The suggestion has been previously made to uninstall smartware and reinstall the version that came with the drive. I made that suggestion on 11-24-2011 in the thread “Re: smartware replacement, no more resource (wdfme) hogging” and I was very happy with the results -then. But now, 2 months later, I am getting frustrated again with Smartware hogging resources. It seems that as time has passed it has again started to take control of my system (for the first half hour of the day in particular). As there seems to be no movement from WD on solving this issue I, like many others here, will have to look for an alternative solution. I just wish I didn’t have to spend time on this.
Kramer wrote:
I am sure this has been mentioned, perhaps even within this thread, but I did a full uninstall of 1.5.x, deleted all the temp files in my windows/temp folder, plugged the passport back in, installed the 1.4.1 version of smartware that is onthe drive, and ran a backup and it no longer pulls 98% memory from the 4 systems I have performed this workaround on. I just refuse to update the software and keep the version at 1.4.1 and things seem fine.
Unfortunately I posted “My experiences with SmartWare - High CPU usage” in a wrong forum. Moderator jubei04 kindly removed my post to this forum section. I can now see, I did not have to open a new thread!
I have experienced the high CPU usage, but not the memory leak. I do not want to uninstall SmartWare (at this point), because I want to keep the Quick View information for Temperature and Disk Usage. I am trying to find what daily data backup method that is the ultimate solution to me. In the meantime I have placed SmartWare on the touchline this way:
SmartWare: Stop backup
Services: Set WDRulesService and WDFMEService to MANUAL start.
No high CPU usage at an inconvenient time, if you want to activate SmartWare, the services are automatically started.
Amusing to read about Bill_S’s “copy and paste backup”; yeah, I know it is your personal opinion! Another top effective manual method, is to use the directory compare in Total Commander (a file manager capable to perform “10,000 tasks”).
Thank you guys, for telling about Genie Timeline. The user is able to decide what files there have to be backed up. I have a paid version, it is worth every dollar I have spent.
I have ended up with a magnificent solution: WD My Book Essential 3 TB/USB 3.0 (I love that disk), SmartWare running, but placed on the touchline (my previous post), Paragon Backup & Recovery (image backup of partitions/disks) and Genie Timeline (to automatically protect my most important files).
It is already proposed, but I really think WD should consider a cooperation with Genie9. WD makes excellent hardware, Genie9 creates specialized, unbeatable software.
