Funny - I just watched “Kill Bill” on TV two days ago. I agree that there is a lot of anger and even hate expressed in this thread, but some of it is justified. I find it amusing or amazing that WD has not apparently looked at these posts and taken some simple steps to minimize the problem. I just reviewed this entire thread (from May 2010) and I see where I came to it in August. I was very frustrated but eventually I found a solution that worked for me, so now I just find it interesting when other users discover this thread and report the same problems over and over.
I realize that some software may run differently on various computers, and it is often due to the wide variety of programs people have installed. If you have Smartware installed and you don’t have any problems, I am quite surprised. Any software that acts as flaky as this must have a seriously major flaw in the way it is written. And I am also concerned that it requires a late release of DotNet, which in my experience is a bloated and ill-conceived framework and totally unnecessary and inappropriate for a simple backup application.
After my bad experiences with this drive and Smartware, I am not willing to try any new releases. From what I’ve experienced, and from other posts, these updates do not fix the core problem. And my opinion of WD has been reduced to the point where I would actively discourage anyone from purchasing their products. Maybe the 100+ posts in this thread from the 30 or so dissatisfied users is not enough for WD to be concerned about. But if my product reputation were being questioned and eroded, I would be very concerned and I would take immediate steps to correct it.
But maybe, as you seem to indicate, most people for some reason do not have problems with these drives and the Smartware that seems to install itself automatically. Have you actually checked your CPU usage and other metrics in the list of processes?
