you will have no need for the older versions) to another disk and then delete all the files off of your WD drive. You could later move these files back to the WD drive if you like.
After the last Windows 7 update my PC restarted and everything gorund to a halt. WD software was usiing up all my memory resources. Thought at first I had a virus but found out it is the WD smartware. Spent hours trouble shooting. Then I updated to the latest version of the WD smartware 1.6.4 and restarted computer. PROBLEM SOLVED!
I get exactly the same error on my MyNet N900 Central running under Win7 x64.
Public Share is selected for the HD configuration; no user ID or password is set.
Windows Explorer can access the drive just fine.
SmartWare thinks it’s locked and doesn’t even pop up a log in dialog.
