I have My Book Essential 2 TB I just got from Office Depot, It did a full back up but when I’m directed to update Smartware 1.4.5.2 to 1.5.1.6 I get this dialogue box: “WD SmartWare cannot be installed. Installation unseccessful (Error Code: 1603). Please try again or contact WD support for assistance.”
WD Email tech told me to uninstall the old Smartware which failed since “The setup was unable to close all requested applications, etc.”) altho I’d turned off anti-virus. Tech wrote me to update my firmware and when I tried to do that I was informed my firmware is up to date.
I’ve read through all the comments, thanks everyone. I am hesitant to start whacking away at my Windows7 registry. I’m hesitant to simply delete all WD Smartware directories both on the “My Book” and my internal drive.
I started out happy to have everything backed up on “My Book” but as soon as I was forced to try updating Smartware this has turned into a nightmare. I hope Office Depot will take this product back.
WD must provide us with a simple user-friendly method to completely eliminate all vestiges of Smartware OR
this product, as pretty as it is, is cumbersome & useless.
I’m open to a solution to this but I don’t see it.
Smartware is more like a virus than useful software: I can’t get rid of it!
