External HD not working after firmware update

I have an My Book Elite which I formatted for my Mac. It was working great until I installed the firmware update today and not it’s not working at all. The computer won’t even recognize it as being connected. Is anyone else having this issue? I have a ton of movies on there so I really don’t want to reformat the drive.

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After the WD software nagged me for several hours I too updated the firmware. 

Now the drive appears to be bricked. The little power light is on all the time and I can feel the drive running. Yet when I plug in the USB cable, nothing happens. I don’t get any drives appear, I don’t get prompted for the drive password and I don’t see the security light or capacity lights appear on the drive.

Looks like I’ll be asking for refund !!!

DO NOT UPGRADE TO THE LASTEST FIRMWARE !!!

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Mine is My Book Studio with smartware, after the firmware upgrade it is completely dead. Not even the light is on. Nothing.

With the amount posts in this forum stating similar firmware upgrade I do hope WD quickly address this issue. Or at the very least post a message here on this forum.

i’m having the same problem. i can launch smartware since it’s under applications, but the hard drive doesn’t mount when i plug it in to my laptop & isn’t showing up in smartware. i tried plugging it in to my boyfriend’s laptop, but it’s the same deal. restarting my laptop, using a different usb cord, unplugging & plugging back in — nothing works. i’ve only had it for two weeks!

Hello Everyone,

This My Book Studio Firmware updater for Mac is for My Passport Studio and My Book studio.

*****It is silver looking case with both USB and Firewire connections *****

Please carefully follow the instruction on the web page as it will lead you.

Use the USB connection only during the firmware updating.

Disable or remove security or password protection before doing the firmware update. 

Be sure to wait for the firmware updater to finish.

Restart the computer and power cycle the WD My Passport  Studio or My Book Studio drive after firmware update is finish.

If you have WD external drive with black case use this link instead 

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/step1.asp?id=wdfMB_Elite&os=mac

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Guys - the exact same with me. I got bugged for days and stupidly finally did the upgrade.

This is a joke.

Hey all, Please read as it applies to you all.

I have the exact same problem and know exactly what is wrong but am still in the process of getting the information off the hard drive.

Q: What caused it?

A: What happened was when we all upgraded the Firmware, it didn’t mention any errors but in fact there has been. Our firmware is now messed up, and just incase you didn’t know exactly what the firmware does I’ll explain, Firmware is a read-only file which is responsible for (In our case) starting up the hard drive correctly and basically making it visible to our computers (Mac or PC).

Q: How can this be fixed?

A:  There is no point calling the clowns at WD, they don’t know ANYTHING! Only call them if you want your device replaced under warranty, I got an exclusive right to try and get the data off by pulling the HardDrive apart to figure out what is wrong with it and still get it replaced under warranty. So don’t pull it apart unless you’re out of warranty or have permission by WesternDigital.

So at the moment i have opened up the hard drive and looked at how this thing works. Its very basic.

My Progress:

1. I am buying cables to attach directly to the HardDrive in the next week (Which might not requite the firmware) cause I need that data desperately like all of you.

2. I will post back A.S.A.P when I have results.

Here’s a picture of the HardDrive under the cover.

The little diagram with the SATA (Serial ATA) Power and Serial Data is what transfers the data. There is a little piece of conversion hardware WD uses which isn’t in that picture. Im hoping the Firmware is in the conversion hardware.

Peace, Vote this up.

Remstar1

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same happened to me. I heard some people are having luck restoring the firmware in windows, but windows isnt recognizing mine. 

More info:  http://community.wdc.com/t5/External-Drives-for-Mac/MyBook-Elite-1GB-not-mounting-after-firmware-upgrade/m-p/20051/highlight/false#M775

After a couple of emails with WD, they suggest I take the drive back to where I bought it and get it replaced. Luckily there was nothing on it that wasn’t backed up somewhere else.

So if you can, I’d suggest doing the same.

thanks for repeating what the website for the installer says. guess what: we DID follow the instruction, but no-no work, and we have no way of even mounting the darn thing again to fix it. That is problem beggin for solution.  We very sad. Repeating obvious no help. Thank you

thanarath wrote:

Hello Everyone,

 

This My Book Studio Firmware updater for Mac is for My Passport Studio and My Book studio.

*****It is silver looking case with both USB and Firewire connections *****

 

Please carefully follow the instruction on the web page as it will lead you.

Use the USB connection only during the firmware updating.

Disable or remove security or password protection before doing the firmware update. 

Be sure to wait for the firmware updater to finish.

Restart the computer and power cycle the WD My Passport  Studio or My Book Studio drive after firmware update is finish.

 

 

 

If you have WD external drive with black case use this link instead 

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/step1.asp?id=wdfMB_Elite&os=mac

Hello Every One,

When you are mentioning about your problem:

Could you at least say the Type of WD drive you have

such as WD MyBook Essential, MyBook Studio, My Passport and so on.

How about your computer and what operating system: 10.4, 10.5 or 10.6.

Which WD firmware version you are downloading and installed.

That way it would make it easier for someone else trying to help you.

Yes same problem

Happened to me as wel.

DO NOT USE FIRMWARE UPGRADE UNTIL WD have made a fix.

…or buy another HD that works on Mac…

My Passport crashed after installing new firmware.

cannot reach it, even from windows.

I am using MAC OS X 10.6.4

It’s toast. 

The only thing you can do is take it back to the retailer and get it replaced. This is what WD advised me to do. 

WD need to fix this immediately.

I had this problem with my WD MyBook Essential 1TB.

I had it working in Mac OS X Snow Leopard.

Then I installed the firmware update in a virtual machine running Windows XP using VirtualBox.

The external drive was no longer working in the virtual machine with Windows XP and in Snow Leopard (host OS).

I solved the problem pluging-in the WD MyBook Essential 1TB in a third party machine running Windows XP and installed the firmware update there.

After that, the external drive started to work in Snow Leopard OS again.

Remstar1-

I am interested to know what you found out about the drive. 

I have a 1 TB My Book Elite that was working beautifully, of course until the firmware update.  Now I can not get the drive to be recognized by the computer.  Were you able to get any data from the drive?  Any suggestions?  My drive had hundreds of pictures of my daughter so needless to say I would like to get them back.

Ok, so like a lot of people. My drive isn’t showing up after the latest firmware update.

It is totally ridiculous that Western Digital does not feel the need to implement better update procedures and include better safeguards in the update process. Given the poor user experience and flakyness of their SmartWare software, i should have been more wary of doing a firmware update. The notion that its the customers fault for not making a backup of their backup drive is ridiculous and insulting.

Among other confusing wording in the online instructions - they say to ‘unlock it or remove password’. Unlocking is clearly not enough here, I did and now my drive isn’t showing up.  Unfortunately, I only came to this forum after the fact, or I would have removed the password.

I’ve tried hooking up to other machines, but the drive still doesnt show up. In making a last ditch effort to save my data, I was wondering:

  • Can the hard drive itself be removed and put into another enclosure?

Thanks

And yes this is a bad joke. From the release notes for this update:  “Fixed rare Mac OS-X Snow LeopardTM OS installation failure.” Almost…

Hello.

I used these instructions to update my (unlocked!) Passport Elite drive.

http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/wdsmartwareupdate/utilitiesstep1.asp?id=wdfMP_Elite&os=mac

I did EXACTLY follow the instructions to update the firmware of my WD Passport Elite drive. After the updater told me the firmware update has succsessfully cmpleted and that I should disconnect and reboot (which I did) I can’t use the drive anymore.

I can see the lights and feel the drive spinning — but it does not show up anywhere. The firmware updater does not recognize the drive anymore either.

I can’t believe that a “succsessful update” does in fact actually brick the drive. What is going on here???

Regards,

Oliver

Hello again.

I was able to “unbrick” the WD Passport Elite drive with the PC Firmware Updater (under Windows VIsta).

The drives contents and partitions remained intact.

So I think this comes down to the MacOS firmware updater that does not seem to work properly!

Hope this helps & regards,

Oliver