Notice (9/30/11) - WD Still Working on Firmware Update for My Book World

Toretto,

Toretto wrote:

Hi everyone,

 

So far, mostly everyone on our beta has reported that the issues seen have gone away. If you would like to test, PM me with your network layouts and I will see what I can do as far as getting you the beta.  Please only PM me if you are ok with possibly losing data as we are still regression testing this version.  I will respond as soon as I can.

It looks more stable with 1.02.12 beta. However, my unit still looses connection randomly. I am not sure but it might be when I start a WD TV Live device, wireless member of the same network.

However, with both 1.02.10 and now with 1.02.12 i had once situation for each when MyBookWorld not only that it disspeared from the network but even the backside LEDs were OFF (the ones on the LAN connector). First I suspected it was a power issue, but by simply pressing the RESET button the HDD went back into normal operation again.

Same behaviour after restoring factory settings.

Also to mention: in almost 2 years of operation, it did operate on 1000 Mbps only once. I can see the speed on the router port LED. No matter what I’ve tried, it does connect only on 100 Mbps. This kept the same with various patch cables, where other HDDs (MyBookLive) work perfectly.

So maybe it is something wrong with my unit?

MihaiT wrote:

Toretto,


Toretto wrote:

Hi everyone,

 

So far, mostly everyone on our beta has reported that the issues seen have gone away. If you would like to test, PM me with your network layouts and I will see what I can do as far as getting you the beta.  Please only PM me if you are ok with possibly losing data as we are still regression testing this version.  I will respond as soon as I can.


It looks more stable with 1.02.12 beta. However, my unit still looses connection randomly. I am not sure but it might be when I start a WD TV Live device, wireless member of the same network.

 

However, with both 1.02.10 and now with 1.02.12 i had once situation for each when MyBookWorld not only that it disspeared from the network but even the backside LEDs were OFF (the ones on the LAN connector). First I suspected it was a power issue, but by simply pressing the RESET button the HDD went back into normal operation again.

Same exact behaviour here, however, I managed to resolve this by assigning static IPs to all my devices, as explained in another thread. So far, 100% perfect.

FWIW, the beta .12 seems to be a little faster during files operations.

This is a joke. WD broke my device with a badly tested update, and I’ve been stuck for weeks now with an expensive paperweight.

I give up. I’m going to buy a new NAS and hope some of the other brands handle customer service a little better. Any suggestions? I’ve heard good things about ReadyNAS, but I haven’t looked into them.

It wouldn’t surprise me if this post was deleted!

Dave

Bourne wrote:


MihaiT wrote:

Toretto,


Toretto wrote:

Hi everyone,

 

So far, mostly everyone on our beta has reported that the issues seen have gone away. If you would like to test, PM me with your network layouts and I will see what I can do as far as getting you the beta.  Please only PM me if you are ok with possibly losing data as we are still regression testing this version.  I will respond as soon as I can.


It looks more stable with 1.02.12 beta. However, my unit still looses connection randomly. I am not sure but it might be when I start a WD TV Live device, wireless member of the same network.

 

However, with both 1.02.10 and now with 1.02.12 i had once situation for each when MyBookWorld not only that it disspeared from the network but even the backside LEDs were OFF (the ones on the LAN connector). First I suspected it was a power issue, but by simply pressing the RESET button the HDD went back into normal operation again.


Same exact behaviour here, however, I managed to resolve this by assigning static IPs to all my devices, as explained in another thread. So far, 100% perfect.

 

FWIW, the beta .12 seems to be a little faster during files operations.

Thanks for the tip. I’ll give it a try.

DaveSt wrote:

This is a joke. WD broke my device with a badly tested update, and I’ve been stuck for weeks now with an expensive paperweight.

 

I give up. I’m going to buy a new NAS and hope some of the other brands handle customer service a little better. Any suggestions? I’ve heard good things about ReadyNAS, but I haven’t looked into them.

 

It wouldn’t surprise me if this post was deleted!

 

Dave

Dave, no need for that. Just follow the instructions in the Working FIx post:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-World-Edition/WORKING-FIX-Time-Machine-Lion/td-p/230864

Obviously beforehand you have to downgrade the firmware to 01.02.06.

It is a bit of a pain but it works perfectly with Lion, it never drops from the network and contrary to 01.02.12 it hasn’t got any issue with large files.

Oh and I forgot, and never ever buy again a product from WD…

butter wrote:


DaveSt wrote:

This is a joke. WD broke my device with a badly tested update, and I’ve been stuck for weeks now with an expensive paperweight.

 

I give up. I’m going to buy a new NAS and hope some of the other brands handle customer service a little better. Any suggestions? I’ve heard good things about ReadyNAS, but I haven’t looked into them.

 

It wouldn’t surprise me if this post was deleted!

 

Dave


Dave, no need for that. Just follow the instructions in the Working FIx post:

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-World-Edition/WORKING-FIX-Time-Machine-Lion/td-p/230864

 

Obviously beforehand you have to downgrade the firmware to 01.02.06.

 

It is a bit of a pain but it works perfectly with Lion, it never drops from the network and contrary to 01.02.12 it hasn’t got any issue with large files.

 

Oh and I forgot, and never ever buy again a product from WD…

Or if you want to maybe use the beta version, you can send me a private message and I can probably send you it.

1 Like

Okay WD, I’m a patient person. Or at least I’m trying to be patient. But it’s been 3 months now - 3 months! Lion was released on July 20. Let’s pretend you ignored all previews and beta releases etc. and you only figured out 3 months ago that your AFP access was broken. Isn’t that plenty of time to fix the authentication? Isn’t that all that changed here? We’re not talking major overhaul or adding major new features to your firmware, just the way authentication works.

In the last 3 months we’ve had plenty of misleading ETAs, 1 failed firmware which was pulled a few days later. And then statementes like “oh, it’s looking really good, we’re regression testing over the weekend and we’ll release SOON!”. 3 months, people! What does it take?

I understand giving bad ETAs is not a good thing, but having none at all is equally as bad. Not a way to keep customers in the loop who’ve been waiting for 3 months to access their data!

BTW: And if you only change authentication, how come we’re now dealing with dropped network issues and large file issues etc.? Are these pre-existing problems just coming out now or did you guys mess with the firmware since the last stable release?

Anyways, 3 months is too much time, no matter how patient one is. 

Anybody know of any good competitive products with RAID, e.g. Synology!?

4 Likes

Not enough ++++++ for you rrosendahl.

Customer DIS-service. Sick of it. Way to evaporate rather large amounts of customer good-will. 

As of right now - I don’t give a toss about WD’s competitive concerns about revealing their problems publicly. I want answers/updates/prognosis now! I need to make decisions - none of which are very palatable.

2 Likes

+1 rosendahl, i’ve been very patient too, but 3 months is just too long to handle …

usually i only bought seagate drives and never ever had any problems, i was pretty much satisfied with my mbwe but this “incident” just taught me to stick to seagate …

i will never ever buy any western digital products again.

in 3 months you should be able to build the whole product from scratch …

2 Likes

The whole thing reflects very very poorly on WD - Although I appreciate that the individual people who have been working on this at WD have done their best, the company should be ashamed of this disgraceful situation. The situation now defies words and leaves me convinced to never ever buy a WD product ever again… And you can bet that I am passing this all on to friends, family and colleagues, both directly and indirectly at every opportunity. 

The ultimate disgrace… These units are still being sold (as of today) in Australian retailers, with specifications that state you can use these drives with Macs??? With what firmware? One could only assume with 1.02.06 (hopefully not 1.02.10) - meaning the units are a waste of money for Mac users on Lion (i.e. any Mac shipped in the last 3-6 months at minimum).

WD, you have an issue here and you have dealt with it poorly… Buggy firmware can be forgiven (perhaps), slow response to changing needs (Lion OS) maybe also could be forgiven… BUT, still selling these products without warning customers of the limitations (i.e. no good for Mac users - and I suspect there is a couple of these globally) - shameful !

Read quickly, because in spite of just being s statement of fact, I suspect this post may be removed… 

1 Like

I have already steered some people at my work place away from WD. I have used product from other vendors where this type of issue is addressed a lot quicker. There is no excuse for not being able to back out a operating system update of this type. WD know exactly what files were updated in the last release - they could easily be replaced again.

2 Likes

I’ve been watching this thread for weeks thinking that any day now there will be a post which says this/these issue(s) are fixed and I won’t bother to vent my displeasure at this situation (as I suspect most people affected haven’t, yet).  I personally have been unable to use my NAS properly for about five weeks now. 

Will Western Digital (or their mods/admins) answer these easy questions:

1.  Do they use version control for their firmware development?

1.1  If not, why not

1.2  If yes, why do they not roll back to a version which did not render 90% of people’s WD MyBooks as doorstops and label it version 01.02.12, or a revision number higher than the version which is causing all these problems, so people can easily install it?

2.  I keep hearing that thorough testing of different network configurations is happening to prevent this **bleep**-up from occurring again, but are you doing anything different from before?  If so, why was a thorough testing routine not employed before?  If it was, why will this update if/when it arrives not also screw my system up?  Or the update after that?

3.  I don’t care what others may say, It just does not take an organisation the size of WD more than five weeks to un-screw what the devs have screwed up here.  This is evidently not something that is being taken seriously or given a priority within WD.

Confidence in a brand to make right its mistakes is very important (all companies make mistakes from time-to-time) and WD have managed to p*ss any user good-will that they had up the wall over circa the last month.

Regards,

ex-WD buyer

dom_911 wrote:

I’ve been watching this thread for weeks thinking that any day now there will be a post which says this/these issue(s) are fixed and I won’t bother to vent my displeasure at this situation (as I suspect most people affected haven’t, yet).  I personally have been unable to use my NAS properly for about five weeks now. 

 

Will Western Digital (or their mods/admins) answer these easy questions:

 

1.  Do they use version control for their firmware development?

1.1  If not, why not

1.2  If yes, why do they not roll back to a version which did not render 90% of people’s WD MyBooks as doorstops and label it version 01.02.12, or a revision number higher than the version which is causing all these problems, so people can easily install it?

2.  I keep hearing that thorough testing of different network configurations is happening to prevent this **bleep**-up from occurring again, but are you doing anything different from before?  If so, why was a thorough testing routine not employed before?  If it was, why will this update if/when it arrives not also screw my system up?  Or the update after that?

3.  I don’t care what others may say, It just does not take an organisation the size of WD more than five weeks to un-screw what the devs have screwed up here.  This is evidently not something that is being taken seriously or given a priority within WD.

 

Confidence in a brand to make right its mistakes is very important (all companies make mistakes from time-to-time) and WD have managed to p*ss any user good-will that they had up the wall over circa the last month.

 

Regards,

 

ex-WD buyer

I am not a moderator or an administrator, but I am with WD doing other things.

To answer your questions:

I am not sure what you’re referring to by version control, however, we do perform regression testing on all releases.  Yes, this specific issue was not caught within our tests and therefore the “version .10” was released.  This release targeted Lion and issues seen previously on some networks.  Unfortunately, the changes are not easily reversed and there is no real way to roll back the firmware.  A user in this thread has posted a method that doesn’t exactly roll back, but does improve the conditions.  It is not the easiest process (depending on who you ask), but it does help.  We do have a version in test/beta that resolves the problems seen.  I have been providing this to users who have private messaged me with their network layouts the beta when possible.  We are expecting a release to the public as early as today, however, we have further tests that are still running, and we do not release on Fridays.  If you would like to access this version early, as stated, I have been allowing users to Beta test the firmware while we are testing internally.  All that I need is for you to send me a private message with your network layout and you should have your data backed up to alleviate possible risk.

This is a joke. And a bad one at that. Considering that WD bricked our devices with an official update, they are more or less  required to react in a timely fashion and get our devices back in working order. By now we should’ve received an offer to send in our bricked devices and get our money back as they haven’t been able to supply a working firmware yet.

It’s taken way to long. Period. There is no way to put it in any other light. The reasons for this might be anyone’s guess, but this is failure on many fronts. As a sign of good will, this new firmware should contain the most recent Twonky version for free (as this has been a hot topic for ages as well).

Of course it won’t happen. Would cost them money. Know what else costs money? The taint of being considered slow to react to consumer’s problems and releasing buggy to non-working firmware for devices not considered “most recent”.

The AFP changes were known for ages. Yet the NAS vendors waited until the last second to come to an agreement with the NetATalk developers (god forbid those guys see some of the money that WD and others made with their Time Machine compatibility). Then the update not only contained that long awaited update but broke a lot of other stuff.

Just wondering: How come that the friggin Optware community was a) faster to react and b) able to get it working without problems (!) in the .06 firmware, working in their spare time and a full-time dev-team at WD can’t even get either right?

No… I’m sorry, I won’t bother any more. It’s just useless - get a different NAS device people. Even if it’s just a WD My Book Live if you’d like to be the loyal kind of consumer. But this thing right here? Dead in the water… When the official update hits, most people will have moved on anyway…

We are currently in the process of deploying the firmware release revision 01.02.12 for the My Book World Edition drives with Mac OSX Lion support. This release also addresses the inconsistent LAN connection behavior that was seen by some of our customers in firmware version 01.02.10.  We deeply apologize to our customers whom were impacted by this issue.

We would like to thank each and every one of you for your continued patience while we have worked through this issue.  We also would like to thank all those who assisted with beta testing our release and providing great feedback. This was a critical role in the process of releasing a suitable resolution. Should you need any assistance with updating your product, please feel free to contact our technical support groups at http://support.wdc.com/contact/index.asp?wdc_lang=en

Edit:

Here is the link to our update page where this is being deployed:

http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3304

Why is 1.02.10 not listed in release notes? Are we trying to pretend I never happened?

AnotherUser wrote:
Why is 1.02.10 not listed in release notes? Are we trying to pretend I never happened?

No, it was removed from our page as an official release.  When that happens, it is also removed from the release notes.

AnotherUser wrote:
Why is 1.02.10 not listed in release notes? Are we trying to pretend I never happened?

Hey, I’m sure we will live long enough to tell our children and grand children the truth about .10 :wink:

But IF the next update doesn’t blow up anything! :stuck_out_tongue:

AnotherUser wrote:
Why is 1.02.10 not listed in release notes? Are we trying to pretend I never happened?

Yes… you never happened… I am replying to a figment of my imagination…

Since new firmware has been released, I will now close this thread. 

Please post any experiences with the new firmware in the thread below.

http://community.wdc.com/t5/My-Book-World-Edition/New-Firmware-Version-1-02-12-for-the-My-Book-World…