just an fyi - again I’m locked up. 10.2 gig of 12 total being used on WDFME. Does this have something to do with Oracle Virtual Box at all? Does anyone else here run virtual machines?
I’ll beat that! 10.2 gig used on WDFME
Installed the MyBookLive 02.10.12-129 : Core F/W firmware update today (the NAS automatically restarted as it should with the new firmware)
Rebooted the PC
Within 45 minutes the WDFME process was using 72% of my available RAM (8Gb - Win7 64bit Dell XPS 8300 i7 2600)
Had to stop the WDFME process so I could use my PC to work on…
When will a SmartWare / WDFME update be coming out?
This is intolerable and has been going on for over 9 months now
Please, please FIX this major issue
I had the same issue. WDFME would creep up its use of memory to the maximum memory available, then the system would slow down to a crawl. I have 8G of RAM, Windows 7 (64)
Here is what I did.
-
Turn my virus protection OFF and stop the Smartware automatic back-up function.
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Disable all WD services. (3)
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Uninstall WD Smartware
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Restart the computer
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Download and install the latest Smartware version
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Restart the computer
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Enable the WD services if not enabled already.
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Restart the computer and turn the Virus protection back ON.
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Restart the WD Smartware automatic back-up function.
So far so good. …
Good luck.
Many thanks, Lucky_Phil. I followed the steps in your post and I’ve reclaimed control of my computer’s resources from wdfm.exe. Two additional icons on my desktop and manual starting and stopping of wdfm services has proved a better solution for me than simply uninstalling the software. I like the convenience of WD’s file backup. I still hope that WD might provide an update that solves the problem of resource-hogging. I can’t for the life of me understand why it is taking them so long.
Lucky_Phil’s post is on page 10 of this thread.
“I can’t for the life of me understand why it is taking them so long”
That’s simple. They either don’t care, or don’t know how to fix their own software, otherwise they would have made this a priority.
Hi peeps,
try 1.5.4.5 Smartware it doesn’t use so much RAM.
John
I had the same problem with my My Book Essential and after turning on my computer it started to use more and more ram till it reached max (8GB). My system is Windows 7 64-bit.
I manually turned of WDFME.exe on each startup for some few months and even the latest update didn’t fix it.
So here the stepst that fixed it:
- I formated the WD drive
- uninstalled WD Smartware completely
- Restarted computer
- Installed Smwatwrare again and restarted computer again
- Setup automatic backup
Now it is almost a week and haven’t seen this RAM usage problema again.
Hope this helps
The new version of Smartware is 1.5.4.8 and was released 3/20/2012. I updated my flashplayer and jave as per WD directions and then installed the new update. I called WD and they talked me through the entire process. My CPU went from 70-80% to less than 4%. To be on the safe side, if I am running allot of programs, I unplug the drive. After I plug it in, it backsup any data I added.
yep - updated yesterday to the latest version of smartware (1.5.4.5 - NOT 1.5.4.8 for my LiveBook)
the previous week I had also done the firmware update - not sure if they are linked
the software is a bit silly in that the SmartWare Backup tab is greyed out UNTIL you click on the Home tab, and then the LiveBook icon…
Memory usage has now maxed out at c 2.5Gb RAM (out of 8Gb RAM) so this is a huge improvement (wdfme used to use c. 7Gb RAM) - I never had a CPU issue
IMPROVEMENT!! (at long last)
Apologies - I typed too SOON - the SmartWare RAM Hog Issue still exists
Left my PC running all evening and night (11 hours) - when I checked it out this morning, RAM Usage was back up to 99%
Cancelled the WDFME Process and RAM Usage dropped to 9% (this is an 8Gb RAM i7 Win7 Prof PC)
Seems like the Smartware Upgrade has NOT fixed the memory hog issue
(Just taking Smartware a bit longer to hog all of the memory on the PC)
Another words of thanks to the Lucky_Phil post (page 10), and a related note. It works well for me … but only if I run the stop and start .cmd files as Administrator.
I also appreciate Watchful’s tips (page 13), which showed me how to set WDFMEService to manual in Control Panel.
A couple of questions from those two posts - In msconfig, in the Startups is WDDMstatus.exe. In the Services tab, there are WDRulesService, WDFMEService, and WDDMSerivce. Which of these should remain turned on, and which can be turned off, if you don’t keep your WD backup drive continuously connected to your PC?
Thanks, Daddy Schlich
Hi
If you want to stop the backup, but still keep your LiveBook still connected to your PC (so you can access your files, etc), then stop the WDFME Process
eg in Win7 Prof (with UAC turned on),
Ctrl-Alt-Delete,
click on “Start Task Manager”,
Windows Task Manager will appear
click on the Processes tab
click on the “Show Processes from all Users” button
click on the “WDFME” Process
click on the “End Process” button
Hope this helps!
Hi,
What I am wanting to do is generally not to have my WD external drives connected to my PC … but periodically connect them and have WD SmartWare update its backup on a files and folders basis.
I think that Lucky_Phil’s shortcut tips have the same effect as what you suggest (in fewer steps) and maybe more.
Thanks,
Daddy Schlich
No improvement after update here. In fact, as best I can tell it also lost my custom backup settings in the process.
Genius, pure genius!
I, too, have been having the same problems with WDFME.exe using virtually ALL of my resources. I got on the phone with the Level 2 tech support and we removed the Smartware entirely. I installed WD Anywhere Backup for my 64-bit system, which the WD tech support comp’d me, since Smartware was not very smart.
It is installing now and should run in the background.
If I have further problems I will note it here on this site.
Just purchased WD My Book essential 3TB to backup my wife pictures. I have an older Dell 8400. It’s slow, really slow. The WDFME.exe is using 100% of my CPU memory. I can’t do anything until it stops. I have to stopped the process in the task Mgr. I have the lastest up date of WD SmartWare 1.5.4.5 What can you do to help me resolve this problem? I can not deal with this all the time or I will have to return this HD and find another HD mgf. that does not use all my CPU memory. Can you help?
I don’t have an answer to this and nor does WD seem to have one. The best workaround I’ve found is to follow the excellent advice of Lucky_Phil (page 10 of the WDFME.exe RAM hog topic) which was to set the WDFMEService to manual (using Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Services) and create switches using .cmd files on the Desktop as shown below to turn WDFME on and off.
“To start the WDFMEService prior to setting a backup going…
Create a file with notepad (WDstartup.cmd) for example with contents like this:
cd C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare
net start “WDFMEService”
(Note: you need to double quote the name of the service)
Save the file where you want and create a shortcut to it.
Then, when you want to start the WDFMEService just double click on the shortcut.
Also create a file with notepad (WDstop.cmd) to turn it off for example with contents like this:
cd C:\Program Files\Western Digital\WD SmartWare
net stop “WDFMEService”
(Note: you need to double quote the name of the service)
Save the file where you want and create a shortcut to it.
Then, when you want to stop the WDFMEService (after a backup is finished and stopped) just double click on the shortcut.
Since the WDFMEService hogs CPU anyway… You may as well untick the “run backup when computer is idle” check box in software settings.
This seems to speed up the backup even though no more CPU is consumed with this setting compared with the software performing no action anyway!”
Turning WDFME off before you close down also seems to prevent the build up of tens of GigaBytes of hidden etilqs files on your hard drive which have to be deleted manually (see the WD Smartware building_etilqs topic), a really insidious problem.
A further issue is the time it takes to categorize and backup the data in the first place. In my case the initial backup (with the previous version of software) took about 12 to 15 hours for about 15GB of data, which WD Support Staff said was ‘normal’ for XP. My laptop also got extremely hot. Texasgadgetguy reports even slower performance on page 2 of the ‘Software Update …1.5.4.5 topic’ so this does not seem to have been solved.
A rather long response - you may feel it’s better to find another manufacturer.
Good luck!
The latest release 1.5.4.5 is no better than its predessor. it is a RAM and CPU hog that freezes my computer. The only way I can use my computer is to end the WDFME.exe process in the task manager. It is ridiculous that anyone would even think to argue that you are only buying the hardware. The software is being pushed as a selling point and you are paying for software that is a joke.
