Software Update - WD SmartWare Windows Version 1.5.1.6 (8/16/11)

thanks for the reply. I will keep n reading as it seems!

Homer

How can I remove WD Smartware from my computer? Wd I cause problems if I simply delete all directories?

Yes, it would cause problems if you just started deleting directories.  Go into Add/Remove programs (XP) and select it from the list, then click on Remove.  I would make sure the drive is not connected, and I would also put the program on pause, though you probably don’t need to do that.

Ok, I guess this is more of the same, but I figure the more people complain about this piece of junk software the better the chance they’ll actually fix it.

After installing smartware several months ago, my laptop has slowed to a crawl. I just checked, around half an hour after rebooting my machine and after the backup process finished, and WDFME.EXE deems it necessary to still use 71% of my CPU and over 300+ MB or Ram. Now I know that’s not nearly as bad as some other posters here but still. I run a database engine on this laptop and it doesn’t nearly consume as much as this program! It’s insane!

On top of that I strongly suspect that the blue screen of death that both my wife and I have been getting on our respective laptops is related to Smartware. My wife’s ICT department actually confirmed this and disabled the services to prevent it from happening (with some success…).

In other words, what [Deleted]  WD thinking! So many people complain, and nothing changes! I haven’t seen a software update in more than a month! I don’t want to remove the smartware as the auto backup was a big part of the decision to buy this drive, but if something doesn’t change soon I’ll vote with my feet. WD will lose another loyal, good customer to Seagate.

I called WD tech and with his help thru direct assist (that is, directly removing the smartware) my problem was and is solved. He was efficient and courteous. I should have called days ago. I’ll probably use the Windows7 backup program from now on . . . thanks WD tech.

larryg wrote:

I called WD tech and with his help thru direct assist (that is, directly removing the smartware) my problem was and is solved. He was efficient and courteous. I should have called days ago. I’ll probably use the Windows7 backup program from now on . . . thanks WD tech.

 

 

Larry, I am glad we were able to help you out.

I wanted to post an update here for everyone as there was a large amount of feedback due to a few problems.

There is quite a bit of feedback due to memory usage in some machines.  We are addressing this in a future release (not the next release due to such a major change).  This total overhual will drastically improve performance.

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However one problem remains: I need to remove the “unlock” feature. I made the mistake of setting up a password to unlock Mybook. 

Do I have to format the drive to get rid of the unlock/lock feature? I don’t need it at all. Almost all vestiges of Smartdrive have been removed by WD tech.

thanks,

larryg

Larryg, I think when you install the Smartdrive software there is a install option only to install the administrative stuff, and not the backup part.  That then will at least give you the option to change passwords I know.  Not sure if you can eliminate it.  So I if it allows for no password, then you can uninstall it and hope have a plain USB drive.  I am thinking of doing the same here too. 

It is a shame that a long time hardware manufacturer with a great rep is brought down by a lack of quality control on what is pretty simple software.  And then compounds the issue by not addressing the problem (mabey it will be fixed in not the next release but the one after that).  It is not enough to make good reliable hard drives if you don’t provide the software that makes them work.  Never a WD drive again.

Hi LarryG,

if you look on page15 of the MyBook Essential User Handbook  http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/UM/ENG/4779-705053.pdf then you will see that there is an option to run the drive without Smartware and (??without the password).

I am still having different problems from everybody else but have had a message from the 7th Cavalry and I hope to be fixed soon.

John

wdfme uses 50%+ cpu all the time, currently it is running 24/7 and causes one of my processors to run at 100% all the time because of other things i use my computer for. memory usage fluctuates but stays around 100K. i use file backup, not category backup.

@Bill_s from a previous thread

"We do actually have a pause button on the software, and we have actually recommended people use it when they need more resources than SmartWare is allowing. "

Where is this pause function?

WDFME & Firefox (my default browser)

  • Why does wdfme get active when I load a browser? I use File backup and do not specify backing up any browser related files except for my downloads folder which is in MyDocuments.
  • When I run Chrome wdfme kicks in for a few seconds, when I exit Chrome wdfme runs for just a little bit.
  • When I run Firefox wefme kicks in and stays at 50+% cpu useage. Period. Even after exiting Firefox! :angry:
  • I use the same download folder for both Chrome and Firefox.

Win 7-64 sp1 w/latest updates

most recent Chrome 15.0.874.120

most recent Firefox 8.0

Smartware 1.5.1.16

george_lol wrote:

@Bill_s from a previous thread

"We do actually have a pause button on the software, and we have actually recommended people use it when they need more resources than SmartWare is allowing. "

 

Where is this pause function?

If you have the latest version of the WD Smartware, just open the WD Smartware, then go to settings, and then setup software, here look for backup speed, just select the option here, "run backup when computer is Idle.

 The problem with this is that the so-called ‘pause button’ does not do that. At least it would not for my case running Windows 7 Ultimate. The software continued using most of my computer’s resources even though I ALWAYS had it set to run ONLY when idle. Not really much of a pause button if the software keeps running at such a highly demanding level. I’d expect a true pause function to run only a trivial routine listening for activity, such as watching the CPU for periods of inactivity of longer than a minute.

Actually, I just checked.  Now, this is for the latest version of SmartWare.  Go to the backup page in SmartWare, and you will find a “Stop Backup” button in the bottom right corner.  When you click on that, it will change into a “Start Backup” button for when you’re ready to restart the backup.

GerardSamija wrote:

 The problem with this is that the so-called ‘pause button’ does not do that. At least it would not for my case running Windows 7 Ultimate. The software continued using most of my computer’s resources even though I ALWAYS had it set to run ONLY when idle. Not really much of a pause button if the software keeps running at such a highly demanding level. I’d expect a true pause function to run only a trivial routine listening for activity, such as watching the CPU for periods of inactivity of longer than a minute.

I would try rebooting the computer to see if it changes that.  But use the Stop Button as well.

Rebooting multiple times did not stop this hyper-consumption of resources in my case, as I was finding that it took a full 10 minutes at least before the software would allow me to start my email client or browser, and after that such simple functionalities as polling for email (using nPOPuk, a very lightweight text-only email client) were taking far too long, often several minutes instead of half a second.

Admittedly I have not tried the latest version of the software. That’s because of my horrible, time-wasting experience in trying to get rid of the version installed a few months ago. It took me several hours to manually dig down into hundreds of sub-folders in the incomplete backup set on the drive, taking ownership of each layer independently as such rights could not be acquired overall, before I was able to delete this backup set which did not offer me any confidence in its veracity. This was after having uninstalled the software, and finding that two services were still running anyway, requiring some acrobatics to get those uninstalled. I will not be re-installing this software in any version as I’ve opted to manually copy folders to external media on my own schedule. Such copying must be remembered regularly to work, but it works, and while copying files to external drives I am free to do any other operations without my netbook being slowed almost to a standstill.

Admittedly, SmartWare still has some issues, which are being worked on; but I’ve never really been satisfied with backup software, in general.  I find myself still just using copy and paste to do my backups.  I do like the idea of continous backups, but they all tend to be resource hogs.  If we can get the resource issue beat, I think SmartWare could end up being one of the better continous backup softwares out there. 

Bill_S wrote:

Admittedly, SmartWare still has some issues, which are being worked on; but I’ve never really been satisfied with backup software, in general.  I find myself still just using copy and paste to do my backups.  I do like the idea of continous backups, but they all tend to be resource hogs.  If we can get the resource issue beat, I think SmartWare could end up being one of the better continous backup softwares out there. 

I have 450+ gigs of data to back up so copy and paste is not an option for me.  Did you see my prior post about Firefox?  When I don’t use Firefox at all and use Chrome instead, I have no issues with Smartware or WDFME.  Unfortunately I prefer Firefox over Chrome and most of what I do on my computer involves the internet.