WD Live is not fit for purpose

ghardy2k wrote:

that was happening with mine…did you have wd 2go enabled for web access?

 

i had an address from china hitting mine hard, trying to download my entire 300gb of stuff, and cratering my network.

OK, that’s pretty worrying. I do indeed have WD2GO enabled for web access, it’s a big part of why I bought the unit.

I think I’m getting somewhere with the unit now. Twice I’ve backed up my 125GB to the unit and twice it has gone crazy, become unresponsive and constantly seems to be doing something. Twice I’ve had to factory reset it. This time I disabled Twonky before backing up the 125GB and it hasn’t slowed down at all. It goes to sleep when it should and doesn’t wake up when it shouldn’t.

So, having removed WD Smartware and disabled Twonky, I seem to have a workable NAS. I really wanted the backup software to work, but having spent an extra 25 quid on some different software I’m sorted although I feel like I’ve been ripped off by WD. I really wanted the Twonky server to work because I’ve got an Xbox 360 but I guess I’m going to have to live without it. Now if only I could get WD Photos to show my photos … but that’s a whole other support ticket.

So, is it fit for purpose? No, clearly not, and I’m not basing that on just my experiences. Maybe, when they sort out the software/firmware they’ll be on to a winner, but given that WD Smartware hasn’t worked for nearly 2 years, I won’t be holding my breath.

I’ve had confirmation from WD Support that upgrading to the latest firmware causes a bug that can cause the MBL to malfunction. They have not yet tracked down this bug. It would seem that at least in my case the malfunctioning can be triggered by simply copying files to the Public share. As I’ve already mentioned, turning off the Twonky server prevents the MBL failing in my case.

Why has WD not publicly admitted this? Why is it not mentioned on the WD MBL Firmware download page? If I’d have known this I wouldn’t have updated and I would have waited until it was fixed.

I’ve read through this entire post and am not surprised that there are other issues with this drive.

Hindsight tells me that instead of buying a 2TB network drive that does not work at all, I should have bought

a couple of 2TB drives and put them in a spare PC setup as a file server. I would have had some change in my pocket

along with probably twice the storage but most importantly…RELIABILITY. Not to mention all the hours this

product has consumed.

The bottom line is this…

Your average user ( and I am far from your average user) will simply plug the drive in and expect it to work, period.

When it tells you it needs to update itself most users will allow it to update itself, period. Imagine a 69 year old couple wanting to store thier grandchildren’s photos etc on this virus-like product. Go ahead and tell them to get into the back door and re-configure the linux based server that is on the MBL… Are you serious?

I bought this drive because I wanted storage and I did not want to do exactly what I have been doing. Trying to get this

inferior code ridden product to work. But it does look impressive sitting on the shelf. Makes a great paper weight…expensive though. Just be sure not to power it up and it will work just fine.

Frayed_Ends, you have summed it up so perfectly in that post that I have marked it as a solution.

 

WD need a major reshuffle. Whoever is in charge of programming needs to be cauterised. WD will be hemorrhaging customers because of this person and until there is a major shakeup the company will continue to suffer.

Well unfortunately I bought this product from Dell. And after speaking with them at length they will not accept it as a return since I’ve had it for more than 21 days. I tried to explain to them that it’s taken me more than 21 days to figure out what it was that has been dragging my network down, that plus the fact that none of my PC’s can play videos that are stored locally when this MBL virus is running. 

I’m wondering if it’s worth it to crack the case open and remove the drive. At least that way I’ll have something that

is useable, although at $249 for a 2TB drive is kind of steep. I’ve also noticed that the drive is now nearly half the price it was when it first came out. 

Then again perhaps just putting it in the trash cutting my loses and staying away from WD seems to be the best answer. 

And now Dell also, I’ve bought three Laptops and a desktop along with a laser printer, home theater system etc…

These big companies are only interested in their bottom line profit. Time to go back and building my own PC’s. That’s the only way you’ll know what you are getting. 

I was thinking about Seagate’s 3TB NAS drive, but that too seems to be riddled with problems too. 

Whoever designed the MyBook Live with atrocious and sub-standard recovery procedures really needs to be sacked!

For example…  A USB port was took out, but that USB port could have been used to plug-in a USB stick with a firmwate file on it so to un-brick the MBL and the absolute minamalist use of the reset button (W.D.s trying to address this) begs belief!

Interesting…  I’ve tweaked the Samba server to make the Public share read-only so maybe this has spared me from the problem?

Also, why is the firmware update that caused problems still available for download?

I do wonder why with the latest firmware my MBL is working pretty darn well.  :neutral_face:

CaphWD wrote:

I’ve had confirmation from WD Support that upgrading to the latest firmware causes a bug that can cause the MBL to malfunction. They have not yet tracked down this bug. It would seem that at least in my case the malfunctioning can be triggered by simply copying files to the Public share. As I’ve already mentioned, turning off the Twonky server prevents the MBL failing in my case.

 

Why has WD not publicly admitted this? Why is it not mentioned on the WD MBL Firmware download page? If I’d have known this I wouldn’t have updated and I would have waited until it was fixed.

I have had the latest firmware 02.10.09-124 on 3 MBL’s without any of problems supposedly related to this version of the firmware - and the updates were done via the standard method - but not automatcally. I had to click on check for updates.

I should point out - that at the time the updates were applied - I had Twonky and all other remote access disabled on all 3 MBL’s (and still do).  Maybe Twonky being disabled at the time of upgrade is the key to preventing the problem.

~Scott

Myron wrote:

Interesting…  I’ve tweaked the Samba server to make the Public share read-only so maybe this has spared me from the problem?

 

Also, why is the firmware update that caused problems still available for download?

 

I do wonder why with the latest firmware my MBL is working pretty darn well.  :neutral_face:

 

Who knows Myron. Do you have Twonky disabled? Maybe tweaking Samba with respect to the Public share is the answer. To be honest, I just wanted something that I could backup my files to and access them from my phone. I’ve wasted too much time on this now, life’s too short and all that. They haven’t got a clue what the problem is yet they now want me to buy another one so I can post mine to them and they say they’ll reimburse me. You’ve got to laugh or you’d cry.

sbeattie2 wrote:

 

I should point out - that at the time the updates were applied - I had Twonky and all other remote access disabled on all 3 MBL’s (and still do).  Maybe Twonky being disabled at the time of upgrade is the key to preventing the problem.

 

~Scott

Personally, I think the problem is Twonky related but maybe it just seems that way on my MBL. Good luck with your units.

Sent my MBL back and WD recieved it on the 24th of January and still showing delayed. What is the normal time frame to actually get one of these RMA’d? I already bought another unit from a different manufacturer and so far I am extremely pleased with it’s performance, but I still need my drive back because I promised it to my sister.

WD My book live, IT IS APALLING.

Sooooo sloooowwwwwww, started out at roughly 10mb, but now all it can do is 50kbs -TOPS - I best describe it as a concrete slab with an ethernet port sellotaped on.

You’re right customer support is a joke, they just bang on about firmware updates, and reboots (so far thats all I can see).

I am running a mac and a bt home hub 3 (btw This delivers my BB at 38mbs through wireless), I’ve tried doing the okey cokey with the ethernet ports and all sorts of voodoo chants…

Cant wait to get my work off this thing eventually… if it doesnt keep failing on the factory restore… and swap it for a 2tb usb drive (NOT WD OF COURSE) and have it running steadily and faster than 50kbs on my desktop.

I’ve wasted most of this week faffing around with this thing… if only I could have a time machine for the real time I have lost arsing around with this.

BBarker wrote:

Sent my MBL back and WD recieved it on the 24th of January and still showing delayed. What is the normal time frame to actually get one of these RMA’d? I already bought another unit from a different manufacturer and so far I am extremely pleased with it’s performance, but I still need my drive back because I promised it to my sister.

Normal time frame is around a week, if it shows as delayed you may contact WD to verify the status of your RMA.

I do have Twonky disabled. Did use it but now don’t have a need to use it.

CaphWD wrote:


Myron wrote:

Interesting…  I’ve tweaked the Samba server to make the Public share read-only so maybe this has spared me from the problem?

 

Also, why is the firmware update that caused problems still available for download?

 

I do wonder why with the latest firmware my MBL is working pretty darn well.  :neutral_face:

 


Who knows Myron. Do you have Twonky disabled? Maybe tweaking Samba with respect to the Public share is the answer. To be honest, I just wanted something that I could backup my files to and access them from my phone. I’ve wasted too much time on this now, life’s too short and all that. They haven’t got a clue what the problem is yet they now want me to buy another one so I can post mine to them and they say they’ll reimburse me. You’ve got to laugh or you’d cry.

Regarding “sub-standard recovery procedures”. The my book live stores the root partition on one half of a raid 1 volume. The second half is unmounted. If you want to recover the device, all it has to do is resync the known-good partition back across to the normal one. I think this is close to ingenius, and the guy who implemented it deserves considerable credit. Not dismissal.

I’ve had nothing but success with my WD Live. But then, I see it as a low power debian server, and bought it largely because it runs a friendly linux install and has ssh access almost out of the box. I didn’t get on with twonky, so I uninstalled it. I wanted it to run a reasonably complicated backup scheme, so now it does. I’m toying with the idea of repurposing it as offsite backup, setting up encryption and blocking access aside from ssh. Nothing I’ve done with it is remotely complicated.

If you want a product that just works, however little you understand it, sod off to macintosh and annoy their tech support instead. If your drive was faulty, WD would replace it. You’re coming across as a moron though, so I entirely forgive them if they suspect the problem to be the user and not the device.

this is pathetic,

what is ssh?

actually if someone was here to help those with issues with correct solutions, there would be no sarcasm.  but all anyone gets here is the same mundane answers that can be found in the product literature.  what people need here and the reason they come here is to get specific solutions to specific problems.

1 Like

i find this to be very amusing, as i have the same remote feelings for Tony.:smileyvery-happy:

1 Like

Sister, please try using the QUOTE button in the forum… Otherwise, your back-to-back posts lack any context and make no sense.