OS X 10.10 Yosemite Time Machine (TM) with My Book Studio Edition II 2TB

Hello,

I have here a My Book Studio Edition II 2TB, bought November 2012, nearly new,

and noticed there is no software available for Yosemite (latest version available is 

WD Drive Manager 3.1.0 for Mavericks). When will there be an update? (if ever…)

Does anyone else here use My Book with Time Machine WITHOUT WD software installed?

What would I be missing if I wouldn’t use WD software?

What if a drive would stop working: Would I get light signals on the front indicating such a problem?

An idea:

Could I install an older bootable OS X version on a USB flash drive WITH WD Drive Manager

just in case I need it to reset the drive/RAID 1 setting etc.?

Many thanks.

The WD Drive Manager is not needed for the hard drive to operate. What It does is to provide you with information related to the drive’s status and temperature, as well as allowing you to change the RAID settings (Which can be done in Disk Utility as well).

Hello Trancer,

Thank you for your reply!

Where can I find a description about how to change the RAID settings via Disk Utility?

Without WD Drive Manager, how would I be notified of a drive failure?

Thanks again for your help!

The following Apple support article explains how to create a RAID array using Disk Utility:

https://support.apple.com/kb/PH5834?locale=en_US

With regards to drive status, you would need to constantly monitor your drive’s health via Disk Utility or a hard drive monitor from the app store.

Dear Trancer,

Thank you for your answer. You wrote:

 The following Apple support article explains how to create a RAID array using Disk Utility…

I thought this Disk Utility feature is useful if you want to use 2 drives to setup a RAID 1 array,

but AFAIK a My Book Studio Edition II unit (with its two built-in drives) appears as ONE drive.

Isn’t this true?

Thanks again.

Please answer – it’s urgent for making decisions regarding backups.

Many thanks!!

I’d recommend a WD My Book Thunderbolt instead if long-term storage and future OS updates/compatibility are to be considered. 

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=630

WD Drive Utilities fully supports Mac OS 10.10 and this unit has been tested to work with Disk Utility for management:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9419/

Dear Trancer,

Thank you for your recommendation, but as I wrote, my “My Book Studio Edition II 2TB”

is still nearly brand new and was expensive so I intend to use it instead of buying another drive.

  1. Does your answer imply, that it’s NOT possible to use Disk Utility to create/change a RAID array

on my “My Book Studio Edition II 2TB”? (as I had guessed, because the Mac sees it as ONE drive)

  1. If you could confirm this, wouldn’t it then be possible, as I suggested, to prepare a bootable

USB drive with WD Drive Manager for changing the RAID settings or occasional initializing

the drive (I learned this is a lot quicker than deleting millions of single files) – if required?

I would be VERY thankful if you could answer this before the weekend!

All the best.

1 Like
  1. This is correct. While Disk utility allows you to manage/create RAID volumes, the enclosure of the WD My Book Studio does not mount individual volumes like the WD My Book Thunderbolt Duo.

  2. In theory, a virtual environment/emulation compatible with the application should allow for the hard drive to be detected and for the RAID settings to be changed. However, this is something that has not been tested and as such Western Digital does not have documentation able to guarantee success. 

  1. Thanks.

  2. OK, I will try this.

 In theory, a virtual environment/emulation compatible with the application should allow for the hard drive to be detected and for the RAID settings to be changed. However, this is something that has not been tested and as such Western Digital does not have documentation able to guarantee success.

Feedback: I tried it (Kingston DataTraveler SE9 32GB USB flash drive) and it worked!